34, part two

Continued...

34

Today is my birthday, 34 to be exact. We all know what that means: in one more year I can run for President. But it also means I am halfway through my 30's, which ten years ago seemed impossible.
I left work early today. Although I may not party it up in as in years past, as a habit I try to do something special and out of the ordinary. At this point I'm halfway there.
Also out of habit I still carry my new digital camera in my pick-up. You never know when something cool will appear and you'll wish a camera had been handy. Here is a medley of those moments from the last two months. Some of these photos are from the spectacular Tulalip resort north of Seattle, which makes Spirit Mountain look like an also ran. I've also included a sneak peak at our plankhouse, which should open up some time this year. The others are from the ride between Bend and Salem, a route I drove last week on the way to Sisters for the Candidates Forum.

Channel Chris

Okay, so it's not really called "Channel Chris". But YouTube, I guess, allows people to set up channels, which are really just like blogs, but rather than be writing-oriented, they are video-oriented.
I know it seems odd to be talking about another website of mine on this one. But it is easier just to go through YouTube for all the videos I've been producing as opposed to embedding them here. Perhaps this, like Twitter, will end up being just a fad or something. Nothing changes that in many respects, this new video thing has been fun, and while I am not ready to go primetime, a lot has been learned, about editing, sound, zooming, microphones, etc. Might end up being a new hobby.

The link:

http://www.youtube.com/user/cgmercier

Idle Hands

This week six Council members were supposed to be in Washington, D.C., for various reason, not the least of which is a meeting with Ken Salazar. I've never agreed with sending that many people on the same trip, especially one that revolves mostly around meeting with elected officials and political appointees. We tried that last year, and that is what turned me off to the idea. Try cramming six Council members and three or four staff along with the person you're meeting with and their staff, and the rooms can get crowded and half the people don't say a word. There isn't time.
And it costs a lot of money. The last time I went to D.C., April of 2008, we all stayed at the same hotel, the Hotel George, which charged roughly $400 per night, per room. Five or six Council members and your suddenly staring at a couple of grand per night just for our hotel rooms, and some of us don't even get in a word edge-wise in half the meetings. But sometimes these meetings turn into contests of who can impress people the most. So there is a little ego involved, which for me is all the more reason to not go.
Weeks like this, no quorum, are for me now a boon. I can catch up on emails, reports, letters, phone calls--all the things that go neglected while away from the office. My new G1, the offspring of T-Mobile and Google designed to provide an industry rival to the iPhone, helps me keep up somewhat; It's a defacto blackberry. But there just doesn't seem enough time, or maybe I'm just not good at rationing out my time. Probably both.
But the lack of a quorum means no meetings, except Wednesday when we will have a conference call to discuss the "Leno Letter" yet again, and that gives me time to try and get organized. But looking through my office, where to begin?
Wink Soderberg thinks I'm crazy to keep most of the reports and try and stay organized. Looking at all my shelves, he might be right. But a lot of this stuff I just can't bear to part with. It is more out of journalistic instincts than anything, I want reminders of past events, statistics that might be useful someday. Plus frankly, I saw a record years ago that looked tampered with, and some of the major decisions made before I got elected there seems to be no record at all, or if there is it might be hidden away who knows where. The words "needle" and "haystack" come to mind.
So this week will not be idle for me, even with the void of meetings and work sessions. I'll plug away at the unstoppable flow of information, file some of it away, shred the rest. Once in a while, I'll come across something important, even disturbing, that I knew about at one time, and then forgot. There is a lot of stuff like that.

Never Back Down

I just watched the 2008 film, “Never Back Down”, which in reality is just an update of a similar movie from my own childhood, “The Karate Kid”.  Towards the end of the movie, the hero and villain are about to slug it out in the parking lot, MMA-style, and the protagonist makes a keen observation while sensing the psychotic antagonist’s hesitancy.  The villain loves an audience.  It is not enough to win a fight convincingly.  He wants to beat somebody’s ass, and do it in front of a crowd of roaring fellow teens, and to have it broadcast on YouTube over and over and over.

He still has issues, that’s not questioned at all.  But he’s the kind of guy who whose hobby is to do exactly what he does in the movie, to pick fights and record the glory.  He goes to some considerable lengths at times too, using a girlfriend to lure the hero to a party where they can rumble.

There are some who will consider this idea far-fetched, but I don’t think it is.  Our Wednesday night Council meetings have become those fights.  The July 1 meeting felt, for all purposes, like a premeditated ambush.  Some of my co-workers already knew what they were going to say, chiming in right at Other Business.  Like the Karate Kid, Wink Soderberg and I happened to be around when others were itching for a fight.  The letter from our Director of Development about last year’s Leno Letter was like throwing down the fighting mats for a match.  Except I didn’t know it at the time.

When the ABC’s first got elected in 2004, that marked I think the start of these theatrical meetings, although the Tribe had its share during that period of legal struggles involving Ed Pearsall, Reyn Leno, Bob Haller, and Jan Reibach.  Poor Ed seemed all alone at some of those meetings, and I guess he was.  But I remember the first two meetings Angie, Buddy, and I had to endure as they were laden with accusations of…where to start, of buying the election, of being owned by “the Michigan Group”, and interfering in a hiring matter.  It took some getting used to, and I’m not sure one really does.

The trend continued into 2005, starting within weeks of Wink Soderberg and Kathy Tom getting elected as some anonymous flyer hit mailboxes describing our mythical plans to cut per capita, Elders’ security, etc.  The following meeting was packed, and there were a number of scripted comments that were also waiting in the wings, including one at me.  From a political standpoint, it makes sense.  There was a large audience then, all the more reason to try and make somebody look bad.

Last year might have been one of the worst, there was the matter of a letter some Tribal member wanted read into the record, a suggestion our acting Chair didn’t bother to mention until the onset of Other Business.  There was also the meeting where our acting Chair had the Tribe’s Human Resources Director stand up, sheepishly I might add, and refute the statements of a rival Council member.  It makes me wonder what will be in store for me this Wednesday, July 8, as we hold one ahead of schedule due to lack of quorum next week.

I ask myself this:  What is worse, that I’ve become so cynical and jaded as to expect these sorts of things, or that more often than not these things, these plotted attacks, can be counted on to happen?

All I can do is roll with the punches.