It's Dangerous being an American! Baby Boomer Peace 6/12/2015

Baby Boomer Peace

For

6-12-15

It’s dangerous being an American no matter where in the world they can be found.  A factual statistic about an American in danger abroad isn’t always the whole story.  Sometimes you have to look beyond the statistics.

I have a handful of regular readers of my column that like to write to tell me that I’m in grave danger travelling and living in Mexico.  They like to report to me the latest killings throughout the country.  This last week every major news outlet was warning Americans not to go to Mexico because it was being reported that 99 Americans were homicide victims there in 2014. Even that got my attention so I decided to do some research.

I called the State Department in DC and spoke with someone who would not identify himself over the phone.  He told me that the State Department puts out facts and figures on its website and it is up to the media on how they want to report them.  I asked him how many of the 99 homicides in Mexico were to dual-citizen Hispanics with American passports and he said that the names of the victims are confidential.  I then went to the State Department’s website and found that of the 99 homicides, seventy three (73) were committed in border towns where drug cartels battle each other for turf. Tijuana lead the list with twenty (20) Americans murdered in 2014 followed by Juarez (14), Rosarita Beach/Ensenada (6), Mexicali (2), Ciudad Victoria and Matamoros (12), Nogales (4) and the remaining fifteen of the 73 in small Mexican/American border towns in the States of Baja, Sonora, Chihuahua and Tamaulipas. 

Of the remaining twenty six (26) homicides one was in Cabo San Lucas, two in Puerto Vallarta and four in Cancun and other than three in Guadalajara (Mexico’s second largest city) the remainder were in little towns in Mexican States where I wouldn’t expect any everyday American to visit much less live. 

I was amazed that not one American was a victim in Mexico City (second largest city in the world) or San Miguel de Allende.  San Miguel de Allende is literally an American/Canadian city in the State of Guanajuato which is just a gorgeous.  It would rival any tony New Mexico or Arizona city.  The State itself, especially the city of Guanajuato with all its underground rock lined streets is a real treasure.  Guanajuato is a must-be-seen-to-be-believed destination.  It is old, nestled in the mountains and just….beautiful).

I couldn’t find the circumstances of the deaths in Cancun or Cabo but since I live part time in Puerto Vallarta, in the State of Jalisco.  Therefore I was quite concerned about the two murders of Americans there.  I also live in the State of Nayarit near San Blas.  No Americans murdered or kidnapped in either location.  I also spend a great deal of time in the State of Sinaloa where my well educated girlfriend lives.  She is an English professor and follows the new and politics closely.  Culiacan is an upwardly mobile and mostly middle class city yet is rated 16^th in the world, just behind Baltimore, for the most murders per 100,000 citizens; Most Americans have heard of the Sinaloa drug cartels.  Well, Culiacan is the capital of Sinaloa yet not one American was injured or kidnapped there.  What surprised me also was that Mazatlán, also in the State of Sinaloa and the playground for cartel members, had zero American fatalities as well.  If Americans in Mexico are such targets then Mazatlán, San Miguel de Allende, San Carlos, (an Americanized city much like La Paz and Los Cabos but directly east and on the mainland) and even heavy expats at breathtaking but smaller places like Zihuatanejo and Huatulco (known for their very large multi-million dollar homes would be of the highest suspected targets for Americans. Yet, on the State Departments own figures by location, zero fatalities.

I found that the two that were murdered in Puerto Vallarta were an elderly couple in their 80’s who had lived there for nearly thirty years and owned many rental properties.  According to the official statement by the local authorities, they were known to keep large amounts of cash in their home.  Two young men were arrested and convicted of the murders.  They were 21 and 23 years old and had been tenants of the victims at one time.  Their intent was robbery but unfortunately the victims were home and put up a struggle to their ultimate detriment.

According to many sources on the internet there are well over a million Americans visitors to Mexico each year and that doesn’t count the daily back and forth across the border for cross border employment.  I checked on how many Americans live full-time in Mexico and I found it hard to believe it was as low as 300,000 because the Philippines rack up the same number, but in Puerto Vallarta alone, between Canadians and Americans, including Time Share ownerships, homes and condos, there are over one million ownerships in that one city alone.  There are nearly 900,000 Americans living abroad around the world.  I would have guessed more.

