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More things to do

Passing the 18 month anniversary of our move to Mexico, and fresh off the Camino which dominated the first 12 months of our time here, we are starting to branch out with other new activities. We were very careful that first year, based on the advice of local friends with great experience, to not over-commit our time, as some expats find themselves so over-scheduled their retirement lives are busier than their work ones were!

I applied for and was accepted into (shocking, I know) a local chapter of the Rotary. Chapala Sunrise Rotary is only a few years old, but is already the 3rd largest in its district. Our members are a mix of Rotary veterans and newcomers like me. This week we visited the small pueblo of Ojo de Agua, a 250 person Mexican community along Lake Chapala. Actually, the community is indigenous, comprising the Coca peoples who long predate the formation of the Mexican nation and have a storied, independent past.

Chapala Sunrise Rotary has built some water storage tanks, and is working with the people, local authorities, an NGO, and Mexican governments at various levels to improve the health of this community. I look forward to being a part of these efforts.

Locals preparing the daily catch from the lake

The site of the water tanks in a concrete structure built by the local government

This ditch takes sewage from the town to the lake

On a lighter side, Judy and I are considering how to take up tennis. We start with zero knowledge and experience, but we have two beautiful clay courts in our development at our disposal, and we want to try another sport where we can practice and play together. So once we figure out just how we are going to start this endeavor, you’ll hear more about our progress.

Finally, we’re going to take (dramatic pause)… dancing lessons. Judy actually knows how to dance, because she has some sense of rhythm. As for me, not so much. Actually, not at all. In fact, I may be the living definition of the phrase “absence of rhythm.” So progress here may be even slower, and I guarantee there will be no videos until I can handle the level of embarrassment!

That’s what we have new in store as we conclude year number two of expat life. That, and some travels around Mexico I will detail in future posts!

Everything You Know is Wrong (IV)

Today we descend into the morass that is individual rights. You can’t get far in today’s news without running into alleged right’s issues. NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem. Restaurateurs denying customers service based on politics. Neo-Nazis marching in the Capital. Talking heads often serve up these incidents as right’s issues; Face Book is full of smarmy posts claiming “rights” and directing those who disagree to get over it and shut up. Here is a dose of reality.

The rights in question are those in the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the US Constitution. These rights limit the ability of the federal government to do things (“make a law respecting an establishment of religion”, for instance). Most of them deal with the rights of the accused (Forth through Eighth Amendments), while the Ninth is a catch-all stating there are more rights than those listed, and the Tenth indicates those powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved by the States and the people. An interesting point: these rights have nothing to do with citizenship. They are negative, in that they tell the government what NOT to do, or the amendments refer to persons, not citizens. Thus the Supreme Court has held that anybody on the territory of the United States has such rights (including terrorists, Nazis, and those here illegally)! The Fourteenth Amendment directed that the existing rights may be incorporated to the States, meaning (on a case-by-case basis) state governments (and local ones too) have the same limits when it comes to individual rights. So the federal (or state, or local) government cannot deny neo-Nazis a permit to march (“peaceably assemble” according to the First Amendment) despite the fact they are neo-Nazis. The government can regulate how and when, and place certain restrictions (e.g., no baseball bats), but that is all.

So the first question you have to ask is “is a government trying to deny someone something?” If the answer is no, then there generally is no right’s issue, right? Not so fast, my friends. The 1964 Federal Civil Rights Act articulated rights protecting individuals from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. These protected classes of people cannot be discriminated against not just by government, but also by those offering public accommodation (bars, restaurants, taxis, etc). So now you have to look at whether the individual claiming a right’s issue is a member of a protected class, and was singled out on that basis, and was there a public accommodation. Thus it is okay to have a dress code requiring men to wear a tie in your establishment, as long as ALL men have to wear a tie (not just Asians, for example). Can you throw someone out of your restaurant because they are working for the White House? Yes, since political party is not a protected class. If you throw out only women from a certain political party, now you’ve done it, you have (arguably) violated their civil rights (sex is a protected class).

