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Home , Paul Cummings, Steve Lacy (athlete), Wiley Miller

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 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 “ 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 . 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. Borrego Badlands can be viewed from the wash where precious winter rains had about the cartoon and the fallout. “Hunter, who faces his own felony charges several spots. The most popular is Font’s accumulated enough water for growth. After the backlash, Miller said he added for alleged campaign finance violations and Point, an iconic location in the state park. I encountered no one on my loop of sev- the vulgarity several weeks ago and had in- wire fraud, is a Marine combat veteran who From this lofty perch you can gaze down eral miles from Seventeen Palms to Five tended to remove it before the comic was served in Iraq and Afghanistan.” into the wrinkled landscape created by Palms and back, but there were “conversa- distributed. But that statement seemed In a letter to the editor three days later, a years of erosion after geologic forces lifted a tions” with spring flowers and skittering liz- disingenuous, because last Sunday, the day reader asked why was it important to refer- massive block of earth to form the Ocotillo ards, curiosity about patches of alkali that the comic appeared, he tweeted that the ence that, and he wondered if it was an ex- Rim and Font’s Point. covered the mudhills in some places, cartoon included an “Easter egg.” ample of “subtly biased reporting.” Font’s Point can be reached by a well- amazement at the colorful geological maze, “Wiley Miller’s actions — both the inser- But I feel that information is not biased marked, 4-mile sandy road going south and serenity at being able to amble at my tion of a hidden lewd comment and his lack at all. A public elected official is facing trial from County Highway S-22 about 7 miles own pace and ponder time and the forces of forthrightness after the fact — represent in public court. That fact is relevant in a east of Borrego Springs. High clearance ve- that have created us and the badlands. a serious breach of trust and violate our val- news report involving Hunter. As an editor, hicles are advised. Yes, indeed, I can find nothing bad about ues of integrity and transparency,” Cicalo I would have asked that the information be Off-roaders can view the badlands below this place. said. included if it had not been. the Ocotillo Rim from San Felipe Wash The distributor, Andrews McMeel Syn- north of state Route 78. Hills of the Moon Email [email protected] dication, apologized for not detecting the [email protected]

FROM THE ARCHIVES

didn’t have the required raised border on the inside lane. “I’ll sign this 1,500 one first,” laughed Coghlan when presented with two 40 YEARS AGO, AN IRISH documents verifying his world records. It safely can be said that the race was made by American miler , RUNNER BROKE THE MILE who set a blazing pace through the first three-quarters of a mile. Cummings is no rabbit. He is a fine miler. But he got together RECORD IN SAN DIEGO with Coghlan last week in New York and agreed to help out. Forty years ago this week, Ireland’s set the world indoor mile record in “I’ve been down lately,” said Cummings, the Jack-in-the-Box Indoor Invitational track meet at the San Diego Sports Arena. He fin- “so I didn’t mind doing it. We talked about it ished with a time of 3 minutes and 52.6 second. a little last week. I knew he had it tonight.” Two years later, Coghlan would return to San Diego and for another record-setting run. He Let’s let the winner take us through the beat his own indoor mile world record by a full two seconds with a time of 3:50.6 on Feb. 20, 1981. race. The first quarter-mile was run in a rather From the Evening Tribune, Saturday, February 17, 1979: slow :59.5. “That was okay,” said Coghlan. “I wanted an even pace; that’s the way to go af- ter a world record. I didn’t want it too fast.” COGHLAN, THE ‘PRIDE OF IRELAND,’ most impossible to run that fast indoors. New Then Cummings took over, and he ran STREAKS TO WORLD MARK IN MILE Zealand’s , whose 3:49.4 outdoor through the half-mile in a blistering 1:57.8. “I record came over four laps with long straights, knew Cummings would look after the pace,” By Nick Canepa was not on hand last night to offer his opinion. Coghlan said. Eamonn Coghlan was running for Ireland, for the record, for the World and — so it seemed But Coghlan had one. That he did, and when he led the pack — for his life. And he did it in a madhouse, “The people in Ireland may vote me pres- “Walker says indoor records are Mickey through a 2:56.5 three-quarters, the record with flashbulbs lighting up his every step ident after this,” boomed the winner. Mouse,” grinned Coghlan, “because he was eminent. “After that, it was up to me,” and sweaty palms trembling around stop- And if all this wasn’t magical enough. hasn’t run fast indoors. But 3:52.6? He’s go- the Irishman said, “and I wasn’t going to let watches that just couldn’t be accurate. Americans and ing to die of fright when he hears this time. up this time. I let up in New York last week, But they were. It was an impossible 3:52.6 chased the little Irishman home under the old I’d like to see his face. And he’s going to dou- and it cost me the record (he ran 3:55.0). mile — three fifty-two six! standard. Scott recorded a 3:54.1 and Lacy a bly die when he hears I’ve got the 1,500 “If it wasn’t for Cummings, there Running with a blend of strength and 3:54.7. Scott’s time is an American record. record.” wouldn’t have been a record. It’s the fastest dignity and confidence, Coghlan produced There’s more. Coghlan also set a world in- Someone asked Coghlan if he thought mile I’ve ever run — indoors or out. And one of the most electrifying moments in the door 1,500-meter record along the way of the old mark of 3:54.9 was “pathetic.” “Pa- Scott and Lacy gave me inspiration over the history of . The pride of Eire 3:37.7, and Scott’s 3:38.3 is, once again, an thetic?” asked Coghlan. “Tonight’s time final part of the race.” ran the mile in an astonishing 3:52.6 in last American record. makes it look pathetic, but I’m sure every- night’s Jack-in-the-Box Invitational before a There are people who will argue that Cogh- one looks on 3:54.9 as an impressive record.” Historical photos and articles from The San Diego sellout crowd in the Sports Arena, smashing lan’s effort is the greatest mile ever run any- Walker set the 1,500-meter record of 3:37.4 Union-Tribune archives are compiled by the one-year-old world record of 3:54.9 set by where — indoors or out. With short straight- earlier this year, but that record has been merrie.monteagudo@ sduniontribune.com. Search the America’s . aways and 22 steep bends to negotiate, it’s al- disallowed because the track he set it on U-T historic archives at NewsLibrary.com/sites/sdub.