Some full disclosure on Joe Blow. I'm am not Joe's favorite person.
Joe was a Southern Humboldt logger that chose to fight the growers and lost. He now lives in Eureka in his fog bank and throws literary darts at people that just try to get along and lead the best life that society allows them, to try to live their lives of quite desperation.
The thing that bugs me the most about Joe Blow is that he was there on the front lines of the confrontation between the loggers and the dope growing hippies. He has a real story to tell. Yet, he would rather berate people and compare them to pimples on real men’s asses, and point out how everybody’s opinions are wrong, yet he never tells his story which I think would be incredibly pertinent.
When the hippies first started growing marijuana, they would grow it on logging land because it was very much against the law to cultivate and they didn't dare risk growing it on their own land because they didn't want to risk land confiscation. The loggers would blade their plants aside. Later they started spraying broad leaf killer for “conifer release”. The spray was more like bug spray because they were trying to eradicate the dope grower as much as for conifer release.
The hippies joined together to get the spraying stopped. They brought out all of the environmental hazards of spraying as a means to stop the loggers from killing their plants. They complained about all kinds of maladies, some real, and some imagined. Women complained about still-births and every malady from acne to hangnail was blamed on the spray to build their case. Out of that “stop the spray” movement came the logging protesters, and today’s pseudo-environmentalist.
The loggers would have been wise to have played ball with the grower and left them alone. If they had, there may have still been a timber industry today.
The growers learned that the tactic of the “Oblique Challenge”, or the “strawman” fight, where the real issue is never mentioned. The latest was the so called “medical” marijuana issue that was used to make marijuana defacto legal. Joe could make the point that the growers have shot themselves in their own foot. They have made marijuana so unrisky to grow that it is becoming worthless.
Joe was in the middle of that fight, yet he tucked tail and ran. So realistically he is just as much to blame with today’s situation as the people that cater to the grower.
I don’t know who Joe, is and I wouldn’t rat him out if I did. Shakespeare said that “a coward dies a thousand deaths a brave man but one”. Joe must have something to fear to stay so hidden. But, while he is anonymous he could tell his version of the marijuana wars, and why he hates me for making my peace with the grower and staying in the canyon that I love. He must kick himself when we are soaking in the sunshine while he is buried in a Humboldt Bay fog bank. But, that must be only one of his thousand deaths, he has many more to go.
e
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Dedicated to remembering how it was “back then”, and Tales about the Eel River Valley, and the wisdom of the people that live there. With a big emphasis on; “Language has never been about correctness, it has always been about communicating”. We live in one small bubble of place and time that peace is thought of as ideal, we should revel in it! We cant judge what happened in history by who we are now.
Posts
Favorite quotes
"I'm so tired of people substituting "values" for truth in a wide variety of situations. As a member of the reality-based community, I'd like to see reality used as the litmus test... " Jon Carrol
"The sound "squaw," regardless of its spelling, is OUR word for woman, and it is NOT to be used as an insult! When I hear it spoken by Native peoples, in its proper context, I hear the voices of the ancestors. I am reminded of powerful grandmothers who nurtured our people and fed the strangers, of proud women chiefs who stood up against them, and of mothers and daughters and sisters who still stand here today. In their honor I demand that our language, our women, and our history, be treated with respect.
Thank you for listening."
Wlibomkanni, travel well.
Quotes from Richard Dawkins:
...Anybody who thinks you need religion in order to be good is being good for the wrong reason. I’d rather be good for moral reasons. Morals were here before religion, and morals change rather rapidly in spite of religion. Even people who rely on the Bible use nonbiblical criteria. If your criteria are scriptural, you have no basis for choosing the verse that says turn the other cheek rather than the verse that says stone people to death. So you pick and choose without guidance from the Bible...
...I draw strength from reflecting on what a privilege it is to be alive and what a privilege it is to have a brain that’s capable in its limited way of understanding why I exist and of reveling in the beauty of the world and the beauty of the products of evolution. The magnificence of the universe and the sense of smallness that gives us in space and in geologically deep time is humbling but in a strangely comforting way. It’s nice to feel you’re part of a hugely bigger picture...
Richard Dawkins
...
"The sound "squaw," regardless of its spelling, is OUR word for woman, and it is NOT to be used as an insult! When I hear it spoken by Native peoples, in its proper context, I hear the voices of the ancestors. I am reminded of powerful grandmothers who nurtured our people and fed the strangers, of proud women chiefs who stood up against them, and of mothers and daughters and sisters who still stand here today. In their honor I demand that our language, our women, and our history, be treated with respect.
Thank you for listening."
Wlibomkanni, travel well.
Quotes from Richard Dawkins:
...Anybody who thinks you need religion in order to be good is being good for the wrong reason. I’d rather be good for moral reasons. Morals were here before religion, and morals change rather rapidly in spite of religion. Even people who rely on the Bible use nonbiblical criteria. If your criteria are scriptural, you have no basis for choosing the verse that says turn the other cheek rather than the verse that says stone people to death. So you pick and choose without guidance from the Bible...