What about NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem? There is a Supreme Court case holding that the government cannot make persons participate in patriotic rituals (such as the Pledge of Allegiance), but that only applies to the government. Contrary to a certain President’s tweets, there is no government activity here. No one is coming to arrest the players, and they are free to kneel. Likewise, their managers or owners may decide to take action against them for doing so. Player contracts contain all kinds of behavior and teamwork clauses which let managers/owners fire them for all kinds of off-the-field issues. If the owners only disciplined African-American players, that might constitute a civil rights violation. As it stands now, there is no rights’ issue here. Want to make this issue really hard? What if you went to a game with a sideline pass, and you decided to join in by kneeling during the Anthem? You are a customer, not a player, but your ticket has terms and conditions which might enable the owner to throw you out for misbehavior. I doubt they would ever do this, as it would be needlessly antagonizing their own fans. Just showing how complicated this can be!

Finally, people with disabilities have similar protections, and during the Obama administration, the federal government argued that the protections afforded to sex also extend to sexual orientation and gender, although this contention was never determined in court and has been abandoned by the current administration. Not to mention, states cannot reduce or constrain individual rights, but they are free to add to them, so in some cases actions which are permissible under federal law are deemed illegal discrimination under state law. Clear as mud?

Let’s review. If you come to my house for a party and crack a Notre Dame football joke, I can order you out, and if you do not comply, I can call the police and have you arrested (for the sake of this example, pretend I am in the United States, as we would all have a good laugh at the idea of calling the Mexican police under such circumstances). My house is not a public accommodation, and your freedom of speech goes just as far within my walls as I say it does. Move my party to a public venue as a ticketed event, and I may still be able to throw you out for the joke, but I better not do so only to people of color, or women, or Hispanics, or Methodists, or Canadians. Or especially dark-skinned, Hispanic, Methodist women from Canada. Change this event to an official recognition ceremony at the White House honoring Notre Dame’s next football national championship (I know, I know, I should live so long), and I (or really the White House) cannot even prohibit you from wearing a “Notre LAME” sweatshirt to the event.

Your rights are inalienable, to borrow Thomas Jefferson’s original phrase. They come from “your Creator” according to the Declaration of Independence, they pre-date all government, and all legitimate government must abide by them. Many of the right’s issue today are really civility issues, as people try to get noticed, send a message, or stake out a position. That does not make those messages or positions invalid, but it also doesn’t make them right’s issues.

Just Another Day

Got up this morning and whipped up some bacon and fresh eggs for breakfast. I was in no rush, so I used the leftover bacon grease in the frying pan to brown up some diced onions and toast some bread, because you can’t let bacon grease go to waste: it’s just the liquid essence of bacon deliciousness.

The dog was running out of his custom, expensive dog food ($2000 MXP per 16 kg bag); he offered to share my meal, but instead I made a run into town and picked up another bag of his food at the local veterinary office.

Traffic was bad on the carretera (main street) in Ajijic. It probably took me ten minutes to get across town.

Headed north on the main road from Chapala to Guadalajara. As an expat at lakeside, you’ll undoubtedly travel this route all the time. It is one of the two main ways to get to “Guad,” and it passes by Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla international airport (or GDL). Visitors arriving, family returning, traveling most anywhere other than within Mexico usually starts with a visit to GDL. There is really only one road to use to get there, and it is poorly maintained south of the airport, as the Tapatios (Guadalajarans) coming south only need to go so far.

Sometimes the ejidos, local indigenous peoples, protest at the airport. They contend the Mexican government took some of their land (for airport expansion) and did not pay the agreed price, so the ejidos blockade the airport. Sometimes they stop all cars from approaching the terminal area , making you walk (which is bad), and sometimes they take control of the parking garage and make it gratis for the day (which is good). The ejidos did protest today, so free parking for everybody!

Ejidos occupying the parking booth, with their lawn chairs. They wave you through, and the toll takers just stand there.

Picked up my lovely wife from the airport and had an uneventful thirty minute drive home. We did also pick up a quart of milk (for me) and a bag of chicharrónes (for the dog) at the local super, La Huerta.

That’s my sweetheart, learning you can’t take the cart out of the arrival zone.

By now you’re wondering what the point of all this is. This past year, Mexico set a record for violent homicides with over 30,000 murders, and this year is on pace to exceed that number. If you want to hear about the latest violence in Mexico, almost any NOB news source will regularly feed it to you, and there are websites which specialize in it. The stories are sensational, as the drug cartels which promulgate almost all the violence are purposefully theatrical (i.e., sending a message).

