“Ashes Denote That Fire Was”

*Previously published as a column by Quest Lakes in the MVN in July 2018.

Silver City, Nevada - Watching the news this week about fires near Yosemite Valley and Redding made me remember all the fires I’ve seen in Silver City over the last few decades. It also reminded me of the kindness and bravery of everyone who responds to fires, from fire fighters and other first responders, to everyday folks who do what they can to help those affected by fire.

One of the first fires I witnessed in Silver City occurred in a ravine next to our house about 25 years ago. A child playing with fireworks accidentally set off a fire that quickly created a fire tornado spiraling straight up between our house and two other homes. After calling 911 and then alerting older neighbors with disabilities to make sure they had time to react, my husband began doing what he could with our garden hose. Our neighbor to the south used his garden hoses as well. Soon local volunteer fire fighter Austin Crouch arrived with the fire truck, leaping down and hitting the fire from above with a hose that helped halt the fire before it reached homes. My husband said the relief and gratitude he felt when he saw Austin arrive was indescribable.

The next fire I saw was about 19 years ago. It was a summer day, and I was up at 6a.m. with my newborn son, standing on the deck and watching the jackrabbits and quail in the yard. Just as I looked to the east, a pigeon landed on a power pole, burst into flames, and fell to ground, where the dry summer cheat grass immediately ignited. I ran to call 911, and asked my stepdaughters to go downstairs and tell my husband what was happening. While I was on the phone, he instructed the girls to go next door and make sure the neighbors were awake and aware of the fire. He then ran toward the fire, which was on an empty lot on a neighboring property, and began shoveling a fire break around the quickly spreading grass fire. He recalls that he knew this was a losing battle. But suddenly, he realized that someone else was there with him, also shoveling a fire break. Rattlesnake Dave, as he was known in town, had seen the smoke and ran to help. The two of them kept the fire from spreading until the fire truck arrived soon after and put the blaze out.

My family has witnessed several fires on and near Bear Mountain on the south west part of Silver City over the years as well. When my son was five or six years old, emergency workers came up our long driveway at around 2 a.m. in the morning to tell us to prepare to evacuate if a rapidly approaching fire jumped State Route 342 and came into Silver City. At the time, we let our son continue to sleep, planning to carry him to the car in his pajamas only if we really had to leave. We listened to fire reports while running through the house, packing for possible evacuation. We were lucky - the fire didn’t jump the highway and was put out before it reached any homes. But that experience helped me imagine what people go through when they actually do have to evacuate.

And finally, about five years ago, I was with artists hanging their work for an upcoming art show at the Dayton Valley Community Center when I got a call from my son that a fire was rapidly spreading on Bear Mountain in Silver City. At the time, both my son and my husband thought it would be put out quickly and urged me to stay put. Shortly after that, they called to say they were preparing to evacuate. They’d put our pets in carriers, and packed our car for evacuation. From our deck they could see an air attack on the fire that involved continual drops of water and fire retardant. At one point, a helicopter carrying a water bucket and an airtanker nearly collided directly above our deck. We all have a lasting respect for fire fighters after witnessing their skill, courage and endurance in halting that fire before it reached homes.

Local Newspapers and Taxes

*Previously published as a column by Quest Lakes in the MVN in Aug. 2018.

I watched a documentary this week called All the Queen’s Horses. It’s about Rita Crundwell, who was able to embezzle more than $53 million dollars while she was comptroller and treasurer for the small town of Dixon, Illinois between 1983 and 2012. During those years, she stole about $2.5 million per year from the city of about 15,000 people. She concealed her crimes partly by claiming budget shortfalls were due to the state being late in paying the city its share of tax revenue. As a result of her fraud, city departments had to make extreme cuts to public services, and employees went years without raises. Dixon’s police went without essential equipment like radios and few of the town’s streets were repaired.

Dixon had a local paper called the Dixon Evening Telegraph that operated from 1886 until 2008. After 2008, the townsfolk got their news from a large news company covering 24 cities in the region, and Rita Crundwell began embezzling even more money.

Watching the documentary reminded me of a new study I’d seen showing that when local newspapers close, the result is higher costs for taxpayers.

Researchers from the University of Illinois and the University of Notre Dame, who led the study, explained that this happens because one of the roles of small town newspapers includes being “watchdogs of local government.” This role keeps local governments on their toes and increases efficiency.

