Happy Halloween.

On my way home Saturday night, I passed this house lit up for Halloween. Had to stop and take a picture.

The police do make some mistakes, but they get too much blame for society's problems.

I'll admit I may be writing from a position of white privilege, but I do feel that so much media focus on deadly mistakes made by police usually leaves out some deeper issues. These mistakes are bound to happen in tense situations.

Conservatives will say that the violent crime rate is higher in black neighborhoods. Maybe better to say in poor neighborhoods. Discussing underlying causes of these problems is valuable.

I only have my own opinions, but I think about things like restrictive "single family" zoning and it's contribution to the high cost of housing.

Segregation is often an unintended consequence of things, in society, that are designed to protect people's wealth and peace of mind. In the past, there was a history of more overt racism behind lots of urban planning decisions, but now many traditions, rooted in the past, continue without the overt stated racism.

I've seen some articles about this. The racial roots of some zoning rules that have been cleansed of their original, 1950s, language, but still are enforce.

I would think that over dependence on the automobile contributes to problems. The way freeways have carved up cities.

There is the problem of traffic stops in the first place. A fear of what's lurking inside vehicles. Who's behind the tinted glass? Do they have a gun? Were they reckless drivers? Are they on drugs? Automobiles, in the hands of the general public, can be very dangerous. I think about the problem of "stranger danger." How wary ordinary people are of folks they don't know. A lot of people fear using public transit for that reason, but is public transit really as dangerous, or unpleasant, as folks perceive?

I think maybe we should all be more accepting of strangers.

There is a lot of suspicion, out there, created by a climate of fear. Media can enhance fear as it often highlights the one in a million type fluke events and crimes when the overall statistics might say that common activities; like driving a car, are more dangerous. More dangerous than, say riding a bus with unknown passengers.

Scared to ride the bus? Picture of haunted Whatcom Transit bus, Halloween 2010.

When people get to know each other, fear usually diminishes. Problem is that in most situations, there isn't time to develop a rapport with people we encounter.

A group of menacing looking teenagers might be fine, if one gets to know them more. Even just some brief conversation. Most situations don't allow that, however. People will walk across the street instead. I'll admit I'd walk across the street also.

I'm a bit shy on first contact with people, but, if the opportunity is there, I am pretty open to meeting new people. I don't worry too much about privacy or being out there in public. Still, I avoid things out of fear as well.

Some folks are very insular and stay in their small world of friends. That's a common part of human nature. Other folks are more open to mingling with the public, with the diversity that the public mix brings.

Maybe we do need to be more tolerant and not allow as many things to annoy us. Sometimes, though, people can be annoying and even outright dangerous. There are times when one has to call a spade a spade. I would think that the police aren't usually going out there arresting people without cause.

The police have to deal with things all the time. People and situations that other folks, including myself, tend to avoid. Part of the problem is the way our society tends to isolate people from one another. It's kind of a natural cliquishness. I think a lot of the problems, related to the police, are more the symptoms of human tendencies. Things that would cause everyone to have to rethink their own tendencies.

As for stranger danger, here is a funny thought I often have walking on the sidewalk. When I see some young people heading my direction on skateboards, my first thought is often, "they are cute." My second thought is to jump out of the way.

Fortunately, I am still quite agile so jumping out of the way works. Also, even if I didn't jump, they can almost always swerve around me anyway. They are kind of fun to watch.

My point being to try and have a different mindset than fear, or anger is often a good strategy.

Simplistic thinking of a child could make one more materialistic

I don't shop very much on any day, including Black Friday. Today, I just continued my regular routine which included buying food and eating in a few places where community gathers. Good food, good conversation. So I didn't have a Buy Nothing Day either.

I don't do Christmas shopping. When I was a kid, the packages under the tree met more to me. I even remember being a bit envious, one year, when my older sister got a few more packages than me. She had friends up the street that gave her things while I only got things from other family members. I guess it helps to have friends.

As a child, my views were more simplistic. That seems common for children. Later in life, I started learning more and could see beyond just how many toys one gets.

By the time I got to college, I was able to appreciate what my mother said when we all came home one year and she coined the phrase, "it's not the presents that matters, it's our presence that matters."

Not having small children in my life, today, means that packages under the tree don't matter that much to me. To some extent, I realize that connection can be more important than the objects themselves. Less simplistic thinking, I guess. Kids might be less apt to figure this out, tho I'm sure that some kids do. It can be more likely for adults to understand this.

