Standing proud
The L.G.B.T. Community, local and national, appears to be pacified, co-opted and indifferent to the still hostile society around them. Transgender women being murdered at an alarming rate, “religious exemption” being misused to turn back the tide of history, and the few gains we have received from the present Democratic administration. They are no longer active, sitting quietly in their pleasant surroundings ignoring the wind and the coming storm at their backs.
My late partner, Bill Berkey, attempted to build a community where they could be empowered and be strengthened, and it was successful as long as we were autonomous, but the Lake County Democratic Central Committee decided to get involved. To those august members, it was only another club, they had little knowledge or commitment to the L.G.B.T community. And of course, some labeled me too strident in my approach, scaring them I suppose, although I prefer to call it passion, of which we need more of in the community, not less.
One day after the death of my beloved partner, the fate of the Stonewall Club was sealed. It was controlled, manipulated and misused by that group that had been given its charter.
But the “old Rainbow reporter” will not surrender or give up the struggle for equality and justice.
I remain passionate in my demand for visibility and the end to all forms of discrimination. I have had to struggle for every shred of decency and respect I have ever received, from being a poor little Okie boy to being jailed for holding another man’s hand. The silence of my L.G.B.T. Brothers and sisters does not extend to me, and I am forming another group, non-partisan and fully autonomous. If I must stand alone as I did after the Supreme Court’s decision of permitting same-sex marriage throughout the U.S., then I will stand proud and tall for those who still live in the shadows, and for those who do not want to be involved. One voice can be pretty loud when it’s committed and dedicated.
Harold Riley, Clearlake
Lake County Vintage 2026
It’s hard to believe now, but in 2016, just 10 years ago, California’s famous Lake County was struggling economically and known to the wider world, if known at all, for being rough around the edges. Clear Lake, now the crown jewel of the region, was in those days polluted by agricultural run-off and mining chemicals and plagued with masses of foul-smelling algae that drove would-be tourists away. The county had just been devastated by a series of historic wildfires.
It was at this low point that a bold initiative was proposed by a small band of visionary winegrape growers under the improbable leadership of self-described “bad-boy profiteer,” Mr. Z. They convinced the local wine industry organization to adopt a winning strategy for vaulting ahead of the competition in Napa Valley, which was then predominant but overdeveloped. They would convert 100 percent of Lake County’s vineyards into showcase models of organic agriculture and diversify their crops and income streams. Rather than supplying Napa labels with large quantities of anonymous grapes for blended vintages, they would focus on their own small batches of distinctive varietal vines, rapidly to become 100 percent organic. They coined the term “eco-ag tourism” and the rest is history.
Mr. Z, winner of the 2026 Right Livelihood Award, is more than modest about his role. “At the time it was just a shrewd business move,” he says. “I really didn’t see the light until we were way down the road. At one point I actually bragged about my mega-vineyards running little old ladies’ wells dry. Then I could buy them out on the cheap. I certainly didn’t think twice about pouring pesticides.”
To those who might doubt that the environmental leader came late to the fold, Mr. Z says, “Hell, back then I thought climate change was a hoax spread around by the solar industry. Sustainable was a word I loved because it could mean anything. To me it meant sustaining my own jet.”
Today, Mr. Z is president of Organic Lake County, an umbrella organization that represents the Organic Wine Tourism Bureau, Organic Farm Vacations, Eco-Ag Boat and Bicycle Tours, Detox and Cleanse Resorts and Spas, Lake Local and Organic Catering, Organic Lake Weddings, and many others. And, of course, Lake County’s reputation, now international, no longer centers on its being down and out, but on its unique organic wines, stunning scenery, pure spring water and exceptionally clean air.
Elizabeth Montgomery, Hidden Valley Lake
Troubled mind
I seriously believe a troubled mind (assuming the mind is the functioning of consciousness) can impart a tendency to make one ill. The brain, commandeering the bodily sensations, can give me and anyone else a stomachache. It is, in fact, common knowledge that the brain reacts physically to emotion. Fear can make the face blanch, and joy can give one the sensation of exuberant health, which exuberance invariably stimulates the organs of the body to their maximal function, in consequence of which any needed enhancement of health is at least impulsed and perhaps to a degree achieved.
I think none would question the foregoing, but the real problem is how to achieve the obvious prerequisite; i.e., how to make and keep oneself happy. Laughter guarantees a certain degree of happiness, and I have often utilized the books of humorist P.G. Wodehouse as confirmation of sufficient happiness to pass muster. Sometimes I maintain a certain sense of well-being by simply telling myself inaudibly, “Everything is going to be okay.” This does, rather surprisingly, keep me in a happy mood and if I have a pain or a persistent ailment I stress the thought that I’m “working,” with purposeful resolution and design, to be well, knowing my brain will engage its billions of neurons in my behest because it’s my brain, working in my head.
We have learned by technical tomography that this is what the brain, under these conditions, is indeed doing.
Dean Sparks, Lucerne