These numbers are real, but like any numbers they tell only part of the story. One would think life in Mexico is like life, say, in Syria or Afghanistan, with constant gun fights and bodies strewn all over. But it is not. You’ll note in my coverage of this day’s events, there were no gun shots, no headless corpses, nothing out of the ordinary. Yet I traveled through a “plaza” (the nickname for a drug territory) which is actively being contested by two of the most violent Mexican cartels. Hmmmm.

I once lived and worked in the Washington, DC area. At times, my office was on a military post in South East DC, the poorest and most crime-ridden part of town. Inside the gates, things were serene, but outside was another story. I drove in and out of those gates at all different times of day, going to many different locations. Even when DC was briefly the “murder Capital of the US,” I didn’t really fear driving through it. Why? I knew that most of the violence was drug-fueled, or opportunistic, happening at the wee hours of the morning outside bars and pool halls or clubs. I didn’t do drugs, didn’t hang out at clubs in the middle of the night, didn’t flash a wad of cash at the 7-11 or the gas station. Sometimes bad things did happen to someone just in the wrong place at the wrong time, but like being hit by lightning, the odds were pretty much in your favor.

The same holds true for Mexico. If you don’t do drugs, flash cash, or get drunk and hang out super late, the odds are pretty much in your favor.

Last year, Mexico set a record for visit by tourists (almost 40 million, mostly Americans), and those numbers are up again this year. There are more American expats in Mexico than in any other country. Those are real numbers too. They all have stories to tell. Unlike the stories on the news, these stories are boring, like the one about my trip to the airport. But they are just as real. And they don’t make it to the news.

Being on your own

The past twenty days or so, I have been a geographic bachelor as my wife went to the States to attend to my daughter. I stayed home to take care of the dog, who like me, is getting a little older and crazier, and needs to be watched. Now back in the day, the Army or my other work sent me places where I was away from home for extended periods of time, but that was business travel, which is an entirely different ballgame. You go somewhere exotic for some specific reason, you have some specific mission, you complete it and you go home. All your away time is spent doing what they sent you for so you can go home.

This was something entirely different. I was home, in familiar settings, but by myself. Except for my dog, who is not much of a conversationalist. He basically asks “can we go out now?” or “is any of that food for me?” or yells “OMG, there is a truck outside stealing our trash DO SOMETHING!” Other than that, he just lays there and asks “where’s Mom?” Over and over and over again.

After graduating from West Point, I got married five days later, so I had very limited bachelor time. This was a learning experience for me. Here is what I learned:

Cooking for one is a PITA. Contrary to popular opinion, I can cook, but I don’t like to cook. I so don’t like to cook that I don’t even like to grill, which I know is a big man-card issue. To me, its just cooking outdoors, so WTH? My lovely wife likes to cook, and likes to eat healthy, so my normal routine consists of (a) becoming hungry, (b) asking when breakfast/lunch/dinner is, (c) eating, and (d) cleaning up. When you are alone, by the time I get hungry, I think, “I need to defrost something” which leads nowhere fast or somewhere quick and not very good. I prepare double portions with the hope I’ll be willing to reheat/eat left-overs, which I then fail to do. Oh, and there’s still that clean up thing, too.
Do not get sick, under any circumstances! If you get sick, make sure your friends rescue you, or you will die. This may sound drastic, but bear with me. I got stomach flu. You get so weak you can’t go out to the doctor. Also, I didn’t want to go to the doctor and get sent to the hospital, because what do I do with the dog? Luckily I have friends who brought food, drinks, and would have done more if I asked. But the bottom line is, when you are alone, the margin of error gets pretty close to zero.
Have a fire-proof house. This requires some explanation. I have told my wife on more than one occasion that we don’t need to worry about fire, because our casa is brick and mortar and there is nothing to burn. I went one step further this past week by testing that hypothesis. As I was recovering from the flu, I decided to make a pot of tea (lapsong souchong, in case you were wondering) to ease my symptoms. At around 8:00 pm I put some water in a pot on our gas stove to boil, and went back to my computer screen. Around 10:00 pm I took the dog out for a final walk, then went back and went to bed. After a fitful night, I awoke at 7:00 am and went to take the dog out again. When I came back to the kitchen, I hit a wave of hot air: what the? There was the pot, still on the flame eleven hours later! The water was (of course) all gone, the pot was oh-so-hot, but otherwise, nothing was wrong. I did use about 10% of the gas in my propane tank, but given the possibilities, that was a loss I was happy to accept. The real lesson is not fire-proofing as much as it is when you’re alone, there is no one to double check you for stupidity. In this case my guardian angel was working overtime.
I have a wonderful wife; this I already knew. There is nothing like an enforced absence to crystallize the concept. I know I am spoiled, that I made one really good decision in life and have been benefiting from it ever since. I did not suspect that she was also my muse, as I have found it hard to think of things to write about while she was absent. I think this verse says it all:

The Lord God said “It is not good for the man to be alone.”

The man said, “at last, this one is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.”

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife…

— Genesis 2:18, 23-24.

Unwanted visitors

Visitors are always welcome down here in Mexico. Well, almost always. I’ve had two unwelcome visitors this past week. They are not pretty stories, but they are part of expat life, so here goes.

The first visitor was–apparently–la gripe (“gree-pay”), or as you know it NOB, the stomach flu. Last Friday afternoon I went to my club for a nice tuna filet with a sashimi appetizer, as my wife and I have done for almost eighteen months now. It was delicious, but later in the afternoon my stomach started making “possession” noises. Oh, bad sushi, I thought, and prepared for the worst just before it hit. Then when I stumbled back to bed, I noticed I was shivering! Sure enough, I also had a low grade fever and chills. So probably not food poisoning, but rather something viral: la gripe.

The next two days were solid misery, as I only left the horizontal position to go to the bathroom, or take the dog out. My dog was as useless as you might think; he just stared at me and said things like “you’re not going to lay on the couch all day again, are you?” Maybe I imagined that. But I bet that was what he was thinking. Anyway, the fevers (and hallucinations?) broke Sunday morning, and I got the other symptoms under control by Sunday night. Monday I felt very weak, but not sick. By Tuesday I felt well enough to go to Spanish class.

Yes, of course, I rushed my recovery and now am slowing down again to let nature take its course. How I got sick remains a mystery, and I have not been to the doctor, so other possibilities (mosquito-borne illnesses) are in play. What this has to do with being an expat are all the offers of assistance I received from friends. I did finally accept Basil & Ernie’s offer to pick up meds and electrolytes, which saved me a trip out I really could not have accomplished. But I had offers of food and help from Lorraine and Barbara and John & Catherine and many more. Once again, that sense of community comes to the fore when you need it most. Gracias, mis amigos!

The second visitor was brief but equally annoying. After Spanish class on Tuesday, I stopped by Lorraine’s casa (she of the great Italian cooking) to pick up some prepared meals I had previously ordered. I pulled my car over directly in front of her front gate, got out, opened the door and walked no more than ten feet in…I could still see the back end of my car through the gate. Lorraine and I caught up for about five minutes, then I departed, put the food in the cooler in the back, and started driving home. I noticed I could hear road sounds, like the window was open, but it wasn’t. I looked at the dash instrument, and it indicated the passenger door was ajar.

Since I was at a stop light, I leaned over and pushed it as if to open it, and it barely budged: it was partially, not fully closed. So I tugged on it, the door engaged, and the instrument light went off. The light turned green, and I started to drive. Then it hit me: I am home alone, and no one has used my passenger door since my wife left for a stateside visit last week. ¡AY!

I glanced at the passenger seat where my smartphone used to be. Nope, not there. I pulled over and searched the car. Nothing. I drove back to the Spanish school, where I know I had it out on the desk and put in in silent mode: not there. I returned to Lorraine’s and it wasn’t lying in the street. She even asked the neighbors if they saw anything, since she lives in a close-knit community and they were as upset as I was that someone had probably stolen it: nada. Someone may have followed me, waiting to see where I stopped and if I locked the car. Someone may have just walked by and seen the phone sitting there, heard our voices and could tell we could not see them. Either way, someone gently opened the door, took the phone then pushed it (quietly) closed, though not all the way. Either way, it’s all on me for not locking the car!