Crime happens everywhere.  Just as we see the violence in Mexico being reported here, Mexico also reports the violence happening in the United States.  Mexican news spends a good percentage of its local news reporting to the news in the United States.  I was surprised at how much they watch what is going on up here.  Almost everyone in Mexico has a relative in the United States.  They’re invested.  The upper and middle class Mexicans will not go to Chicago, Baltimore, St. Louis and New Orleans for fear of being murdered.  All four cities are listed in the top fifty dangerous cities in the world.  The Mexican people think that there is war going on in the United States.  It is the very poor and rural peoples of Mexico that try to sneak into the USA, not the well-to-do.  I watch the San Diego news every day and despite twenty murders there in 2014 I never hear any of our media reporting the killings of Americans in Tijuana.  Therefore I have to believe that most if not all of those American casualties are dual citizens tied to the drug industry.  If you have a US passport and die in another country, it is reported to the Department of State.  If those killed were everyday Americans those murders would be direly reported along with film of the funerals.  It would be news that would lead every newscast. 

I will continue to drive and fly to Mexico.  It is absolutely gorgeous there and I feel safer walking the streets of San Blas and Puerto Vallarta at midnight than I do walking the streets of San Diego at 10pm.  Americans are at risk everywhere in the world but when you start using probability you’re more likely to get hit a second time by lightning on the anniversary day of the first strike, than being a homicide victim in Mexico.  By the way, I’m not exactly planning any trips to any major American inner-city any time soon either.  I’ve been to many places in my lifetime and if an American wants to survive anywhere in the world, much less Mexico, it just boils down to being low key, aware and not being in the wrong place at the wrong time doing the wrong thing.  That even goes for Encinitas.

Baby Boomers, Adventure, and UFO's 5/21/2015

Baby Boomer Peace

5/21/2015

We Baby Boomers grew up with adventure.  I wonder how many people have experienced UFO’s, tried to tell someone about it only to be looked upon as strange or crazy. 

 I was watching a news show today when the pilot for President Obama’s political campaign of 2008 came on to explain a UFO experience he had back in the 80’s while flying Ronald Reagan around.  The pilot was asked why he didn’t relay his experience back in the 80’s and why he has waited so long to tell his story.  He said that he is now retired and he didn’t want to jeopardize his career. He said that he would have likely been dismissed as crazy or at a minimum marginalized by the media.  What he saw during a flight from Kansas City to Memphis was a large silver sliver that wouldn’t stay off his turboprop’s tail.  His co-pilot witnessed it as well.  He said that as he was approaching his destination that whatever it was that was following them quickly swooped up in front of the fuselage, which totally freaked the pilots out and then turned as bright orange as the sun and just as quickly and suddenly, vanished.

 In 1989 when my son Joshua was in the third grade he was given a homework assignment to go view the night sky and identify the constellations.  Joshua and I went out into our cul-de-sac in Village Creek in suburban Encinitas and proceeded to complete his assignment.  It was a moonless night but clear as a bell.  At one point we were looking north towards Carlsbad where from our second floor we could easily see planes approaching the runway at Palomar Airport.  Off in the distance and low on the horizon we saw what looked like a cloud that was moving slowly in our direction.  We thought that was odd since there were no clouds in the sky. Nevertheless whatever it was was was moving directly toward us.

 As we stood and watched this “cloud” get closer we knew it wasn’t a cloud.  It was heart shaped and enormous.  It seemed so low as it flew right over us.  It seemed low enough to hit with a slingshot if we tried.  I would say it couldn’t have been moving faster than maybe fifty miles an hour….maybe even less and couldn’t have been more than a couple hundred yards overhead.  It came directly over us blotting out the sky and didn’t make even a whisper.  It had a blue hue around the edge of the object, again, in the shape of a heart. There were no lights and again, not a sound as it continued on directly over us and past our Eucalyptus trees in the backyard embankment until we couldn’t see it anymore.

 After my son and I picked our jaws up off the ground we just looked at each other.  If a picture was taken of us like a cartoon there would be bubbles over our heads with question marks in them.  We then quickly ran inside the house where my wife was sitting with our daughter watching a television program.  We exclaimed that “we just saw a UFO” upon which the two slowly lifted their eyes from the television and said “really….that’s nice” upon which my son and I looked at each other again realizing they didn’t believe us.  I ran to the phone and called Palomar Airport asking “what was that that just flew over the airport”.  I could hear a beep in the phone so I knew it was being taped.  The answer we got was “nothing flew across our airspace”.  I said thanks and then called Miramar Naval Airport.  I asked the same question and heard the same beep.  The response was “maybe it was a helicopter or a commercial airliner”.

