Manny Kagan

On March 22, 2016, the world is going to celebrate “World Water Day”.  It was first observed in 1993, after the United Nations General Assembly Declaration.  After a prolonged draught, California finally got its share of rain.  But even this might not be enough. On January 13^th, the San Francisco Chronicle reported: “How much El Nino rain needed to end drought?” While California has had a drought, some other parts of the United States and other parts of the world have had flooding issues.  It seems that in spite of all the progress humans accomplished, we cannot control how much water will fall on us from above. Water is one of the four elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water, which is mentioned in the Torah at the beginning of the creation of our world “and the Divine Presence hovered upon the surface of the water” (Genesis 1:2).

On December 14, 2015, water.usgs.gov reported, “About 71 percent of the Earth’s surface is water-covered, and the oceans hold about 96.5 percent of all Earth’s water.  Water also exists in the air as water vapor, in rivers and lakes, in icecaps and glaciers, in the ground as soil moisture, and aquifers and even in you and your dog.”  The amount of water on Earth did not change from the day of creation.  According to H.H. Mitchell, Journal of Biological Chemistry, #158, the human brain and heart are composed of 73% water, and the lungs are about 83% water.  The skin contains 64% water, muscles and kidneys are 79%, and even bones are watery 31%.”

Most of us (at least those who read my “Encounters”) live comfortable lives.  We have a roof above our heads, cable television, and transportation to get us around.  We easily travel from one place to another, often without thinking that life can be different.  For those who came to San Francisco after discovery of gold in 1848 it was.  Since the city is surrounded by water, the way to get from here to there, regardless of the destination, was by boat.  As the population grew, some settled across the Bay in Marin and others on the Oakland side of the Bay.  Ferry service actually started much earlier, in 1826, to get to the other side of the Bay.  But the first recorded system on the Bay was established in 1850.  By the end of the 1800s, twenty-two passenger cross-bay ferry companies were in operation, and another five companies carried only automobiles (You can read more in,   “A Brief History of Ferries on the Bay”.  Among many personalities who lived in San Francisco in the early days, was Emperor Norton, who was considered to be eccentric, visionary or simply crazy.  On the 6^th of January, he proclaimed the need to “bridge the Bay”.  Two months later, on March 23^rd 1878, the Emperor made a second proclamation, “That a suspension bridge be built from Oakland Point to Goat Island (Yerba Buena Island), and thence to Telegraph Hill, provided such bridge can be built without injury to the navigable waters of the Bay of San Francisco.”  He suggested that the Central Pacific Railroad Company be granted the right to lay down trucks to connect two destinations.

Then on the 15^th of June, 1878, Emperor Norton envisioned the possibility of an underwater rail tunnel to connect both coasts.  It took some time for his visions to come to life.  The construction of the Bay Bridge started on July 8^th, 1933 and opened on November 12^th, 1936.  About 240,000 cars cross the bridge. daily.  In 2002, construction began to replace the East Span.  It was completed on September 2nd, 2013 with the estimated cost of 6.3 billion dollars.

Interested? Have a referral? Please contact Manny Kagan at Manny@Pacbay.net /415-225-7920 today! 

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While my first book in the series “42 Encounters in San Francisco” is being printed, I needed more images for the next one, “42 Encounters in San Francisco with Couples”. A friend of mine told me about an upcoming Chinese Parade in Downtown, San Francisco. I usually do not purposefully go to events, in order to photograph. Nevertheless, I took the Muni underground over the weekend, with the intention to photograph the preparations for the parade. When I reached Powell Street, even before getting to the street level, I could hear people shouting, “Justice for All!” There was a huge demonstration of Chinese-Americans carrying signs that read, “Accident Not Crime” and “Justice for Peter Liang”. Online, I found out that the demonstrations took place in more than 30 cities in support of former NYPD police officer, Peter Liang, who was convicted of manslaughter in the 2014 shooting death of Akai Gurley, in a housing project stairwell. The 28 year-old Liang, who could be sentenced for 5 to 15 years, testified that the shooting was an accident.

Many of the demonstrators are probably descendants of the Chinese immigrants, who came to San Francisco during the Gold Rush, which started in 1849. After the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill thousands of laborers came from China to work in the gold mines. At the beginning everyone was happy, but soon white laborers felt threatened by the hard working and cheaper Chinese. As a result of the protests and demonstrations, the Chinese had to leave the gold mines and settled in the area of San Francisco, which is now known as Chinatown where about 70,000 (about half of the total Chinese-American population) is still residing. In the early days, the area was known for the opium dens and exotic women.

Over the years that followed, many laws were passed in San Francisco restricting Chinese immigration, which eventually led to the United States Federal Law, “The Chinese Exclusion Act” of 1882, the most significant restriction of free immigration in U.S. history. Only in 1943, the Chinese immigrants residing in the U.S. were given permission to become U.S. Citizens.

Interested? Have a referral? Please contact Manny Kagan at Manny@Pacbay.net /415-225-7920 today! 

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On a recent photo trip to the Embarcadero Area, where the pre-50th Super Bowl festivities were taking place (I wrote about it last week), I encountered a lot of police (men and women), whose jobs were to protect the public. They looked very friendly and helped to direct the influx of people to the special events. But later on, when I walked on Market Street, I encountered a different attitude. First, I noticed about 20 policemen on motorcycles, with their engines roaring. They were parked in perfect formation, and it seemed, they were geared up for something to happen. Just in front of them, stood 20 or so policemen on foot, with their batons in hand and about the same number across the Street. Suddenly, the first of the officers from the motorcycle group raised his hand and they started moving, one by one in a very disciplined manner, while the policemen on foot followed. They blocked a group of demonstrators who were moving toward Embarcadero, while protesting against police brutality. It was almost as though everything that was happening was being very well orchestrated. Every policeman knew where to be and what to do. Fortunately, nothing “exciting” happened. There was no confrontation, and after the demonstrators were ordered to move to the sidewalk, the tension dropped. I only knew about police brutality toward black people from the headlines in the newspapers and some images I saw on the news. I also encountered and photographed a “Black Lives Matter” demonstration in Union Square in November, 2014. In my view, any prejudices stem from being afraid of the stereotyped images of how “they”, whoever that would be, can hurt us.