For instance, I see no point in lining up outside a store to get the latest fancy phone. I realize that it isn't really what's in the phone that's so important, it's the network that the phone connects to. As long as the device can provide a reasonable connection to the network, that's enough for me. What's really exciting, to me, is that the network keeps offering more and more. The network isn't something I can own. It's the community we all share.



Speaking of community, I don't have a Christmas tree at home where hardly anyone except me would see it. Instead, I take a set of LED lights to the road which light up my bicycle helmet. More people see it out there and it improves bicycle safety. Above picture was taken at a Halloween party. Part of my costume was a picture of a billboard in a tombstone sales yard. The billboard said "Drive carefully, we can wait." Saw that on a cross country trip in 1991.

Is Halloween just for the young? HUB party stays fun for all.

Dance party at the bike shop.

Seems like lots of older people don't do Halloween anymore. I'm not young, but I still enjoyed Halloween at The HUB Bike Shop; a non profit repair collective in Bellingham.

Maybe the bar scene, where much of Halloween resides these days, chews one up and then spits one out so they don't do Halloween in later life. The older folks get jaded and don't do Halloween anymore?

When I was in 6th grade, I thought 6th grade was the last of Halloween. The end of trick or treating.

Then, in my college days, I found the Halloween parties and bar scene. It was funky and fun. There was a few years in the early 1980s when my only trip to a bar, during the year, was for Halloween. I was never much of a bar person.

As the years went by, "bar scene Halloween" got bigger and more corporate like. Competition for the best costume, big prizes, high cover charges, 90 minute waits to get in. I stopped going years ago.

Still, smaller events work; like the costume ride and dance sponsored by The HUB Bicycle shop. It was fun for the young and young at heart. The energy was pumping.

Dance happened after a spooky ride through town where the course was prearranged along routes not normally open for travel; like riding around in the downtown parkade. We rode on each of the echoing concrete floors with bikers hollering and a boombox playing.

Why am I writing this now? I didn't get around to writing it earlier.




Paining of repair person behind wheel looks real.

Supposed to say loose gravel, but the L is missing

Sign seen on bike paths near Birchwood Park. I first found out about this when one of my friends on Facebook posted a similar picture. Happy Halloween.

Halloween is a stay local celebration

Happy Halloween. A holiday that people tend to celebrate locally, rather than Christmas and Thanksgiving where people travel long distances to be with families. Celebrate in your own community.

Scared to ride the bus?

Is this why it's hard to get so many people out of their cars? Folks are scared to ride the bus. Scared of the drivers, scared of being stranded, scared of the experience.

Really, it's not that bad.

This WTA bus was set up as a haunted bus near the transit terminal for Halloween.

Happy Halloween.

Ghostly building in downtown Bellingham

Scroll down for pictures of fire in 1976 Western Front.

Top floor burned in the 1970s and has remained vacant ever since. Bottom floor is a tavern. Can you guess which building this is?

Happy Halloween weekend.

Leaving my art class at WWSC (now WWU), I saw a massive column of smoke over downtown Bellingham. Running down the hill past my sister's house, I knocked on Judy's door. She came running also, toward the fire.
Continued below:

Western Front newspaper, November 1976.

Watching from across the street, we got there just as the roof was caving in and a fireball rose to the sky.

Then, Judy started walking back home and I wondered why she was leaving the drama. She said she just remembered leaving her front door wide open as she ran from the house. Went back to shut the door.

I stayed till smoke turned to hissing steam.

Now the embers long cooled, that place sits quietly as downtown Bellingham scurries around it. Few pay attention to those upper floors that are like a carcass left over from that violent event.

Bellingham fire department has a coffee table book of local fires with a picture of this fire also.

Why Halloween is safer than Christmas

Halloween edition of our local Weekly in news stands. Gas can be ghastly.

If one isn't part of a family, one can feel left out for Christmas and Thanksgiving. People will "move Heaven and Earth" just to go over the meadow and through the woods to family gatherings. They often span many treacherous miles over icy roads.

Halloween is friendlier to a wider diversity of lifestyles. One is less likely to feel left out if separated from family; thus less travel.

There is the family side of it; kids tricker treating and so forth, but there's also a lot more.

People wear costumes at work, go to parties. It can be a wonderful creative outlet right where you live.

Some of it might get a bit too crazy, especially if drinking is involved, but possibly not as out of control as New Year's.

At least Halloween encourages one to celebrate where they are, even at work, for instance. There is less need to travel to family gatherings far away. This holiday can give one's "here and now" life a creative twist.

Of course, part of the difference may be that Halloween is not recognized as an official holiday. It doesn't provide enough time for folks to get as far away from their everyday lives in this society where family ties tend to be scattered across the globe.

An ASCII art Christmas tree.