 I knew the direction of the object would have gone directly toward Miramar and all I was getting was some silly response from two air traffic controllers.  My son and I would stand out in our cul-de-sac after that unusual night and watch airplanes way way up in the sky like little dots.  We would see helicopters fly over and hear them from twenty miles away.  We even witnessed the blimps that would fly down the coast for San Diego sporting events and be able to hear the hum of their engines.  What we saw was beyond enormous and silent as church mouse.

 What my son and I saw was an unidentified flying object.  There’s no other way to explain it. It was flying and certainly it was unidentified.  Had my son not been there to witness it I would have convinced myself by now that I was either hallucinating or was flat out seeing things.  My son was eight years old then.  He is now thirty two and we still talk about it when the past comes up in conversation.  It’s still fresh in both of our memories.

 My daughter is now an acclaimed clairvoyant and spiritual intuitive.  We are preparing to release our second book soon.  In this upcoming book, as she channeled and I asked the questions of the New Testament Authors, the subject of UFO’s came up in our interviews with the Authors John and Jude.  Both experienced actual other beings and wrote about it.  They both said that when Constantine was putting the Bible together three hundred years after the resurrection of Christ the Constantine Council promptly removed any and all of their references to other worldly visitations.  It bummed them out but they refused to discredit the Bible as the real purpose of the Bible is to introduce the validity of God.  Bringing up UFO’s would have been as well accepted as my requests to the air traffic controllers at Palomar and Miramar.

 Life is just so strange.  The older we get the more confused I think we become.  The final answers will come when we pass on to the fourth dimension.  Nevertheless, crazy or not, I’d love to witness another unbelievable occurrence but this time with my camera phone at the ready.  In closing, I was in Culiacan visiting my girlfriend in July of last year.  We went to the highest point in the city to take pictures of the city and each other.  As the sun was setting to our backs and well off on the horizon was a huge statue of Jesus on top of a church.  I pulled my phone out to take a picture and snapped two pictures simultaneously. When we got home we looked at the pictures and that is when I noticed in the second picture of the Jesus shots a shiny dot where it was not in the first picture.  Again, they were taken about a second apart.  I just wish I had taken a third shot. When we blew up the picture the bottom of the “dot” was shiny from the setting sun and the top was a dark gray.  It looked like it was probably banking to the South.

Like I said, life is so strange and when we see strange things we dare not tell anyone otherwise they think you’re crazy like most of you right now are thinking that of me.  Oh well, such is life. The adventures continue.

Time

Time is such a fleeting thing.  Now I know I’m getting old.  Today is my daughter’s 42d birthday.  When my dad was passing away I asked him if he ever thought he would have four boys in their 40’s.  His response was, “I never thought I’d make it to 40 myself.”  When I was young I used to think I would be 50 in the year 2000.  I wasn’t even sure how to say two thousand because the common way to say the year was “19” and then the year following.  Would we say “20” oh one, or 20 oh two or would it be two thousand and one, etc.  But, the year 2000 seemed so far away and here it is already 2013.

In 1999 people thought the world would come to an end in 2000.  Remember that?  Remember New Year’s Eve of 1999 when everyone was afraid a world war would break out because all the computers would go crazy?  Well, as we know nothing like that happened and the same with December 21^st of 2012.  The Aztec calendar was ending so there was the fear of the world coming to an end.  What followed was a beautiful day and here we are, we’re all still here.   Well, most of us anyway.

My recent columns have been my paying respects for friends who have recently passed away.  Seeing friends and loved ones pass away around my age is a bit unnerving.  I see the baby boomers out there with their graying and thinning hair.  They for the most part are staying in shape far more so than our parent’s generation ever even thought about, but you see the lines in their faces.  Heck I see them every morning when I’m brushing my teeth.  Time stops for no one so we may as well make the best of it.  I mentioned in my last column that I am writing a book.  It’s basically done and now I’m trying to figure out the best way to get it published and am learning that there are a lot of “publishers” out there that are willing to fleece you for all they can get because they know they are dealing with an author’s ego.  The author surely wants his or her book published so I can see how someone can go a little nuts and overboard just to get a book cover around their words.