So exactly how does the lack of a local newspaper translate into higher taxes? Lenders to municipal governments understand the role of newspapers with regard to local government efficiency. If they see that a town has no local newspaper, they consider this weakness and tend to ask for a higher interest rate when lending for things like public buildings, roads, schools, etc.

The study, “Financing Dies in Darkness? The Impact of Newspaper Closures on Public Finance,” found that municipal borrowing costs increase by 5 to 11 basis points in the first few years after a local newspaper closed its doors. This means taxes go up roughly $70 for the average taxpayer, according to the study.

I’m not making a case against taxes here – public buildings, roads, parks, schools, etc are wonderful and essential and I am happy to pay taxes for them. My point is that local newspapers are an important part of making sure our taxes are used in the most effective ways possible to secure the public goods our communities need to thrive.

*Previously published as a column by Quest Lakes in the MVN in Aug. 2018.

Jackrabbit Rorschach test

Silver City, Nevada – Silver City’s jackrabbits can inspire all sorts of reactions – appreciation, humor, astonishment, and even fear. My mom, who lives in Indiana, came for a visit this summer. We were strolling along Silver City’s secret art trail, when she stopped suddenly and whispered, “What in the world is THAT?!” It took me a moment to realize she was pointing to a bolting jackrabbit.

Last year two of my sisters were here, and my 12 year old sister Ella was hiking far above us on a mountain trail. Suddenly my sister Jessica grabbed my arm and said, “Oh my God, Quest, what is that by Ella?” My heart was beating hard as I scanned the landscape to see if something like a mountain lion was sneaking up on Ella, but I couldn’t see anything alarming. I finally realized Jessica was pointing out a particularly large jackrabbit that was running by.

I was once given an admonition from Facebook when I posted a close-up photo of a huddled group of baby jackrabbits I’d found under a desert peach bush. Apparently, Facebook thought it was a photo of something altogether different.

When Oakland-based artist Scott MacLeod was a Resident Artist in Silver City in 2016, he took a series of photos of Silver City jackrabbits. He captured images of them running, nibbling, and peering at him from the hills above. Their odd faces can be comical and almost human.

Utah Poet Laureate David Lee was a Resident Artist in Silver City in 2017, and he also noticed the jackrabbits on his walks in the hills surrounding Silver City. He wrote that he saw “three jackrabbits almost within spitting distance of me, staring at me, all, and I could hear them wondering Who and what in the world is this? and two hawks directly overhead screeing, and I came back and then walked away, down, and the jackrabbits did not move, and the hawks, for a short way, lead the way, singing. Glory."

PHOTO BY Scott MacLeod

*Previously published as a column in the MVN in Sept. 2018.

Downward Mobility

My mother's parents grew up in the Appalachian mountains. Both had to leave school before completing 6th grade in order help their families with work. They married at age 15 and moved to a state north of theirs shortly afterward, and then began a family. Eventually they had four children. Their own parents did not have the financial means to help them buy a car or anything else.

This sounds like the beginning of a long, sad tale of generational poverty, but that’s not my grandparents’ story. My grandpa got a job on an assembly line at a Ford factory. My grandma grew vegetables and canned them for the long winters. She sewed her family’s clothes and made quilts. My grandpa hunted on weekends to supplement his wages. After awhile, they bought a modest little house. Eventually they added rooms, doing the construction work themselves. Then they built a detached garage. Finally, they bought their neighbors’ house and rented it for a number of years before selling it at a profit. Two of their four children went on to earn college degrees. Theirs was as story of steady upward mobility.

The fiction I hear about stories like my grandparents’ is that they simply worked harder and were more frugal than the following generations, and so anyone who is struggling today is simply lazy or refuses to budget and save.

But in fact my grandparents were part of a lucky generation that had a good chance of finding a job with a living wage and benefits, even if they had less than a high school diploma. They were able to afford a car, a house, health care, and annual vacations almost entirely on what my grandpa earned working on an assembly line. My grandparents, who did not even have the opportunity to attend middle school, lived to see a time when affordable college education was available for their own children. Even though my grandparents both experienced extended periods of illness due to cancer, they were able to afford quality health care. Far from going bankrupt due to medical debt, they were able to leave property and savings to their children when they passed away.

They lived their adult lives within the sweet spot when the United States was still building the world's greatest middle class economy.

Since the 1980s, wages have not kept up with the cost of living, and the costs of health care and higher education continue to rise. I wonder what my own grandchildren will write about how our lives affected theirs?