Thus began my afternoon of customer service with T-Mobile. Since we have US cell plans, the process was challenging. It went well at first: I got on the T-Mobile web site and opened a chat window which promised immediate access to a service rep…which turned out to be a computer program pretending to be named Emele! You could tell by the stilted syntax and odd questions (“Anything else you would like to bring up while I am accessing your records?”). That said, the computer “agent” had pretty good artificial intelligence and was able to assure me that my line was deactivated and no other lines were affected. She could not handle my simple request for how do I go about replacing my phone, asking whether I wanted to upgrade that phone (ummm, its stolen) or do I have insurance (well you would know better than I, wouldn’t you?). Suddenly the chat window closed and I was back in the dark. Emele had had enough!

I video-chatted with Judy and asked her to handle the issue from the States, since I was going to have the new phone sent to her anyway. But apparently I am the primary account holder and never gave her more than something called “standard access” which means only I can deal with T-Mobile. Lucky me! I went on the T-Mobile website and changed her access from standard to “full” but that didn’t help. I think Emele was still angry at me. So Judy found some more customer service numbers, and after many voice prompts and shouts of “HELP” the system recognized that I needed to talk to a real person, and one arrived on the scene.

Once real humans got involved, it all went quickly and smoothly, and we even ironed out the account holder issues. It did involve a comical situation, as I talked on a Mexican landline phone to the service rep in the States, who sent texts to Judy in the States, who confirmed the texts and read back the pass codes to me and the service rep via a video chat I started with Judy on my tablet. In the end, the details all worked out and I will soon get a new phone. The Good Lord provides…even cell phones!

As to the thief, well, I hope they get some value out of the phone (even though it was pretty old), probably at the local pawn shop, as my friend John King reminded me. Petty theft is a fact of life where poverty and (relative) wealth co-exist, and the only inarguable point in all this is always, always (did I say always), ALWAYS lock your car.

A supportive community always ready to help, and someone with sticky fingers. No different than many places, but also parts of expat life in Mexico.

Street Art

After having been here almost 18 months, and now returning after an extended absence, I’m taking a second look around for things I might have noticed the first time and passed off, or simply missed altogether. Today let’s talk street art.

Mexico is known for vibrant colors, so one quickly gets used to bright orange tiles or electric purple walls. In addition to that, local government and business joins in, sponsoring or advertising public art which is rather outstanding in my opinion. Let’s take a look!

This work of art is directly across from the entrance of the church and just one block off the main square. The individual skulls are decorated in honor of the names of deceased loved-ones, in accord with Mexico’s long-running Katrina fascination (more about that back here). This piece was completed by Efren Gonzales, probably our most esteemed local artist.

Trying to sell beer? Put the bottles out front on a desert scene with cactus and agave plants! The mural even has a street lamp, but notice the real street light pole on the left is also partially painted!

Here floral designs draw your attention to the windows where clothes are the main attraction. Yes, nearly every window had bars on it, but the elaborate bars can become a form of artistic expression of their own.

This is a main cross street in the village. Notice the clever use of strong color and the multiple flags and languages. Even the planter out front (to prevent parking) has developed a little painting.

We just finished an election season. Why use small yard signs when you can paint the entire side of your building to show your support? I haven’t seen any of these signs defaced, either. This particular sign was for a candidate who lost; I wonder how long it will stay up?

Even the public restrooms are a blank canvas just waiting to be discovered.

The skate park has gone “goth” in its latest painting. It gets re-done several times a year.

Here is the wall to the panteon, or cemetary, which has a katrina and a whimsical cut-away view of the inside. In a similar vein, the following painting on the exterior wall of a business uses the same “exposed brick” approach.

Even homeowners get into the act. This last painting celebrates neighborhood characters and fiestas.

I have seen such public art before NOB, but usually in larger cities. Ajijic may have more than its share as it is an artsy town, but murals and public art exist even in the smallest pueblos.

AMLO: A primer

By now you have no doubt heard about Andrés Manuel López Obrador, popularly known as AMLO (“ahm-low”) the President-elect of Mexico who will take office on December 1st. He is an interesting character, and worth getting to know better, as he portends major changes in Mexico.

