PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ENCINITAS, CA 92025 PERMIT NO. 94
The Coast News
INLAND EDITION
VOL. 28, N0. 40
.com
VISTA, SAN MARCOS, ESCONDIDO
DEC. 19, 2014
Preparations for a new sports center on the campus of Cal State University San Marcos are underway. Image courtesy Cal State University
San Marcos
Preparations underway for new sports center By Aaron Burgin
Christmas on Maple
Jackson, 2, gets the chance to meet Santa on Saturday during the Escondido Jaycees 64th Annual Christmas Parade and Christmas on Maple event. The free event filled Maple Street Plaza with activities for kids, lots of vendors and mail boxes to send letters to Santa. Photo by Tony Cagala
SAN MARCOS — On Monday, Cal State San Marcos Athletic Director Jennifer Milo tweeted a photo with an eight-word caption: “And the construction begins on the Sports Center!” Well, not exactly — but the preparations for
the start of construction of the Cougar Sports Center are underway, as crews began clearing the site of the 2,200-seat arena, which will be located adjacent to the current athletics department offices at the Clarke Field House and completed by August 2016. TURN TO SPORTS CENTER ON 16
Military veterans get sound healing while incarcerated By Tony Cagala
VISTA — The invisible intonations of the Tibetan sound bowls perforated the drab environs of the veterans detention unit. Yes, flags of each branch of service hung from one of the walls to add some decor, and on other walls, patriotic paintings added a sense of military brotherhood and color to the unit. Among the 30 or so inmates serving their time in this particular unit, most were taking in the sounds of the bowls — the healing properties of those intonations perhaps making their way into the invisible wounds of the men there. Diáne Mandle, a certified Tibetan Sound Bowl and Polarity Therapy healer, stood at the front of the unit leading the men in breathing exercises. “Stay with breath,” she said calmly, as they inhaled through the nose and exhaled out the mouth. Some of them rolled their eyes. Some snickered a little at the prospect of taking part in the meditation. But most of them had never meditated or heard the sound bowls before. And then Mandle struck two metallic cymbals together. From there she called on them to conjure up a memory of being a fearless, delighted child. For some, the tones helped to shed the immediate sense of where they were with the relaxation that was setting in. The sound bowls, Mandle explained afterwards, are tuned to the vibrational frequency of “Ohm,” — the sound of creation, the sound of perfection. “And our brain waves…entrain to that vibration, which is why people get relaxed so quickly,” she said. Since last year, Mandle began hosting two sessions every other Thursday at the veterans unit. She said she wasn’t surprised that most of them took up the opportunity to learn more about the meditation.
Diáne Mandle creates a tone from a Tibetan singing bowl for military veteran inmates at the Veterans Unit of the Vista Detention Facility. Mandle visits the facility every other week to help the inmates learn meditation techniques and get them see themselves in better light. Photo by Tony Cagala
“A lot of them have deep forgiveness issues that come from trauma of being overseas, but also the trauma of coming back and being on drugs, or doing some theft, or domestic violence or whatever they’ve done that got them into jail. “Some of them have PTSD, some of them don’t. But they are all very hungry for this kind of education,” she said. Of the 64 veterans that are currently incarcerated now at the facility, the main
goal is for these guys to change the way they think, change the way they live and never come back to jail again, said Glendon Morales, correctional counselor for the Sheriff’s Department and a retired Marine, who spent 24 years in the Corps. The charges that have brought the veterans to the facility range anywhere from DUIs to domestic violence, to drugs, Morales said. “Most of them are PTSD,” he said. “A
little more than half of them are combat vets.” “When they first come into jail they always have an attitude, they’re thinking survival,” said Morales. Yet, for the year spanning Nov. 1, 2013 to November 2014, Morales said they’ve only had four veterans return to jail. And only one with a new charge, the others TURN TO VETERANS ON 16