*Published previously as a column by Quest Lakes in the MVN in Sept. 2018.

Institut für Sexualwissenschaft

I learned something fascinating earlier this week – from 1919 -1933 in Germany, there was an Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for the Science of Sexuality), a pioneer in transgender and gay research. Among the nonprofit foundation’s employees were psychiatrists, endocrinologists, and other medical professionals who worked in research, counseling, public education, and gender affirming surgeries.

In addition to housing a large research library, the institution included medical and psychological departments, and marriage and sex counseling services. About 20,000 people from around Europe and beyond visited each year - services were free for those who couldn’t afford them. A “pioneer worldwide in the call for civil rights and social acceptance for homosexual and transgender people,” the Institute for the Science of Sexuality also advocated for women’s emancipation, sex education, contraception, and the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.

I was surprised to learn that some of the first sex reassignment surgeries took place in the 1930s. Some of those first surgeries were at the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft in Berlin where co-founder Magnus Hirschfeld, a German Jewish physician, coined the term “transsexualism.” The institution became a haven for transgender people. Hirschfeld offered them employment and sanctuary from abuse, and performed surgeries.

In 1933 the Deutsche Studentenschaft (German Student Union) destroyed the place as part of the Nazi government’s censorship program, and burned thousands of books and journals on sexuality they took from the institute’s libraries and archives. They kept records such as address lists that they found there, however; and this later helped Hitler round up, arrest, imprison and murder “suspected homosexuals” and people who did not conform to the Nazis’ definition of gender roles.

During the Night of the Long Knives in 1934 Hitler ordered the murder of gay men in the ranks of the SA wing of the Nazis. Round-ups of LGBTQ men throughout Germany followed, and thousands ended up in slave-labor or death camps.

I learned another thing this week – the Trump Administration is proposing DNA testing to determine gender. A memo from the Department of Health and Human Services to federal agencies proposed defining “sex” as “immutable,” and defined by one’s “birth certificate, as originally issued.”Also proposed: barring legal protections on the basis of transgender identity under Title IX. If codified, this would apply to the departments of Labor, Justice, Education and Health and Human services, allowing workplace, school and health services discrimination against trans people.

*Published in the MVN as a column by Quest Lakes in Oct. 2018.

Carson City Accepts Proclamation During Silver City Town Meeting

Silver City, Nevada - During its November 2018 meeting, the Silver City Town board presented Carson City with a proclamation declaring the community a valued "Arts and Culture Sister City."

The proclamation reads in part, “the Silver City Town Advisory Board proclaims its desire and intention to formally declare Carson City a valued ARTS and CULTURE SISTER CITY in appreciation of Carson City's history of promoting the arts and culture of Silver City and in recognition of our mutual understanding that arts and culture are pathways to maintaining our vibrant communities.”

Mark Salinas, Arts & Culture Coordinator for Carson City, accepted the proclamation, noting, “I accept this award on behalf of a long line of people who have come before me. Taking those people’s service, and taking our past and molding it, has allowed co-authorship of our future creativity together. I look forward to more collaboration, partnerships, communications, efforts and exchanges between Silver City and Carson City.”

Karen Abowd, Carson City Mayor Pro Tempore and a Carson City Cultural Commissioner, signed the proclamation, thanking the Silver City Board for the effort.

Terri McBride, Chair of the Carson City Cultural Commission, also signed the proclamation, saying, “Thank you for encompassing us in your efforts up here. I think creativity works synergistically and so we can bounce off each other’s creativity and all rise to a higher level.”

The proclamation was also signed by Silver City board members Chali Haugen, Cal Dillon, and Cristee Davis. Carson City’s Arts and Culture Master Plan includes a goal to “support artists, arts organizations, arts-related businesses and audiences throughout the urban, suburban and rural communities in and around Carson City.”

Robert Elston, a longtime denizen of Silver City, explained that for him, “the music here in Silver City is a really big deal.” He explained that two local endeavors, Yellow Truck Productions and Evangeline Presents, bring well-known musicians such as Texas blues singer/songwriter Ray Bonneville to the town’s indoor stage for intimate, small concerts during the winter and spring. The town also hosts several summer concerts, often by Silver City and other Nevada musicians, on the town’s outdoor stage in the town park. Silver City Arts group also hosts a casual acoustic jam in town every month. Elston noted, “The more we have this interchange between us, the better for us, and maybe for Carson, because there is actually a lot of talent here. I’m very happy about this.”