AMLO came from a middle class Mexican background. Like any politician in Mexico, he began as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled the country as a single party state for most of the 20th century. In 1988 he left the PRI for a left-wing splinter party which became the PRD, and it was as a PRD candidate he rose to national prominence as the ‘mayor’ of the federal district, Mexico City. He won in the 2000 wave election that turned out the PRI for the first time. Then called the Distrito Federal or DF, the Mexico City region (now CDMX) is the largest metropolitan area in the Western Hemisphere and dominates Mexican politics. For comparison, Mexico City has 21 million inhabitants; Guadalajara is the second city with about 4 million. While AMLO espoused many socialist programs, he governed as a pragmatic leader. He was budget conscious, increased social spending for the most vulnerable, partnered with business leaders to renovate major areas of the city, and reduced crime.

Coming off a successful audition in Mexico City and a 70% approval rate, AMLO ran for the federal presidency in 2006 as a coalition PRD candidate; he received about 35% of the vote but lost by one-half of one percent to the PAN candidate, in an election many thought was manipulated to defeat him. He subsequently protested the result, and lost much of his popularity for appearing to be a sore loser.

AMLO ran again in the 2012 Presidential election and finished second, as Enrique Peña Nieto brought the PRI back to power. Sensing that party politics was part of the problem, AMLO split from the PRD and formed MORENA, a non-party Movement for National Regeneration. MORENA swept to power on a populist wave in the recently completed 2018 election, leaving all other parties in tatters.

López Obrador moderated some of his earlier positions, supporting NAFTA, allowing for some de-nationalization of the oil monopoly (PEMEX), while continuing to argue for higher minimum wages, increased social spending, an end to the war on drugs, and an end to endemic corruption. He remains a fiery orator, easily offended, and enjoys staking out maximalist positions without explaining how he will implement them. For instance, he suggests that corruption will end based on his personal example as a man of modest means (he will not live in the presidential palace, flies commercial, and declined police protection as a candidate).

Many have speculated on how the populist leaders north and south of the Río Grande will get along. President Trump has used Mexico and Mexicans as a handy foil to blame. Surprisingly, his attacks made little difference down here, and the historic election results were mainly due to popular discontent over drug violence, political corruption, and the main parties inability to do anything about either. Presidente López Obrador will have his hands full with his mandates on corruption and violence. There is actually much the two leaders can agree on, if they can look past the need to play to nationalist memes (easier south of the border than north).

There will be tough language and occasional flare-ups, for sure. However, there are important areas where the two Presidents’ interests coincide. Presidente López Obrador wants a stronger Mexican economy that keeps Mexicans home, which would be good news to President Trump, who also argued that Mexican auto workers get paid too little, which fits neatly with Presidente López Obrador’s support for higher domestic wages. Both men want stronger national economies and may be more willing to cut a bilateral trade deal as a result. If they can rise above “the wall” rhetoric, US approval for a guest worker program might be a good quid pro quo for better Mexican control of its southern border.

The last time US- Mexican relations seemed headed for a major positive change was when President George W. Bush (former Texas Governor) teamed up with newly elected Presidente Vincente Fox (conservative PAN party leader and former Governor of Guanajuato). That progress was sidetracked within a year by the terrorist attack of September 11th, 2001.

Perhaps the time is ripe now: stranger things have happened!

The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker

While we were on pilgrimage, the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) held forth its opinion in the case of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (CCRC), popularly known as the “anti-gay bakery case.” I would like to revisit it now, because the popular views of the court’s ruling (both for and against) were so misinformed as to be unintelligible, and to consider what this case portends with respect to the ongoing crisis of incivility.

First, to the facts of the case. It is important to understand that what I write in this paragraph is not an opinion of mine or anyone else. The facts of this case were never in dispute: neither the plaintiff nor the defendant disagreed about them. Those facts were: Mr. Phillips was a Colorado baker who makes both normal, daily bakery items and custom-ordered designs. Mssrs. Craig and Mullins were a homosexual couple living in Colorado and planning to get married in Massachusetts, and they went to Phillips’ Masterpiece Cakeshop to order a custom cake to celebrate their impending nuptials. Phillips refused to create such a cake, due to his religious beliefs that marriage was only between a man and a woman. Phillips admitted he had no religious obligation to refuse them normal service, and offered any off-the-shelf product to his customers. Mssrs. Craig and Mullins filed a civil complaint before the CCRC contending that Phillips violated Colorado’s law against discrimination. The CCRC held Phillips in violation of the statute and fined him.