Nevertheless, I am writing a spiritual book.  Because my daughter can channel the other side I have learned a lot about who we are and what this wonderful life is all about.  I’ve learned that time is a moving object here on earth but not so in heaven.  There is no time there so eternity is just a word.  We live in this little speck of time and the time we are given is a gift.  It is a gift that we stood in line for on the other side.  We are spirit and we planned our lives before becoming human.  We set out our plan, in conjunction with powers much greater than ourselves, to accomplish goals in this life.  Unfortunately we came to earth with amnesia.  We don’t remember that we are spirit.  Many think this is just all there is and that when this life is over we go in a box and that’s the end of the experiment.  That thought is so far from reality that I can’t even give it credence.

We were born into this time to do good.  We came to learn to love our neighbor as yourself and to eventually learn to find the light of God that lives inside each of us.  We have angels that surround us and try to keep us on our path while we are like little kindergarteners using our mind and egos to make some really goofy decisions, decisions that are not always in our soul’s best interest.  Nonetheless, we stumble through this life trying to figure out what it is all about. What I can tell you so far about what life is about is Love.  Not the kind of love we thought was cool in the 60’s and 70’s when it meant “love the one you’re with” (Crosby, Stills & Nash).  Love means recognizing the light that lives in every person but having the wisdom to turn away from those who may want to bring you harm, those that haven’t found the light within and would prefer to take advantage of your passivity and good graces.

Yes, time continues to march on and Spring is just around the corner.  Spring is always a time of rebirth.  We are given but one day.  Not a single one of us knows when our last day will come.  So with this beautiful earth all around us and all the wonderful people in your life, tell them you love them and go out and play today like it is your last day and do it in peace and love.

Writing a Book

I’m sure some of you out there have made the bold attempt to write a book.  It seems like everyone I meet wants to write a book.  Then I walk into the Dollar Store and see all these books for $1 and I feel so bad for all the authors.

I think we all feel like our lives could be a story someone else would want to read about.  Even in fiction you know that one of the characters in the novel is the author.  Life is just so chocked full of stuff in our lives.  Go to a party some time.  What you are hearing are stories.  There are lots of good ones.  But I’m digressing. 

So, I’m trying to write a book with my daughter.  She’s a spiritual intuitive.  The first draft resembled War and Peace.  I feel so bad too for my close friends willing to look at it.  Actually, I’m still waiting to hear back from them again.  Just kidding, I heard from one.  So, I’ll run with that advice and now it’s going to be one of those little pocket books that can be read on a short airline flight or drive to Los Angeles.  It’s fun attempting to do it.  I’ll bet most all of you out there could actually write a book if you wanted to.  You just start out with an outline.  After that it should all just flow.  Even if no one read it but your family, well, that book will be around for a long time in your family and maybe a great grandchild will one day try to publish it.  Wouldn’t that be great?  My pastor Rick Myatt brought up a point in last week’s sermon.  He was trying to explain how important each day is.  He asked if anyone ever heard of Uta Hagen. She’s usually a question in a crossword puzzle.  She was the most famous actress in the world in the 1890’s.  Point is, by the great grandchild, no one will know who you are.  Point is, live this life to its fullest and move on.

Bob Richards is a friend and a co-real estate broker from La Costa who has primarily retired into writing now.  He’s living his baby boomer dream.  He planned wisely to live doing what he loves and that is writing.  He too simplified his life so that his life became quality time.    Bob can wander into the past for stories and immerse himself in another world with peace.  Then the grandkids come running in and he pops back into reality for a while.  See, to me, that’s life.  Being at peace and doing what you want to do and having loved ones near.

The recession really kicked my rear end.  I was inside the bubble that burst.  I really didn’t think I’d ever see the day that I could retire or semi-retire.  I thought that if I did it would be under a bridge somewhere or high up in a mountain with critters.  But, I was 60 and said to myself, get debt free in two years.  It was a reasonable goal and I set out on a path to not only do that but to also buy a great place in Mexico on the water.  It wasn’t that hard once you put your mind to it.  You have to be positive though, even when you hit some speed bumps.

It’s a new Chinese New Year.  It’s the year of the Snake.  Snake people are great.  My daughter is one.  They seem to be the prettiest sign in the bunch so maybe this will be a very pretty year.  Who knows?  I’m an ox.  Go figure, but it fits, darn it.  Obama is an ox.  So were Hitler, Hussein and Stalin.  And I want to write a book about spirituality? Really?  Por supuesto que si! 

My friend Patty Clark is determined to be a writer.  She joined one of those writer blogs on the internet and she got picked up by a paper in Kansas City of all places.  Hats off to Patty!!  Patty didn’t give up hope either and she’s simplified her life too.  It’s a new year.  You can keep kicking it at work if that’s what brings you peace, but if it’s on a beach, mountainside, ship or cycling through France that is lingering in your head, find a way to do it and be a writer or a painter or a cabinet maker.  Just do it, you don’t know when God is going to give you the last day so live it in peace(with a little love from family too).

