Resolutions of the 2001 Annual Meeting: Santa Barbara, California

Abstract

RESOLUTIONS OF THE 2001 ANNUAL MEETING SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA Introduction I s u s p e c t I h a v e b e e n a s k e d to deliver the humorous Resolutions part of the banquet because I come from so far away. If you come look­ ing for me, you'd better have a big parka. Because of the terrible tragedies of September 11, our hosts have had to make major changes in the program and arrangements almost on an hourly basis. They certainly deserve our gratitude for their efforts. Rather than begin with the funny things that have happened, permit me instead to start on a serious note. Please look at the one dollar bill and remember our American heritage of over two hundred years. There you will see the Great Seal of the United States of America with the symbol of our nation, the eagle. Note that his head is looking toward his right claw, in which he clasps the olive branch of peace. This symbolizes the words of Abraham Lincoln during a much greater crisis: "With charity to­ wards all and malice towards none." Let us not forget that now, as the eagle's head is turning toward his left claw containing the ter­ rible arrows of war. Right here in California that motto was forgotten in December 1941, to our great loss. Please carry these words home with you and share them with all: With charity towards all and malice towards none. Our Sense of Place We thought we had been invited to the Riviera of some place, probably south of Vandenburg AFB. At least the highway parallel­ ing the coast says "south," but I just watched the sunset, and actually the coast runs west-east. We thought we were invited to Santa Bar­ bara, but wound up near a place call Goleta. We thought we were at a university, but there are no students. Instead we enter this peninsula through a guard protecting a nar­ row neck of land, and the buildings have overhangs for the deflection of bombs. There are walls and gun pits everywhere, and the layout is designed to confuse an invader. In the middle there is a high watch177 178 APCG YEARBOOK • Volume 64 • 2002 tower, to look for enemies in all directions, and a large water-storage basin. There is also a training area for soldiers, including an arena for chariot races. This is a fortress, one Caesar would easily understand, which maybe is why the arena is named Cesar. We were carefully instructed that the key problem here is water, which is in short supply because so much of it is used to water lawns and special plants. As the water washes off the lawns, it so pollutes the beaches that you cannot swim. That actually is not a handicap, because the beach is a dangerous place for tourists anyway who are under assault by bicycles, roller blades, and even motorized scoot­ ers racing all over the place. We were taken to the places where the water comes from. To get there, you have to go through the favorite and protected official Santa Barbara plant: poison oak. The water has a most delightful aroma— hydrogen sulfide. This is why retired people here have no problem with "regularity." The hills we learned must periodically be burned off, which is only "natural," and that is why houses are all over the hills and are reached by narrow and twisting roads, which would prevent fire fighters from going anywhere. But these are good fires. Of course, when the heavy rains come after the fires, there are mudflows and floods all over this plain. Moreover, this whole area is cut by trans­ verse faults, so that it is a wonderful "Shake, Rattle, and Roll" place made more exciting by the fact that the whole region is being up­ lifted. Of course, there have been only four or five tsunamis, which help clean out the beaches. Now out in the harbor are oil derricks, which have punched holes at the top of an anticline. In Geology 01 we learned that oil wells should be dug along the sides...