First the signs went up, three days ago: No Stopping 10 AM to 10 PM Tuesday. SFPD. They appeared every several hundred feet, tied to trees or street lights on both sides of our street and surrounding blocks, defining what would turn out to be about a quarter-mile-square Zone of Silence. Then, in mid-afternoon, the San Francisco Police Department arrived en masse: patrol cars, motorcyles, cops on foot, even a few parking meter scooters. The bomb-sniffing dogs are the scariest.
It is downright spooky on Sacramento Street. Traffic has been rerouted, road blocks at the top of the hill send pedestrians two or three blocks around the Zone. Where we're used to cars, trucks, buses, whizzing bikes and occasional skateboards, moms pushing strollers, passersby talking incessantly on cellphones? Nothing. Utter silence. Finally too curious about it all I intercepted a neighbor or two walking quietly home (after being cleared for entry) and got the word:
Shimon Peres is in the 'hood.
Mr. Peres, who's speaking at a fundraiser at Temple Emanu-El down the block and across the street, has enemies. Some of them, hopefully not intending any harm, are protesting a few blocks away, but none of them are getting into the Zone. My neighbor across the street, whose house has an uninterrupted view of the top of the Temple, just walked by to report the sniper on the roof who is poised to pick off anyone threatening. Carefully carrying my ID, I walked down to the corner mailbox a few minutes ago. There is a line of people waiting to go in -- thankful for the cold wind having died down I suspect -- stretching halfway uphill from the main entrance on Arguello Blvd. They will pass through metal detectors, beside the dogs. "Sorry about the inconvenience," said the very courteous cop behind the barricade. "We'll be out of your hair in a couple of hours." I told him it wasn't inconveniencing me at all, that I felt extraordinarily safe in the Zone.
A long block downhill, on California Street, the protestors.are chanting pro-Palestinian phrases. They have been joined by our requisite San Francisco nutty person in a quasi-Statue of Liberty outfit shouting "God bless freedom of speech." Maybe he's not so nutty; maybe he has a point. The women in head scarves and long skirts walk quietly around him, holding onto their signs. Another exceptionally courteous cop, after mentioning he'd never witnessed anything like the Peres entourage that had just driven by in its shiny black cars, said, "Technically, ma'am, we've got the area in lockdown and you shouldn't be on the streets."
It cannot be easy to be the President of Israel. Probably isn't easy to be a Palestinian either. I haven't figured out how to fix the Middle East yet; although my feeling is that there are inequities, injustices and centuries-old enmities enough on either side to make it unlikely to get fixed any time soon.
But yes, God bless freedom of speech. And may the noise return to Sacramento Street with the morning.
Boomers and Beyond
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Hoping to Avoid Armageddon
Imagine the unimaginable: some nuclear-armed country (or scary terrorist group) drops a bomb on a perceived enemy. A few million people die, instantaneously or soon. Nuclear winter follows, a period of noontime darkness lasting for decades in which no crops can grow -- and a few billion people starve.
The threat of such a calamity served as table-setting for "The Nuclear Chessboard, 2012," a recent panel discussion sponsored by the Commonwealth Club of California at San Francisco's Mark Hopkins Hotel. The panelists were three of the Americans who best understand how the game is being played.
Former U.S.Senator Sam Nunn and former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry, board members of international nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative, were joined by former Secretary of State George Shultz for the panel discussion, which was led by former New York Times Washington Bureau chief Philip Taubman, author of The Partnership: Five Cold Warriors and Their Quest to Ban the Bomb. (Nunn, Perry and Shultz are three of the five cold warriors.)
The nuclear chessboard is, of course, no game; and Shultz, Nunn and Perry know this better than most. "We have got to bring nuclear danger back to the forefront," Shultz told the sold-out room. In addition to nuclear-armed countries (and those headed in such a direction,) he said, the fact that terrorists have the technology means it is critical that materials be kept out of the hands of terrorists. "The threat is global."
It would be hard to condense what was an evening of riveting talk (information about future broadcast or transcript is available from Commonwealth Club Media and PR Director Riki Rafner) but a few of the recurring phrases offer keys:
About Iran? Perry spoke of "coercive diplomacy" as the appropriate direction in which affairs should be moving, and Shultz agreed. We might, suggested the latter, say to Iran about their development of materials, "You want to sell on the international market? We'll help you." Thus opening up information about what's there to sell.