SCOTUS held for Phillips, the plaintiff, voiding the penalties applied to him by the CCRC under Colorado law. Conservatives of various stripes hailed this as a victory for personal religious liberty; progressives cited it as a legitimization of hate. Most news coverage highlighted these viewpoints, even though both views were wrong. Let me explain.

The plaintiff’s case relied heavily upon freedom of speech, and only secondarily on freedom of religion. Phillips’ argument was that making a custom cake was artistic expression (already held to be freedom of speech by SCOTUS), and he could not be compelled to express a belief (gay marriage) he did not hold simply because his services were for sale. While all the opinions discussed this issue, it was not the basis of the decision. Writing for the 7-2 majority (an important point, that), Justice Kennedy never resolved the discrimination vs. religious liberty issue, although he did concede that freedom of speech was at risk. What he focused on was the CCRC ruling, or more specifically, what the CCRC did and said in making that ruling. This is where it gets very interesting.

Citing the transcripts of the CCRC hearings, Kennedy found that the commission–which is responsible for protecting against all unjust discrimination, including anti-religious discrimination–had in fact engaged in anti-religious hostility. Commissioners “endorsed the view that religious beliefs cannot legitimately be carried into the public sphere or commercial domain, implying that religious beliefs and persons are less than fully welcome in Colorado’s business community.” One commissioner “even went so far as to compare Phillips’ invocation of his sincerely held religious beliefs to defenses of slavery and the Holocaust.”

I mentioned the outcome was 7-2. Unlike some of the controversial 5-4 SCOTUS decisions recently announced, Masterpiece Cake shop’s majority included Justice Kennedy (who established Gay rights in his former majority opinions) along with Justices Breyer and Kagan! The last two published a concurring opinion which emphasized that it would be ok for a state to punish the baker’s refusal, but in this case the state had engaged in religious hostility. Thus this aspect was not narrow, and the outcome even more striking.

Contra much public reporting, this case neither established a religious exemption for behavior nor legalized hate. What it did do was more important, in my opinion. SCOTUS held that suggesting religious believers, even individual ones, cannot express and act on their views in public is a form of anti-religious bigotry. Further, suggesting “religious people” are inherently no different than Nazis or slave holders is inappropriate. One can hear these arguments made regularly on social media. It is heartening to know that in the United States, such views are beyond the pale, and subject to civil sanction.

Civility demands we not question each other’s motives. Everyone is free to bring ideas forward for consideration, and those ideas will fail or succeed based on the merit in them. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., hoped for a nation where one was not judged by the color of one’s skin, but on the content of one’s character. It goes without saying our ideas should not be judged by the religion (or irreligion) of whoever proposes them, but by the quality the ideas possess.

Signs, Signs, Everywhere There’s Signs

If you are of a certain age, you knew this video was coming:

Over the past year, as we walked along, we could not help but notice some strange signs. Here they are:

What is so interesting about a taxi sign, you ask? These are from the Camino Santiago in northern Spain. Look closely at each photo. Anything incongruous? One is on a gravel trail, the other beside a dirt road. In the middle of nowhere. Think Europeans have lost the entrepreneurial spirit? Think again. These signs hit you at the end of a long hike with little promising in front of you. They were like an oasis in the desert. Pretty effective advertising!

This one caught my eye hiking along the road to Chapala. Nothing special about it. It is just a private recycling center. I liked it because of the clever slogan: “Nadie pesa, ni paga comos nosotros.” “No one weighs, nor pays, like us!” It was one the first adverts I saw and understood in Spanish.

