Please, Let This Dead Christmas Tree Rest in Peace! by Steven P
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B2 THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE SUNDAY • FEBRUARY 17, 2019 MEDIATE THIS ! PLEASE, LET THIS DEAD CHRISTMAS TREE REST IN PEACE! BY STEVEN P. DINKIN committed an infraction. The far less time and effort to get rid second is the HOA that has per- of the tree yourself. Dear Mediator: emptorily decided its obligation But some conflicts need long- Our condominium complex is to enforce bylaws and maintain term resolution strategies to kept up very well, but every Janu- the property has become too prevent them from recurring. An ary, some neighbors ignore the vexing. orchestrated campaign of amia- HOA’s posted signs about proper In conflicts like these, we ble but persistent communica- disposal of Christmas trees and borrow a restorative justice strat- tion will serve notice to the entire chuck their trees near the dump- egy based on a universal truth: If complex (and its management) sters. For years, the HOA be- you want a transgressor to regret for years to come that orderliness grudgingly got rid of the trees. and repent his misconduct, bring and fair play are coins of your This year, the HOA apparently him face to face with the person realm. has had enough. A dead tree he has harmed, and let him see And the best part is the lesson that’s rotting near my parking up close the human cost of his this will offer to your child and space is really distressing my action. the other neighbor children. toddler. I know who dumped it, This is particularly effective They probably don’t under- and I think the HOA should fine when community members send stand all the nuances of HOA him. But I don’t want to start a a compelling message that every- bylaws and enforcement. But feud with a neighbor. one should follow the rules. they know this Christmas tree Stuck in Christmastime You can convey this in a half- deserved a better fate. Watching El Cajon playful, half-serious manner by how effective communication Dear Stuck: creating a flyer with an unforget- delivers justice will be an early Any trash that’s dumped in a table image. and lasting tutorial in the art of public area constitutes an eye- Prop up the tree, and photo- GETTY IMAGES problem-solving. sore. But a discarded Christmas graph it in all its desolation. The This week’s conflict was caused by a discarded Christmas tree tree that once sparkled with resulting picture can be the and the rules of a homeowners association. Steven P. Dinkin is a professional mediator lights in a warm room and now centerpiece of a handout titled who has served as president of the lies outside decaying in the cold “Let This Dead Tree Rest in Subtlety is powerful here. If create a new flyer with the title, San-Diego based National Conflict is a uniquely forlorn sight. Peace!” you pointedly call out the guilty “This Dead Tree STILL Needs to Resolution Center since 2003. Do you Nearly everyone who sees this The flyer’s whimsical text neighbor and the recalcitrant Rest in Peace!” have a conflict that needs a resolution? ghost of Christmas past will feel a should explain that an unnamed HOA management, you will spark It’s possible that both culpa- Share your story with The Mediator via pang of sadness. But two parties resident dumped this poor tree the feud you are rightly avoiding. ble parties will respond with email at [email protected] or have hardened themselves to this illegally and now, for the first You don’t have to go there. They excuses and justifications. If they as an online submission by visiting specter so they can keep shirking time ever, a tree left abandoned already know they’re wrong. do, stay on message and repeat www.ncrconline.com/MediateThis. All the responsibility they bear for it. in the complex has decomposed Post the flyer on a bulletin as needed. submissions will be kept anonymous. If The first is the neighbor who, into a visual blight and a fire board in a common area. If the Admittedly, this will entail you have questions, please email me at assuming he can read, knows he hazard. tree is still there after a few days, quite a bit of work. It would take [email protected] NOTEBOOKS From Union-Tribune reporting staff OUTDOORS: ERNIE COWAN THE READERS’ REPRESENTATIVE: ADRIAN VORE Borrego Badlands not bad at all Vulgarity, deception — not funny There is a maze of curdled landscape on The San Diego Union-Tribune decided the eastern edge of San Diego County that last week to drop the syndicated comic strip the maps label as Borrego