...I draw strength from reflecting on what a privilege it is to be alive and what a privilege it is to have a brain that’s capable in its limited way of understanding why I exist and of reveling in the beauty of the world and the beauty of the products of evolution. The magnificence of the universe and the sense of smallness that gives us in space and in geologically deep time is humbling but in a strangely comforting way. It’s nice to feel you’re part of a hugely bigger picture...
Richard Dawkins
...
Personal bio
- Ernie Branscomb
- Refrigeration contractor. Fifth generation native of the So. Fork of the Eel River.(since 1857) Married to wife Janis Dec. 31 1971. Volunteer fireman since 1973. Rotarian since 1980. E-mail adress ernie@branscombcenter.com
Southern Humboldt Awareness
NOAA Weather Benbow
World earthquake map
Local and Regional News
International News
Links to other blogsites
- Above The Fold
- As it stands. Dave Stancliff
- As it stands. Dave Stancliff for President
- Capdiamont
- Chocolate Covered Xanex, great writing!
- Digging Up Humboldt. (Graveyard History)
- Ed Densen, On The Road Again
- Fred Mangles, Freds Humboldt Blog
- Kim Sallaway Photography Blog. Recomended!
- Lost Coast Outpost, Hank Sims
- Lynette local history
- Mendo Coast Current
- Redheaded Blackbelt
- Rose's "Watch Paul"
- Samoa Softball, Richard Marks, working man
- Sohum Parlance II Eric Kirk
- The Bitten Apple, Indie's blog
- The Humboldt Herald, Heraldo
- The man at Planet Tapperass
- Tom Seborn KGOE I E I O
- Willits Daily Photo, overflow
22 comments:
Dear Ernie,
I went back and read the comments on your last post. As you know we don't always agree on what is good for this county but after reading the comments I was very clear on why I like and admire you--your statements are backed by your name and face. If people don't like what you say, they can tell you about it to your face. Heck, they can even quit shopping in your store. You are willing to take the consequences for your opinions--whether they are right or wrong. One of the consequences of that is that I admire you.
I think Joe and Anonymous feel comfortable being negative because they think they don't have to take the consequences for what they say--I wonder if that anger they dump out on the blogs is there because they don't have a comfortableness in their own skin--a comfortableness that might be there if they were able to state their opinions and match them to their real names.
Thank you Kym.
Although we are basicly from the same pioneer stock, we have taken very slightly divergent paths. No one is the same, we are going to have differnt opinions. Yet as you say. I deeply admire many of your talents, one being live-and-let-live.
I like to count you as one of my dear friends, but for the life of me I can't understand what you see in lemon pancakes... so you see we have differences in taste. I hope you enjoyed your mothers day breakfast.
Gee Kym, maybe I choose to remain anonymous because your culture, your industry - its known for people disappearing out of thin air. Your "peace loving" community is known for threats of violence. Shootings, many of which go unreported these days. Backstabbing, theft... the list goes on.
Kym, you are a representative of a culture long bereft of decency. Go ahead and whitewash all you want. You report it yourself. Homicides. Missing Persons. Elder abuse. Environmental abuse. Tax evasion. Welfare fraud.
Get off your high horse and realize you're a community of drug pushers. And poor black and latino kids are your main victim. Stop hiding behind people dying of cancer. If you cant admit this, then you're the real coward.
Joe Blow is so confused he talks in the third person.
What he does is nothing more than a different kind of cowardly attempt at being anonymous. Therefore unaccountable for his hateful remarks when someone doesn't agree with him.
Joe has hinted numerously times that if his identity got out he would have to skip town for South America (why there I don't know. It's not exactly paradise). It seems he's done something that might not have been kosher.
It's hard to respect someone who is so negative when they don't have the guts to say who they are.
Use old-timers call it "standing behind our beliefs." The new generation just says "Man-Up!"
Anonymous.. You need to go outside and take a walk around the block.
Let me tell you something- People aren't killed over cannabis.. people are killed over the VALUE that cannabis has.. do you know why it is so valuable? Because people like YOU keep cannabis illegal, thus driving the VALUE up.
Oh and hey, guess what Mr.Paranoid, If someone really wanted to come kill you because of something you wrote on here, your anonymity wouldn't stop them. When you post, your IP address is embedded.. hate to break it to ya- people can trace your IP to your exact location.(not threatening you at all, just sayin')
One more thing, nobody is hiding behind dieing cancer patients.. it isn't the cultivator's fault that cancer patients turn to medical marijuana to ease their pain.
.. now, do you have any other ignorant things you would like to add to Ernie's blog?
Anonymous upset at another Anonymous' anonymity. Put down the bong, sober up, and just maybe you will realize what kind of mental defect you are.
Did you even read what I wrote?
I'm not upset that someone chooses to remain anonymous.. maybe you need to sober up?
Did you put the bong down yet?
Yes, you blame the system. You blame everyone else. You just can't help but do what you do. Poor you! Such a victim! You're just growing a drug after all! No harm at all. What? What is that? Insecticide on the plants? Squatters? Selling drugs to kids? Selling drugs to poor kids? pushing drugs? Pushing drugs down into black urban ghetto's? Reaping huge profits? Who's expense? Everyone but yours!
