Sherman R. Frederick/Properly Subversive
There’s an old joke about a man with a maimed left hand who goes to church and prays for God to make his hand like the other one. Instantly, he has two maimed hands.
I’m reminded of that with today’s news that Marin – for the umpteenth time – is the healthiest county in the state. We’re No. 1, baby! Undefeated in the Health Olympics. Take that sickie counties to our north, south and east.
Particularly brag-worthy comes the stat that people in Marin live to the average age of 85.2. And even more impressive, 98.7 percent of people over 50 in Marin are longtime readers of Marinscope Community Newspapers and say they can’t live without it.
(I’m just kidding about that last part. We’re still working on getting that readership number verified and establishing the link between living better and reading this newspaper. I’ll keep you posted.)
Anyway, pardon my self-serving digression. The point that all good people should concern themselves with today is that the 85.2 lifespan only applies to white Marin-ers. Black Marin-ers live on average to 78.2 – a whopping seven years less.
This, of course, is a disgrace for everyone. When we talk about the idea of “equity,” it often takes funky twists when applied to things like, say, education or income. But longevity hits the equity issue right where it really means something.
If today you’re 78 and Black in Marin, you’ve seen your last Christmas. But if you’re 78 and white, you’ll be around into the 2030s.
Assuming no one is willing to die earlier to make the numbers come out right, the good folks at the Marin County Office of Equity have their work cut out for themselves.
PULLING PUNCHES
A read Rep. Jared Huffman the riot act last week for being AWOL on the Willow project in Alaska. I said he was engaging in tribal politics for not squaring up on the Biden Administration’s decision.
Now, Mary Hurrell, Huffman’s com director, is reading me the riot act. She sent a bunch of links where the good representative commented on Joe Biden’s decision. Here’s a sample statement from Huffman:
“The Biden administration has committed to fighting climate change and advancing environmental justice—today’s decision to approve the Willow project fails to live up to those promises. Their decision ignores the voices of the people of Nuiqsut, our frontline communities, and the irrefutable science that says we must stop building projects like this to slow the ever more devastating impacts of climate change.
“While we acknowledge that the administration also just announced that it is conserving new public lands and waters in the Arctic, split decisions in the face of the climate crisis are not good enough. This administration clearly knows what the path to a cleaner and more just future looks like—we wish they hadn’t chosen to stray so far from that path with today’s Willow decision. The only acceptable Willow project is no Willow project.”
As Rep. Huffman has told us over and over again, the planet is at risk. Is this critical enough?
You make your own call.
All I can tell you is that if this were a Republican administration making the exact same moves, Huffman wouldn’t be splitting babies. He’d be going all out nuclear. I don’t think I’m wrong on that.
CRAZY JOURNALISM?
At the start of the Nashville school shooting in which police identified the killer as a transgender person, CBS news forbade its reporters from using the term “transgender” because they had not confirmed that the killer was, in fact, transgender. Quite the crazy standard, CBS. Going forward, how are you planning to independently confirm gender?
INAPPROPRIATE
We’re so precious these days that “keepers of language” have decided we simply cannot go on with classic novels using inappropriate language. So, when the classic works are republished, there will be changes.
For example, Agatha Christie’s work will be scrubbed of terms like “Oriental,”
“Gypsy” and “Native.” Roald Dahl’s classics will now be stripped of words like “fat” and “ugly.” And, perhaps the strangest of all, Ian Fleming’s James Bond books will be sanitized to somehow rework his sexist quips.
What?
The James Bond of my youth will now have no witty comeback to the long-legged female agents who seek to assassinate him in the most creative ways?
Damn, it’s quite a world we’ve carved out for ourselves.
ONE MORE THING
– If common sense were lard, most people couldn’t grease the bottom of a pan.
– People who drink coffee with loads of cream are really just having an adult chocolate milk.
– Marin-ers never use a cell phone in the car. We have to keep our hands free for gestures.
Thanks for reading. Until next week, avoid soreheads, laugh a little and always question authority. And, don’t forget you can read us everyday at MarinLocalNews.com.
(“Properly Subversive” is a commentary written by Sherman R. Frederick for Marinscope Community Newspapers, the “mother ship” of the Novato Advance, San Rafael News-Pointer, Mill Valley Herald, Ross Valley Reporter, Twin City Times and the Sausalito Marin Scope. Mr. Frederick is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)
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