Badlands. Non Sequitur after its cartoonist, Wiley Yes, it’s mostly barren, dusty and seem- Miller, inserted in last Sunday’s strip a vul- ingly devoid of life, but spend any time here garity directed at President Donald Trump. and you will understand the region has sim- The U-T’s decision follows that of a host ply suffered from bad press. of newspapers nationwide, including the Since the days of early pioneers and Los Angeles Times, the U-T’s sister paper. overland settlement of the west, the bad- The comic strip stopped appearing in lands have been characterized as danger- the U-T on Friday. A message to readers ex- ous, deadly, isolated, lonely, difficult to navi- plaining why the U-T pulled the cartoon ran gate and a place to avoid. in its place. In his book “California Desert Trails,” J. Non Sequitur will appear, today, howev- Smeaton Chase describes traveling ERNIE COWAN er. The Sunday full-color comics section is through the badlands by horseback in the Blooming lupines at the edge of printed about two weeks in advance. When summer of 1916 and meeting an Indian who Borrego Badlands. those printings run their course, the strip described the area as “The Devil’s House,” a will no longer be published in the Sunday place where men go in and never come out. and Rainbow washes can even be driven U-T. Places like the badlands, however, have al- deep into the maze of mudhills. U-T Editor and Publisher Jeff Light and ways fascinated and attracted me. I’ve hiked Maps of the trails into the area are avail- Managing Editor Lora Cicalo will decide on many miles in the moonscape mazes and able at the park Visitor Center or State Park how Non Sequitur will be replaced. spent quiet nights camped in this great void. Store in the Borrego Mall. Last Sunday’s comic was “The Wiley On a recent hike I found it hard to attach But it’s the hiker who will truly discover Bears Sunday Coloring Page” featuring the word “bad” to this alluring natural world. this place of beauty. bears as famous Leonardo Da Vinci works. A portion of last Sunday’s Non For the nature lover who enjoys solitude, dis- It was a chilly, wind-swept day when I The vulgarity in the three-panel comic was Sequitur comic strip. covery, challenge and adventure, Borrego last put down footprints in the badlands. I written in the lower right corner of the mid- Badlands should be on your to-do list. had spent the night camped with a buddy at dle panel. It was hard to see and could have vulgarity. The Redwoods have the Avenue of the Seventeen Palms Oasis and then set out been easily dismissed as scribbling. But a Non Sequitur is published in more than Giants, Utah and Colorado have the Ave- alone the next morning to discover what the reader of the Butler Eagle in Pennsylvania 700 newspapers in the United States. nue of the Ancients and the winding can- wilds had to offer. caught it and told the newspaper. Accord- Although readers will complain about yons of the badlands could aptly be called In the trackless washes I followed the foot- ing to news articles, it seems like that was comics from time to time because they dis- Avenues of Time. prints of a kit fox, and when I climbed to the the first reported sighting. The paper like or disagree with a comic’s content, last Time, measured in the millions of years, top of a mudhill I spotted a small sidewinder yanked the comic Monday. Sunday’s Non Sequitur involved deception has shaped this place, and man has left tightly curled up and half-buried in the sand, Others papers did the same during the and pure vulgarity. footprints here for a few thousand years. no doubt avoiding the morning chill. week. Those papers included the Sacra- The deeply eroded and bare sandstone A red-tailed hawk perched on a high spot mento Bee, Indy Star, Richmond Times Reference in Hunter story formations tell a bold story of Earth’s cre- and watched the barren landscape looking Dispatch, Virginian-Pilot and Lexington A story Feb. 1 by U-T military writer An- ation and also whisper softly about man’s for reptile or rodent for its next meal. Herald Leader. drew Dyer about Rep. Duncan Hunter ad- early presence, mostly because this was an Lupine and bright yellow sunflowers The readers’ rep received no emails and vocating for a SEAL on trial on charges of area of transition rather than permanent dotted the rocky landscape, and mats of only one phone call before the strip was committing war crimes included this sen- human occupation. purple sand verbena hugged the edges of dropped. The reader called after he heard tence of background deep in the story.