The next one requires some explanation. It is outside a nice compound wall near La Floresta, a fine residential community in Ajijic. The compound is large, with a palm tree-lined driveway and a nice gate, and the property is lakefront. It is, in a phrase, prime real estate. Here is the sign:

For those not familiar with Spanish, here’s a rough translation: We inform you that this land is not for rent or sale, neither in toto nor in part; avoid being surprised with the use of documents approved by unscrupulous people. Seems some folks have tried to market this property (more than once) without the owner’s permission. So this lovely sign now adorns it!

Here’s the welcome sign for Jocotepec:

Pretty grand, no? You would think it was a Mexican State. It’s just the next town down the street, population about 40,000. Very proud, though!

When you visit, someone will direct you to Donna’s Donuts, a local hang-out for fresh-baked treats. This is their sign:

The interesting thing about Donna’s Donuts is that there is no Donna. Its Donas, or doughnuts in español. Many signs here are bilingual. But it is funny that this one in particular causes so much confusion.

Finally, there’s this gem:

Just a little street sign. I noticed when I used to look at Google maps for Mexico, I saw the street name Vecinos Alerta show up in several places. I wondered about that. Then I moved here. And I learned some Spanish. Vecinos Alerta is just Neighborhood Watch. Seems when Google drives their mapping program car around towns, it takes pictures of road signs to match to the street. Some of their cars see these signs and think it’s the street name. So no, every other street is not named for Vecinos Alerta!

EU rules!

Here’s an update on something I think most Americans, Canadians, and Mexicans may not realize: your passenger rights when flying into, among, or out of the Europe, specifically the countries of the European Union. It (literally) pays to know about this!

During our extended European trip, we encountered two flight delay/cancellation situations. Both resulted in my applying for compensation from the airlines involved, in addition to being re-booked and given some immediate support for meals.

First, we were flying SAS from Stockholm to Vilnius, Lithuania. This is an offbeat route; on most days, only SAS flies it, and they have two flights a day: one in the morning, one in the afternoon. Seasoned travelers will immediately know where this is going. Since we arrived in Stockholm on a red-eye flight from LAX, we stayed overnight in the airport to board the morning SAS flight. We arrived at the gate and waited. No plane showed up. No crew showed up. More passengers began to fill the gate area. Boarding time came and went. Finally a gate check agent arrived and announced the plane was cancelled due to “crew illness” and we were all being re-booked on the afternoon flight. They gave everyone script which was good for a lunch in the airport, and printed out new boarding passes.

An amazing coincidence: there was just enough room for everyone to fit on the second SAS flight! Back when I was a frequent business traveler in the States, I knew some airlines would avoid flying two half-filled planes by cancelling one flight and re-booking everyone on the second flight. There was little penalty for doing so, and great cost-savings. I am not suggesting this is what happened here, but the important thing is, whatever did happen, it happened in the EU, not in the States. The EU passenger rights provisions applied.

When we got home, I pulled up the SAS website and filled out a simple form, which just required the basic facts of the incident. Within a day, I received a response from SAS customer service indicating yes, the delay was longer than allowed, there were no extenuating circumstances, and based on the flight distance I was entitled to 250 Euros per person in compensation. Note, they already gave us coupons for a meal at the airport, and they re-booked us at no cost. This compensation was over-and-above all that.

The second incident was during our return. We flew Norwegian Air from Madrid to London/Gatwick, connecting there for a flight back to LAX. The flight from Gatwick was scrubbed at the last minute (we were on the runway cleared for take-off when the captain pulled us back off) due to equipment malfunction. The plane was a full 787 Dreamliner, and apparently Norwegian had another flight cancellation at the same time, so this was a customer service nightmare which I already recounted here.

Again, I went to the Norwegian Air website and completed a form. I had re-booked myself and Judy, since waiting for the customer service line was a non-starter. Because I had numerous receipts with this claim (over 500 UK pounds in hotels, meals, and transportation, and my repurchased airline tickets), I had to attach a picture of my original receipts. I also requested 600 Euros each as compensation (the amount allotted for cancelled flights of over 3500 kilometers), and noted in the comments section that equipment failure is not an unforeseeable circumstance, per several European court rulings (thanks, Google!).

I have already received the compensation from SAS. Norwegian has acknowledged my claim, but I am still waiting on their response; I will update this post when I receive it.

So remember, when flying to/from/among the EU, you may have EU passenger rights going for you. Which is nice!