Dreams

Dreams. We all have them. I'm not just talking about the kind we have at night when we are asleep. I'm talking about the kind of dreams that are goals or wishes. Sometimes they are attainable and sometimes they are just unrealistic. Those that are unrealistic are the ones that include winning the lottery or hitting the Pick Six at Del Mar. I say unrealistic because those are not the kinds of dreams that are attainable by our own sweat and ingenuity. If those are your dreams you'll die broke and unhappy.

I remember as far back as the mid 60's when I would sit on the beach in Pacific Beach or La Jolla Shores. My mom would drop me off for the day so I was stuck; After an initial lengthy session of surfing I would sit there under gray skies in July shivering. I hated that. I still do. I dreamed of perfect shoulder high waves in turquoise 80 degree water with no fog and no gray skies. I had to believe that someday I would find such a place. A place with blue skies everyday. A place with Turquoise 80 degree water with perfect tubes.

I have now traveled many places in the world and thought that Bali might be the place. But, it is so far away. I knew, even if I moved I would want to be able to come back and forth to the United States. I just didn't want to have to take 20 hours of flying to do iL When I was in the Army at Fort Hood in the 70's a buddy from Oregon and I would throw our boards on his Gremlin after retreat was blown on Friday afternoons. The weekend was spent driving the 6 or 7 houru down to the Gulf Coast past Corpus Christi. Although the water was semi turquoise and semi warm (in fact sometimes it was downright bathtubish, the waves would only come with storms or a choppy wind swell late in the day. At night, sleeping on the beach you had to have plenty of Off Spray. The mosquitoes were big enough to earn names. Hey George, off me already. You'd smack 'em and you'd have big blood splotches all over you. Those little blood suckers always had full tanks. I knew it wasn't my dream to end up on the Gulf Coast.

I took many trips to Baja in the 70's while in College. One of my favorite surf spots was K38.5 and K39. Cuatros Casas was another. Unfortunately big condos sit in front of two of those breaks today. Nonetheless, the water was no different than San Diego. Gray and cold. Yuh. I hate wetsuits. I hate wiggling in and out of those things, Nothing worse than getting caught inside on a big set with your shoulders feeling like they have vice grips on them trying to dig hard enough to beat the last set wave. I dreamed of never having to wear one again. In the early 20's my ex and I had some friends that built a home down at Bahia de los Angeles in Baja on the Sea of Cortez- What a quaint and quiet place to go. The water is warm' the islands off shore are Mediterranean like. But there aren't any waves. I would sit on the shore trying to figure out how I could generate some wave.s. Perfect waves. Wasn't going to happen. Nice peaceful place, but it wasn't going to work That wasn't going to be the dream.

In 2005, after several trips to Puerto Vallarta I finally decided that was going to be the place that was fulfilling my dreams. I was ready to retire. It was a perfect time to do it but my wife didn't want to. She wanted to wait a few years. Only problem is she ran off with a guy she met on an airplane less than six months later. Even worse, the economy began to tank big time. Being in real estate and heavily invested in land my net worth began to vaporize like steam from boiling pot. Dreams became just that. Dreams. I had no hope of finding my perfect retirement anymore. I was so bummed and stressed I was at the point of just saying Lord, take me home. This life sucks. Everything I'd worked and saved for had vanished into thin air. And' I was stuck with what I described earlier as Golden Handcuffs. Big assets that were no longer tssets but definitely cash drains. Life was getting really tough and hopes in themselves were now dreams.

But, earlier this year I went back to Puerto Vallarta. I took a bus, after going to a Calvary Chapel Church in PV, to tiny little Punta de Mita. I walked through a breezeway after getting off the bus only to witness head high perfect Malibu rights. The water was E2 degrees, the water was turquoise, the sky was a high blue and the wispy breeze was enough to cool the sweat from an 88 degree day. I knew I found Heaven...I found my dream. Over the next months I was reinvigorated. I was filled with hope again. Not only that,I found a way to buy a beach front condo for a few trinkets and beads. Life doesn't suck anymore. Dreams have become reality. I live there now part time. I've actually figured out how to live there nearly f;or free. So, stay tuned, You might just learn how to turn dreams into reality, even if you've lost it all.