Flub-Nuts Journalism

by Steed Dropout
May 17, 2013

I arrived at just before three in Tilden Park for a ceremony inducting the Dalai Lama, his holiness, in Berkeley's Rotary Club's Peace Grove, near the peak in Tilden Peak. If you follow the peace grove sign, you'll fall into a gulch, left. Maybe that's why the grove is 'off-the-beaten path.' Attendance at past peace grove inductions has, reportedly, declined in recent years. I wondered if the ceremony would come off. I didn't check the staging area for the event (deserted) because I hiked up from a different start.
Photo by Ted Friedman.

I ascended the road, avoiding the gulch, to Tilden Peak, not 'the Peace Grove Look-out' as sloppily reported in Berkeley Patch. From such a height, I felt superior because I had looked up Tilden Peak. Typical fog-like waves engulfing Golden Gate.
Photo by Ted Friedman.
While waiting for induction ceremony, I shot East for view of San Pablo Reservoir. No fog here. I first discovered this view in 1970.
Photo by Ted Friedman.
The Peace Grove line-up begins in 1955, more than half a century. While waiting for ceremony, I vetted the inductees. Some of these honorees are despised in Berkeley and the Dalai Lama a few years ago refused to condemn the Iraqi war, saying 'time would tell.' They don't call him 'his holiness' for nothing. Richard M. Nixon. Henry Kissinger. I made a note to ask the celebrants about this.
Photo by Ted Friedman.
The grove is an assortment of sequestered magnificent old Spruces. As you stumble your way, you encounter moldy oldy markers. Dalai Lama's marker, left. Flags and scarves. The wrapping still on the marker, encouraged my hopes that the ceremony hadn't passed me by. I wanted to meditate away my anxieties about the event but realized I can't meditate because I'm a nervous wreck and I'm a nervous wreck because I can't meditate. The Dalai Lama seems serene. If ever there a place to commune with.
Photo by Ted Friedman.
Dalai Lama award marker seems ready to be dedicated. But no!
Photo by Ted Friedman.

May 15, 2013
by Maxim Schrogin

Berkeley Rotary awarded the Dalai Lama our annual Peace Prize, with recognition in the Rotary Peace Grove in Tilden Park on May 15th. . The Tibetan- and Himalayan-American communities joined us after the luncheon for the moving ceremony in the Peace Grove. Some 60+ attended the ceremony in the Grove, among the largest ceremonies in attendance in recent decades. Even more were at the earlier lunch. The Dalai Lama appointed a locally based spokesperson to receive the award, and sent a personal message by staff that was read at the event.

Notice the May 15 date. Berkeleyside’s Calendar (I was shooting for them) listed the ceremony for a day later! I staged my own ceremony.

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