"Blending down" is the operative phrase for getting rid of some of the enriched uranium currently existing around the globe. Some countries are beginning to blend down, Nunn said, with encouragement from the Obama administration.
And "warning time" is one of the scary pieces on the chessboard -- but perhaps one of the best hopes. It refers to the amount of time the person in charge has between receipt of information about, say, an imminent attack, and the moment he pulls the nuclear trigger. Perry responded to an audience question about close calls that came during his time as Secretary of Defense by saying that there had indeed been a few false alarms. One call in the middle of the night reported that a computer screen was showing 200 missiles headed in our direction. Fortunately, the general making the call was already doubting the computer, and Perry ultimately did not make the call to the White House narrowing the warning-time window. Nunn said progress is being made on extending the warning time, "But we need to go from minutes to hours to days..."
The cold warriors were guardedly optimistic about progress in reduction of nuclear weapons. Quoting former Secretary of Defense Robert Macnamara's assessment that 100 nuclear weapons are sufficient for deterrent and questioning why the U.S. needs to have thousands, Perry said, "We want to go down arm in arm with the Russians, and we have got to make sure other countries come down at the same time."
All of which still sounds a little like the game this whole global mess decidedly is not. "There must be," said Shultz, "interaction between the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons and the steps you have to take to achieve that vision."
A first step: public awareness and information. Audience members who asked how to take that first step were directed to the home address of the cold warriors at Nuclear Threat Initiative. NTI's logo proclaims its mission for building a safer world. One can hope.
The threat of such a calamity served as table-setting for "The Nuclear Chessboard, 2012," a recent panel discussion sponsored by the Commonwealth Club of California at San Francisco's Mark Hopkins Hotel. The panelists were three of the Americans who best understand how the game is being played.
Former U.S.Senator Sam Nunn and former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry, board members of international nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative, were joined by former Secretary of State George Shultz for the panel discussion, which was led by former New York Times Washington Bureau chief Philip Taubman, author of The Partnership: Five Cold Warriors and Their Quest to Ban the Bomb. (Nunn, Perry and Shultz are three of the five cold warriors.)
The nuclear chessboard is, of course, no game; and Shultz, Nunn and Perry know this better than most. "We have got to bring nuclear danger back to the forefront," Shultz told the sold-out room. In addition to nuclear-armed countries (and those headed in such a direction,) he said, the fact that terrorists have the technology means it is critical that materials be kept out of the hands of terrorists. "The threat is global."
It would be hard to condense what was an evening of riveting talk (information about future broadcast or transcript is available from Commonwealth Club Media and PR Director Riki Rafner) but a few of the recurring phrases offer keys:
About Iran? Perry spoke of "coercive diplomacy" as the appropriate direction in which affairs should be moving, and Shultz agreed. We might, suggested the latter, say to Iran about their development of materials, "You want to sell on the international market? We'll help you." Thus opening up information about what's there to sell.
"Blending down" is the operative phrase for getting rid of some of the enriched uranium currently existing around the globe. Some countries are beginning to blend down, Nunn said, with encouragement from the Obama administration.
And "warning time" is one of the scary pieces on the chessboard -- but perhaps one of the best hopes. It refers to the amount of time the person in charge has between receipt of information about, say, an imminent attack, and the moment he pulls the nuclear trigger. Perry responded to an audience question about close calls that came during his time as Secretary of Defense by saying that there had indeed been a few false alarms. One call in the middle of the night reported that a computer screen was showing 200 missiles headed in our direction. Fortunately, the general making the call was already doubting the computer, and Perry ultimately did not make the call to the White House narrowing the warning-time window. Nunn said progress is being made on extending the warning time, "But we need to go from minutes to hours to days..."
The cold warriors were guardedly optimistic about progress in reduction of nuclear weapons. Quoting former Secretary of Defense Robert Macnamara's assessment that 100 nuclear weapons are sufficient for deterrent and questioning why the U.S. needs to have thousands, Perry said, "We want to go down arm in arm with the Russians, and we have got to make sure other countries come down at the same time."
All of which still sounds a little like the game this whole global mess decidedly is not. "There must be," said Shultz, "interaction between the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons and the steps you have to take to achieve that vision."
A first step: public awareness and information. Audience members who asked how to take that first step were directed to the home address of the cold warriors at Nuclear Threat Initiative. NTI's logo proclaims its mission for building a safer world. One can hope.
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