BARBWIRE
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ANDREW BARBANO
Pirate Laureate of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream


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Je Suis Charlie
"Our republic and its press will rise or fall together." — Joseph Pulitzer

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"Media is the plural of mediocre."
— Jimmy Breslin (1928-2017)

Happy High Holly Days to all
Merry
Christmas/Kwanzaa/Solstice/Festivus/
Chanukah

Hope you and yours enjoyed enthralling Thanksgibleting.
HAPPY NEW YEAR / Feliz Año Nuevo

Frohe Weihnachten und beste Wuensche fuer 2018

¡Viva Chávez!
César Chávez Celebration XVI / Celebración de César Chávez XVI
Saturday 31 March 2018
/ Sabado 31 de Marzo 2018

Highlights from the record-breaking 2017 event at Circus Circus Reno

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   Everybody knows the dice are loaded.
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed.
   Everybody knows the war is over.
Everybody knows the good guys lost.
   Everybody knows the fight was fixed.
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich.
   That's how it goes.
Everybody knows...
Everybody knows the scene is dead
   But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
   What everybody knows...
   Everybody talking to their pockets.
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
   and a long red rose.
   Everybody knows. Everybody knows.
That's how it goes.
Everybody knows.


I hope you understand I just had to go back to the island.
Leon Russell, 1942-2016


Darryl K. Feemster 1962-2017
A sojourn into the life of a fallen Nevada giant
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-29-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 11-30-2017 / Expansions in blue

Reach out your hand
If your cup is empty
If your cup is full, may it be again
Let it be known
There is a fountain
That was not made
By the hands of men

— Robert Hunter & Jerry Garcia*


Greatest Hits Dept.

WE WON: BIG NEWS FROM THE NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION CONFAB IN GOMORRAH SOUTH —> BARBWIRE NOMINEE GUY RICHARDSON INDUCTED INTO HALL OF FAME ON FIRST BALLOT

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We Don't Need No Education
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We Don't Need No Education—> Neverending Barbwire Series

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The program premiers were available to every television set in the region because of a high-mileage media hybrid.

The shows appeared on both commercial and community stations. The non-corporate entity produced the events, commercial TV greatly expanded distribution.

Thus began an ongoing series of sane public interest programs which generate both entertaining heat and more than a little light.

Please spread the word and consider contributing to the cause online at ReSurge.TV.

You may also take the public option known as the U.S. Postal Service and send a check or money order to ReSurge.TV, P.O. Box 10034, Reno NV 89510.

Your contribution will help fund the distribution as well as ongoing efforts at developing new media, including a regional, non-corporate community radio station and the return of community television to Reno-Sparks-Washoe.

You are present at the creation of what I hope can become a new media model where the programming accurately reflects what's happening on the ground and the media impact is powerful enough to forcefully pass the message upward.

Thanks.

Be well. Raise hell.

Andrew


Click here for selected on-demand re-runs from the Barbwire.TV archives

Barbwire.TV:
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Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008

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This Friday, Nevada says farewell to a humble man who left a gigantic legacy.

My friend and NAACP colleague Darryl Feemster Sr. died Nov. 19 at St. Mary's hospital after suffering a stroke. His memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m. Friday, December 1 at Sparks Christian Fellowship in the historic Greenbrae Center at Pyramid Way and Greenbrae Drive. A reception will follow at the Boys and Girls Club, 2680 E. Ninth Street, Reno. A private family burial will be conducted at Reno's Mountain View Cemetery.

Darryl comes from a large family of overachievers. His mother, Dolores, was a longtime counselor at Hug High School and grew up as the mixed-race daughter of an Italian-American in the old apartheid Reno. She emerged unscathed in large part perhaps because of her disarming and affable personality. Dolores is everybody's mom and grandma.

Whenever any student got into trouble at Hug, the reaction was always "call Dolores," even years after her retirement. Her home has been overrun with well-wishers since Darryl died but big crowds in that small dwelling are normal.

The most coveted political sign location in Washoe County is Dolores' fence. Its bi-partisan success rate is the envy of campaign managers statewide.

If you go to a Feemster extended family gathering, you'll meet so many people that you'll want a program to identify the players. You also have to avoid tripping over moppets from the next generation of community leaders. You might even run into some NFL veterans.

Darryl used his NFL connections to raise funds to build the Duncan-Traner Library in northeast Reno more than 20 years ago. Today, it serves not only the adjacent elementary and middle schools but also opens to the general public. His efforts kept the library open permanently despite two attempts to close it in recent years.

He was past retirement age but the City of Reno kept asking him to stay because of his value as manager of youth and senior services. The annual Senior Games was his responsibility among many other civic projects including the Boys and Girls Club. When kids needed expanded summer programs or backpacks for school, Darryl secured them all the way down to the crayons. Before entering public service, he worked for several years at the Sparks/Reno General Motors western regional distribution center where he was a member of United Auto Workers Local 2162/AFL-CIO.

In 1998, he was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Reno City Council but declined to run for a full term.

"He didn't want the drama," according to Reno Councilmember Oscar Delgado, who oughtta know. He kicked off his campaign with a neighborhood meeting at Dolores' house. Of course.