 

Former Mayor Willie Brown (who is African-American), wrote an article in the February 7, 2016 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle, where he described his encounter at Ruth’s Chris Steak House with a group of members of two opposing football teams (before the Super Bowl). He wrote, “No sooner had I sat down than the maître d’ comes over and says, ”Mr. Brown, I seated five big black guys in one dining room, and three other big black guys who just came in are in the other dining room.” After visiting both groups Mr. Brown continues, “Given the guys’ size and outfits and crazy hair, I’m sure half the diners thought they were going to be robbed at any minute.”

Interested? Have a referral? Please contact Manny Kagan at Manny@Pacbay.net /415-225-7920 today! 

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I never liked to go to demonstrations, especially when they had a political connotation.  Perhaps my aversion was a result of the demonstrations we had to attend while living in Riga, Latvia, which at that time was part of the Soviet Union.  There are no such demonstrations in the United States, but we have our share of people’s demonstrations to support different causes. I encountered one, an anti-abortion rally, a few weeks ago, and wrote about it last week.  A week before, I was at the Embarcadero to witness the preparation for the celebration of this monumental event.  The security was very tight with the representatives of different branches of government enforcement agencies.  I decided to leave the crowd to go back to Market Street.  A few blocks away, I encountered a big group of policemen.  Some were on motorcycles, with their engines roaring, some were ready for “action”. Two more groups of the policemen waited, with their batons in their hands preparing for the invisible confrontation, on both sides of the street.  And then I saw the reason for this tension: a demonstration protesting the December 2^nd police killing of African-American convicted felon Mario Woods after he slashed someone with his knife.  In the “American Free Press” online, I found that “Over the past 35 years in America, an estimated 324,000 blacks have been killed at the hands of fellow blacks.”  There is a lot of effort spent on protecting human lives.

Some of the cases get more attention and criticism than others.  But where is the silver lining?  On January 24th, on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle, there was a story titled “Potential Threats as Big as the Game” by Evan Sernoffsky.  According to the FBI, “If someone wants to commit an act, they are going to commit an act.  There’s only so much that we can do.”  Meanwhile, a lot of money has been spent and many people are involved to save our lives.  This could make perfect sense, until you get the bigger picture.  On the same date in the “Insight” part of San Francisco Chronicle, I read an article by Leland H. Faust “In Our Scary Times, We Can’t Lose Sight of the Real Threats”.  The article points out, “Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, fewer than 50 people have died in the United States at the hand of Jihadists.”  She continues, “There were some 164,000 homicides due to firearms between 2001 through 2014.  Drunk drivers killed more than 170,000 people, during that same period.  50,000 people drowned and more than 60,000 pedestrians were killed.”  She points out that “Beyond commonsense precautions that do save lives, here are a few smart measures we can take to restore our sense of proportion and preserve our core values:  Name the problem, Remember Je suis Charlie.  Respect First Amendment rights.  Practice resolve, Protect human rights.  Speak out against un-American ideas.  Recognize that all lives matter.”

Interested? Have a referral? Please contact Manny Kagan at Manny@Pacbay.net /415-225-7920 today! 

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On a recent photography trip downtown, I encountered a huge demonstration against abortion.  The next day, I found information about the event online and in the San Francisco Chronicle.  Apparently, some people drove over 30 hours from the Midwest as far as Tulsa, Oklahoma to demonstrate their stand against abortion.  One of the reasons for the demonstration was because Congress voted to defund Planned Parenthood in January, due to some release fabricated “undercover videos”.  Another reason was that it was the 43^rd anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade, the court decision that legalized abortion in the United States.  Many protesters were young men and women carrying the same placards stating “I Am The Pro-Life Generation.”  On the sidewalk, there was a small group of women and a few sympathizing men with their own homemade placards.  One of them stated, “Women Make Moral Choices”.  My question is, “How do we know which choice is or is not moral?”  Online, I learned that morality (from the Latin word “moralitas”, meaning “manner, character, proper behavior”) is a differentiation of intention, decisions and actions between those that are distinguished as proper and those that are improper”.  Since moral teachings are primarily based on the religious doctrines (even the word originates from Latin), I decided to find out what the Torah, which is the basis for the three major religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, teaches about choice.  “I have placed life and death before you, blessings and curse, and you should choose life, so that you will live, you and your offspring” (Deuteronomy 30:19).

Sounds straightforward.  Choose life!  The Torah also has the Ten Commandments, which were given to the Israelites by God at the Biblical Mount Zion as a moral compass for their life journey (which translated from Hebrew as “the ten words”, or “ten matters”).  One of them clearly states, “You shall not kill”.  At the same time, the Torah has a number of stories that involve killing.  One of them is about the High Priest Aaron’s grandson Phinehas, who because of their immoral behavior kills another Israelite man and his mistress.  Phinehas’s action was rewarded.  “And it shall be for him and his offspring after him a covenant of eternal priesthood, because he took vengeance for his God, and he atoned for the Children of Israel (Numbers 25:13).  Through the generations, the Jewish wise people taught that the Torah (which means “Instruction”, “Teaching”, but also “to shoot an arrow” or to hit the mark”) needs to be interpreted.  (The same goes with the Christian Bible and the Quran).