In addition to a number of Silver City denizens present such as Silver City Arts group facilitator Carol Godwin, PhD, Robert Elston, PhD of Yellow Truck Productions, and Quest Lakes, director of the Resident Artist Program in Silver City, the following people were also in attendance for the proclamation: Stephen Reid, Artist Services Specialist, Nevada Arts Council and Advisory Board member for the Resident Artist Program in Silver City; Mike Jones, Chair, Carson City Visitor’s Bureau; Sharon Rosse, Executive Director, Capital City Arts Initiative; Elinor Bugli, Carson City Arts and Culture Coalition, President of the Carson City Symphony Association, and Carson City Cultural Commissioner; Mylo McCormick, Carson City Cultural Commissioner and musician; and Charlie Abowd, award-winning chef and co-owner of the five-star restaurant Cafe at Adele’s.

In the spirit of the proclamation, Carson City and Silver City citizens invited one another to upcoming events and meetings. Mark Salinas invited all to the Carson City Cultural Commission’s next meeting, which takes place on November 26th at 5:30pm at the Carson City Community Center (it is also broadcast LIVE, and then made available for online viewing later). Carol Godwin of the Silver City Arts group invited all to come to the group’s annual holiday show featuring the work of local artisans. The event, which includes refreshments, music and opportunities to browse unique holiday gift options, takes place on December 1 from 10am-4pm at the Silver City School House.

It Took a Village

Published in Mason Valley News in July 2018

My son Mylo turned 19 yesterday, and I can’t believe how quickly the time has flown. It seems like just last month I watched him take his first steps. Looking at photos of him growing up and becoming the young man he is today, I reflected on all of the people who contributed to his big smile.

Of course immediate family have been supportive of him, but what gave me pause is the long list of completely unrelated people who have made such a positive impact on his life.

When he was a baby, our neighbor Sheree Rose would come by, holding him and singing to him while I took a shower. This is probably why he’s a musician today – Sheree has a beautiful voice and sings professionally with her husband, songwriter/musician Will Rose. By the time Mylo was 3, they were inviting him on stage to shake maracas during their shows. At age 6 he was in one of their music videos, solemnly shaking the gourds.

Mylo lucked out in first grade and got Diane Kotik as a teacher. Diane is a Silver City resident, although we didn’t know her very well at the time. She would stand at the door to her classroom each morning, shaking hands with every student as they entered. She would look each child in the eye and say warmly, “Good morning. Welcome!” Mylo made enormous, measurable growth on standardized tests that year.

Then in 5th grade, he was lucky enough to have Michelle Paul as his teacher at Dayton Elementary School. She’s an extraordinarily dedicated, skilled and talented teacher who included art history in her curriculum, which Mylo loved. She recognized that Mylo was a creative person, and understood him and encouraged him through that lens. I count her as key to the confidence he has as a peformer today.

By age ten, musician Will Rose accepted Mylo as a guitar student, something that had an enormous impact on his life. Will had been a guitarist for the TV shows Taxi and Cheers and had also worked with the Four Tops, Lon Bronson's Big Band, The Platters, and many Broadway musicals and Vegas production shows in addition to his own bands such as Red Rose. He’s a dedicated singer/songwriter who expected similar hard work from Mylo.

Working with Will allowed Mylo to learn an eclectic mix of reggae, funk, rock, blues and zydeco tunes, and he began going on stage for local Comstock shows at age 13.

By 16, he was thinking of teaching himself to drum, and responded to a Craig’s List ad for used drums. He went to the nearby address and bought the drums, and on the way out asked the seller, Samantha Moore, if he could try her guitar. After listening to him play briefly she said, “I’m in the band Mo’z Motley Blues and we’re looking for a guitar player. Can you audition this week?”

Long story short, he’s been playing professionally with the band since then, and they’ve become his extended family. He spends many hours a week with them not only performing, but practicing, having meals with them, and going to concerts together to see other bands. Until he got his own car and additional equipment, Samantha Moore was incrediably generous in giving him rides and sharing her gear. The band leader, the multi-talented singer/songwriter Monique De Haviland, has taught him about stage presence and professionalism. She was a pop music star in Europe as a teen, and has been protective of him as a young performer, while at the same time steadily encouraging him to set his goals high.

I’m so grateful to each one of these role models who have impacted my son’s life. Today at 19 he has his Associate’s degree and is continuing his college courses with the goal of a Bachelors degree. He loves his work, performing several times a week at Tahoe, Reno, Virginia City, Carson City and beyond.

