FORKS AND KNIVES… Obama is not the only one who needs to “recalibrate” his words these days. Marina City Councilman Jim Ford let a slur against Mayor Bruce Delgado slip out at the July 28 council meeting. “If I were a Native American, I’d say you speak with forked tongue,” Ford told Delgado, taking issue with the mayor’s proposal to give Cypress Knolls land to the high school. A Marina tipster immediately jumped on Ford’s statement: “Mayor Delgado does not deserve to be the butt of Councilmember Ford’s ethnic-based insult, amateurishly patterned after an ethnically-stereotyped phrase like ‘forked tongue,’ right out of a 1950’s Lone Ranger TV episode. What’s next? Will Councilmember Ford do a Tonto-Kemosabe dialogue for us at the next Council meeting?” he wrote. Marina Coast Water District Board President Howard Gustafson apparently wishes Ford was more direct. In an e-mail passed on to Squid, Gustafson wrote:

“Bruce Delgado is a liar – does that sound better… I don’t trust the ambulance chaser, myself, but that’s just me.” This comment inspired April Phulz, who claims to be a rifle-holding Republican, to tell Gustafson: “It’s so refreshing to see an elected public official like yourself speak with such candor, as opposed to the usual sneaky, slimy, milquetoast diplomatic-speak that most gutless public officials use,” Phulz wrote. Squid assumed Ms. Phulz was mocking Gustafson, but she wrote back: “I didn’t mean it to be funny! I think Howard’s cute! I’m gonna meet him and maybe get to go out targit shootin’ with him.” Squid thinks all the players and characters should sit down for a beer summit at English Ales – or better yet, a peace pipe circle in Ford’s tepee.

STEP INTO THE LIGHT… Apparently snarky shtick doesn’t work for everyone. “I’m a Pagrovian with a different take on the FOL [Feast of Lanterns],” e-mails Susie Joyce. “Friends have asked me to forward this poem that I wrote for the closing ceremony at Jewell Park… my intention to address the issue in a healing way (not your shtick, I know), proved effective. After reading the poem, several people thanked me for a new perspective, including an Asian family.”

Here are excerpts from Joyce’s poem, Paper Lanterns. Shine on.

Isn’t it sweet/ To live in this town/ Where paper lanterns brighten/ White wickered porches/Breaking the melancholy spell/ Of mid-summer fog?… In a darker time/ When fear of the unknown prevailed/ We were not so enlightened./ We did not welcome the people/ Who fished for squid at night/ By lantern light… But, we have grown in the years/ That have transpired. We are/ No longer defined by racism and intolerance… In this town/ We come together on this occasion/ To celebrate tradition/ and diversity./ Let your lanterns shine.