Dolores is a walking history book of the old and new Reno. Into that family, Darryl Feemster was born in 1962. Dolores' 12 children include Lonnie Jr., a retired NVEnergy executive and four-time Reno-Sparks NAACP president who currently serves as a regional vice-president. Robert is a longtime Reno firefighter. Lonnie's wife, Debra, served as Hug High principal and school district diversity manager. Dr. Debra was elected to the school board last year representing Sparks and the north valleys.

"This will be remembered as a time when we lost a gathering of giants," stated Patricia Gallimore, President of NAACP Reno-Sparks Branch No. 1112. Former presidents Eddie Scott and Bill Moon, among other pioneers, died earlier this year.

"The Feemster family has been the branch's bedrock for decades," she added.

Darryl's formal and extensive obituary will be linked to the expanded web edition of this column at Barbwire.US/ You may post condolences at RenoSparksNAACP.org/

A giant has fallen. He leaves huge shoes to fill. All volunteers welcome, just like Dolores' house.

Happy High Holly Days to you and yours.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
_____________________
* "Ripple" lyrics from The Grateful Dead's greatest album, "American Beauty." Photo shows Darryl with his grandson, Marcus, Jr.

Online Extras & Smoking Guns—>
We Don't Need No Education Part LXXXII—>
Thanksgibleting 2017: Success, sorrow & sustenance
B
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno
/ Expanded from the 11-22-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 11-23, 11-24, 11-26 and 11-29-2017
We Don't Need No Education Part LXXXI—>
Brain damage means never having to say you're sorry
Nevada's Most-Censored News Stories of 2017

Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno
/ Expanded from the 11-15-2017 Sparks Tribune
Throwing the book at big guns and little cowboys
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-8-2017 Sparks Tribune
We Don't Need No Education Part LXXX—>
The poisoning of old Pizen Switch proliferates
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-1-2017 Sparks Tribune
We Don't Need No Education Part LXXIX—>
Mississippi West don't need no education
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno
/ Expanded from the 10-25-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 10-29, 10-30 and 10-31-2017 GMT
We Don't Need No Education Part LXXVIII—>
You've got to be taught to learn to hate

Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-18-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 10-19 and 10-29-2017 GMT
Window of opportunity: 48 hours for human rights
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-11-2017 Sparks Tribune
Las Vegas 2017: Fire is the devil's only friend
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno
/ Expanded from the 10-4-2017 Sparks Tribune
Rewriting the Civil War and the Mexican War
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-27-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 9-28-2017
Freedom loving racists shoot to rewrite history
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-20-2017 Sparks Tribune
Rewriting History
Reno News & Review Editorial: Remove Klansman's sculpture at UNR / 9-14-2017
Virginia City Nevada celebrates Slave Labor Day
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Special online Labor Day edition 9-2-2017

ANTE INTO THE GAME: Support the new season of Barbwire.TV by putting your money where my mouth is. A thousand thanks to those who keep sending show suggestions.

Ready for Trump TV? Inside Sinclair Broadcasting’s Plot to Take Over Your Local News
Its mix of terrorism alerts, right-wing commentary and “classic propaganda” could soon reach 3/4 of the US.
By Andy Kroll/Mother Jones Oct.-Nov. 2017

How Sinclair Broadcasting puts a partisan tilt on trusted local news
By William Brangham/ PBS NewsHour 10-10-2017

Top-down Democrats haven't learned
By Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 8-10-2017

More Faux than Fox? Corporate octopus Sinclair moves to dominate Nevada and U.S. television
By Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 8-3-2017


  Stay tuned.

  I encourage you to donate to the cause at Barbwire.TV/ The medium that shapes public opinion needs at least one refuge where it is not filtered through the distorted green eye shades of prissy corporate accountants for whom profit is the only priority; where self-censorship is the journalist's normal work environment and where all sins of omission are tacitly encouraged and forgiven with the wave of a balance sheet.

  This is important. We've got a lot of work to do.

END OF TIMES SURVIVAL KIT. Defend yourself with humorous or humorless but always-peerless predictions for 2018 by subscribing to the Barbwire Confidential News Service.

Hush Hush!

 

"Media is the plural of mediocre."
— Jimmy Breslin (1928-2017)

Last year's dark foreshadowings unfortunately became reality. I thus suggest inoculation by signing onto the HushHush! list at BallotBoxing.US/

It's cheap as well as enlightening entertainment. I suggest coming aboard now. Subscription prices go up soon. Thank you kindly for your support.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)

Andrew Barbano is a 49-year Nevadan, executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com and BallotBoxing.US and SenJoeNeal.org and DoctorLawyerWatch.com/ As always, his opinions are strictly his own. Check local listings for other Nevada cable systems. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988 and received its 8th Nevada Press Association award and 5th first-place at the 30 Sept. 2017 NPA annual convention in Carson City. (That trophy and about six bucks will get you a Latte Mocha Cotsafracas Chingade at just about any Starbux worldwide, guaranteed.)

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Cheap at twice the price. (Hush Hush!)


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Copyright © 1982-2017 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 49-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and SenJoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee. He is the executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president, political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

Barbwire by Barbano moved to Nevada's Daily Sparks Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

Betty J. Barbano
2-7-1941 / 12-27-2005

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