It really does take a village to raise a child...

Silver City and Carson City are "Arts and Culture Sister Cities"

Silver City, Nevada – Carson City’s recognition of the importance of arts and culture to a thriving community is very much in line with that of nearby Silver City. The Comstock town is known as an "Arts and Cultural Resources Production Center" due to the work residents have contributed to the fields of arts and cultural resources. With a similar focus on supporting arts and culture, Carson City's detailed Arts and Culture Master Plan defines culture “as everything from language, oral traditions, history, ethnic heritage, music, visual arts, folk arts, media arts, film, dance, theatre arts, design, fashion, architecture, foodways, social customs, and community rituals and celebrations.”

Over the years, Carson City has both built and expanded its arts and culture events, programs, and initiatives. However, in the past two years, Carson City has shown an increased dedication to the arts with the hire of Mark Salinas, the city’s first Arts and Culture Coordinator, a cabinet position under City Hall.

Working closely with its Cultural Commission, Carson City has supported some of its most widely known cultural events including annual powwows, a month-long jazz festival, dynamic art exhibitions and lectures in public spaces, and numerous theatrical performances. It seems a new public revival of the arts is now in session with a new community radio station (KNVC 95.1FM), a popular museum fashion film series, Levitt Amp grants providing free summer concerts, and a National Endowment of the Arts Big Read grant. Newly acquired public art in the form of wheat pastes and sculptures by such artists as Deon and Trish Reynolds and Mischell Riley join new pop-up installations by local artists in City Hall and the Senior Center. The Carson City Cultural Commission, established in 2008, has even updated its own community profile with the addition of its first Latina, first Native American, and the youngest municipal Cultural Commissioner in the state of Nevada, Mylo McCormick. Collaboration and communication among disciplines and across borders have become the benchmark of success in Carson City.

Historic Silver City, located about 12 miles from Carson, has a concentration of residents working in the arts and/or career fields related to cultural resources. Over the last 50 years the community of less than 200 people has been responsible for a body of work that has had a demonstrably positive impact on the town, the state and beyond. Accordingly, in 2014 the Silver City Advisory Board recognized the existing character of Silver City as an "Arts and Cultural Resources Production Center", and formally proclaimed the considerable work residents have contributed and continue to contribute to the production of important work in the areas of arts and cultural resources. The Board also formally recognized the extraordinary support the community has given to give to local arts and cultural resources production, events, and programming. Today the town has arts and historic preservation groups, a resident artist program that attracts award-winning writers and artists from around the world, and an annual summer arts and science program with public programming such as concerts, exhibitions, poetry readings, art workshops, children’s engineering and science activities, etc.

Following through on a Master Plan goal to “support artists, arts organizations, arts-related businesses and audiences throughout the urban, suburban and rural communities in and around Carson City”, the capital city has consistently promoted Silver City’s many events through their own city’s tourism department, arts coordinator, and cultural commission. Nonprofit arts groups in Carson, such as Capital City Arts Initiative and Carson City Arts and Culture Coalition, and Carson’s community radio station KNVC 95.1FM, have also been extremely supportive of Silver City events and have helped promote them.

Likewise, the Silver City Arts group frequently cross-promotes Carson City’s many arts and culture events, as well as those of Silver City, Virginia City, and Reno/Tahoe, in their monthly e-newletters to arts lovers in the Northern Nevada region. Local volunteers formed the Silver City Arts group in 2014, with the goal of “encouraging the arts, building community, and sharing our unique town through free, public events." Drawing on the community's own rich resource of artists, they host music, visual arts, and poetry events and programs. They also connect with outside groups to bring programming from visual, literary and performing artists from around the U.S. and the world.

All of these elements -event cross-promotion, enthusiasm for the arts, and a similar view of the centrality of arts and culture to strong communities - came together last month when the Silver City Town Advisory Council recognized Carson City as an “arts and culture sister city” to Silver City. The proclamation, which will be formally presented to Carson City elected officials and to Carson City's Arts and Culture Coordinator during the Silver City Advisory Board meeting on Tuesday, November 13th at 7pm, reads in part, “the Silver City Town Advisory Board proclaims its desire and intention to formally declare Carson City a valued ARTS and CULTURE SISTER CITY in appreciation of Carson City's history of promoting the arts and culture of Silver City and in recognition of our mutual understanding that arts and culture are pathways to maintaining our vibrant communities.”