Did you put down the bong yet?
I'm truly sorry that you are such an angry person.. I'm not here to argue with you, only to state my opinion.
I never said it was right for anyone to reap huge profits from cannabis.
I never blamed "the system" for anything, I blamed people like you.
I never said anything about selling drugs to kids.
I never called myself a victim.
I never said anything about squatters.
But hey! I do agree with you that insecticides are terrible for the environment.
I'm really lost as to what you are even babbling about. Direct your anger and delusions elsewhere- neither has a place here.
Good day
I understand the growers more than most people because I have seen more desperation than most people.
When my daughter was a young girl she wouldn't wear anything but Nike sneakers. I questioned her choice and told her that she was been subject to "peer pressure". She denied it and said that she wore Nike because she liked them, and they were "simply the best shoe". She later found out that they were sold in the Sears catalogue and she refused to ever wear them again because "anything sold in the Sears catalogue couldn't be all that good". She never saw that as peer pressure. She claimed to have discerning taste.
The early pioneers that came to California thought that they needed to kill Indians to survive. They never saw their mistake. The need to survive is subtle, the mere thought that something might be a threat was eliminated. It was truly a survival instinct that caused the pioneers to kill Indians. I know it is more complicated than that but that is the base.
Now, today it is difficult to succeed in the world, if you go to college get an education, try to get a job and fail, you become publicly humiliated. It is easier to go way back in the hills, where not even your friends can find you, grow a little dope, and if you don’t succeed you can try again. If you fail there is no humiliation. Then when you do succeed you can buy a sixty thousand dollar pick-up truck buy your girlfriend some plastic titties, and look like a raging success.
I dropped out of college and went to work because I was unsure that I could succeed in Electronics Engineering. (My chosen career at the time) Kennedy had requested that we put a man on the moon, that caused a boom in electronics. When Kennedy was killed, I quit college and went to work in refrigeration because I thought without Kennedy that they would cancel space exploration, so I took the safe route and went to work. I was wrong, electronics continued to boom long after Kennedy’s death. But, I learned to understand why people do the things that they do. I understand why people grow dope, they are afraid that they might not succeed otherwise. There is some validity in their fears nowadays.
Ernie, your Joe Blow observation exposes a conundrum. Joe Blow may feel isolated, but he has a lot of fellow travelers. Blogs could be a way to communicate, but regardless of whether you agree with a blooger or not, who wants to listen to someone who is shouting at you?
Blogs aren't the only medium that doesn't live up to its potential. Why are TV and radio, for the most part, still the vast wastelands that Marshal McLuhan described so many decades ago?
Joel
My disappointment is not so much that Joe shouts at people, most folks ignore that, but I'm completely disappointed that he has a very pertinent story to tell that he ignores while he shouts at people. He could be interesting instead of simply annoying to so many people.
every time i hear about this grower logger love hate relationship it makes me think you all live in an alternate reality up there. i don't think its a big secret that most of the pot used in california comes from mexico and that if they did resume logging the redwoods, mexicans would be cutting down the trees, not some old white loggers with pimples on their assess. just try turning off the fox channel for a new york minute and you just might realize you are all in the same boat up a creek and without a paddle. what you can do is come together for the sake of your community. mr blow seems like he could easily qualify for one of those medical marijauna cards and then he might realize that good pot doesn't grow on trees.
Fascinating! Or "veddy, veddy, innteressssting!"
Comment flinging bloogers... too many of 'em.
Nice new term Joel.
I realize that marijuana has medicinal value, and I wouldn't deprive anyone from using it. That is a common concept, and why it was used to legalize it. Also, I don't know one single Prop 215 grower that doesn't sell a little on the side to be used for recreation... And, profit. Argue with that.
Since I logged on to my first "chat room"many moons ago I have suffered though the rants of "flamers". As they never i.d. themselves it is impossible to give weight to anything they post. Is what they're saying heart felt or just provocative? I suspect there are some that are not sober when they say stupid hurtful things. For others it's a tantrum they throw behind the shield of namelessness . I quit responding to these folks until they show the courage to let me know who they are. This hiding behind anon serves no constructive purpose.
Kirby
Joe has revealed quite a few personal things about himself, and he does use a nom de plume. I suspect that he wants people to know who he is but he fears that exposure. He has hinted at the story that he has to tell. I wish that he would tell it. He has nothing to fear as long as he is lurking behind his curtain.
He has nothing to fear if he uses his name.
OT - I am sending you a link ernie - one I think you will like.
You're are right Rose I liked the link. Very interesting. I think that Joe would like it too.
Thanks!
Ernie
For a logger who was pushed out by the hippies, he has an unusually left slant to his national politics - even adopting some of the conspiracy theories.
Of course there are conspiracy theories which are shared by far left and far right, even if they approach the conspiracy from different angles. Waco. Water fluoridation. 911. Federal Reserve as a banker plot to take over the world. And now the deather theory.
Now, you didn't link to his blog.
Joe Blow Report
Post a Comment