When the Catholic Diocese was recently destroyed, to make way for "development", I was upset, but my anger was tempered by the thought that they had built on a pagan sacred site, and that the land would be temporarily returned to a "more natural state". I'm relatively sure that eventually the site will be sold to make way for one strip mall or another and that a Pawn America, or other payday loan store will pop up there like a mushroom, but until then, we can delight in the open space and walk the land in honor and respect for it's inherent Spirit. In all my years, I have felt the energy inherent in that site. High ground always holds a special place in the hearts of spiritual seekers and the proximity to two ravines and the largest river in the area surely held great cache' with ancient locals. I always harbored dreams of reclaiming the area as a spiritual center that I have recognized since childhood.
Today, the destruction of another block in historic downtown Green Bay came to my attention. Just one long block from a locally owned pharmacy, CVS is planning to build one of their horribly ugly retail establishments. The half-dozen or so small, family-owned businesses as well as a few residential buildings will succumb to the heavy hand of "progress". The pharmacy that used to be in that location served our community for generations and was one of the few places that you could still find old medicine chest stand-bys like oil of clove, salicylic acid plasters, blackberry balsam and coal-tar salve. On the same block was a sporting goods store that figured into the lives of nearly every child raised around these parts. Many thousands of bikes were bought and repaired there and the skate sharpening services alone brought smiles to countless faces bordered by rosy cheeks. Just around the corner from these Green Bay Landmarks, were shops that sold tires, junk, beers and booze. After a twenty-four hour odyssey on my twenty-first birthday that started in St. Louis, Missouri, I finally found a place to get a beer, nestled between Wino "Whitney" Park and the drug store. The neighborhood has had it's value extracted by the richest among us for years and apparently is no longer suitable as a refuge for the poorest among us either.
It seems odd that one of the first cities in the Midwest would be so completely oblivious to it's own history. The most liveable part of our downtown has been systematically stripped of it's grocery stores, small businesses, character and consequently it's people. The things and folks that made our city great have been replaced by bankrupt malls, ugly monolithic buildings and massive debt ridden "development". Most sadly, this is not a unique story. Thousands of cities across our once great nation have succumbed to a similar plight. It seems that with the current atmosphere of in-fighting amongst fictitious "groups" and the gloom and doom "newscasters" purveying their lies and deception on all sides, we may never recover our cities. Lust amongst our politicians for more revenue has blinded them to budgetary realities that individuals understand all too well. A penny saved is truly a penny earned. Chasing after imagined tax revenues has driven our leaders to so many bad decisions that admitting the fallacy would surely require a loss of face for many. We can put lipstick on a pig, as the saying goes, but it can't possibly hide the pork and corpulent leaders whose corruption has led to the selling out of our communities.
I don't know where we will be when our neighborhoods have all vanished. I'm sure that it won't be as happy or secure a place as where I had the luxury of growing up. When we are gone, who will speak for good sense, compassion and equity? When we were children, and for generations back through human history, we knew where we were at all times. We knew right from wrong and if we forgot, there were always neighbors who could set us straight. Will our children know where they are headed if they cannot find any evidence of where they have come from? Will their children care if there is no sense of community? When every city looks the same, will individualism cease to have meaning? How will future generations express a sense of self when there is no distinction between Wichita and West Chester, San Sebastian and San Mateo and between Toronto and Tuskegee? Only time will tell. Let's hope that we don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Interested in saving a bit of history? Let me know and we can make a plan together.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Saturday, November 27, 2010
'Tis The Season...
We have all heard of the concept of peace, love and understanding, the comfort and joy thing as well as the rest of the myth that gave rise to the holiday season. Although being jolly has many of it's own rewards, we find ourselves facing some pretty serious times, that require a serious look as well as some fairly drastic action. I am personally accused of being "too happy", with no explanation or elaboration. I'm still not sure what that means, but I am sure that without a healthy dose of humor and levity, I would have devolved into a hopeless state long ago. I fear that many have forgotten the good that comes with our shared myths of giving and re-birth, focusing instead on acquisition and intransigence.
Especially in the United States of America, there seems to be a mood of dis-ease. Often, it is blamed on one group or another with little attention to the larger picture. We seem to delight in letting people help themselves to "resources", even human ones, cash, greed, government hand-outs and nature's many bounties. Frequently we point to their successes as proof that capitalism works. When greed, exploitation and self serving ways bring our economy to it's knees, we turn away, not wanting to face capitalism's failures, telling our people to "spend our way out" of economic decline. This is the time of year that we see this most poignantly. Our leaders are short-sighted enough to continue tilting at windmills obscured by the media fog. Endemic misunderstanding has led to institutionalized ignorance. As we have seen, most issues are couched in inflammatory rhetoric, rather than insightful reflection on where we have come from or indeed where we might be headed.
Trying to get a grasp on reality in the maelstrom of media snippets can feel like a drowning man trying to grasp the greased hull of his capsized boat. At least if you are set adrift on a raft, there is the possibility of hope. When everything we grasp seems to fall away like sand on a steep slope, we can't help but take two steps back for each one forward. During the seventies and eighties, many of the social change advocates chanted the mantra, "Kill your television". Today, the times have changed enough to shout down this basic admonition. Many folks believe that they are informed and educated by the idiot box. The entertainment that this technology provides, and the constant advertising that is given life in this media format, both dull the senses and couch lies in the guise of authority. Without a highly developed sense our own value, of analysis, of truth, much of what passes the censors can lead to artificial truth, manifestation of the imaginary or even a sense of self-loathing.
The technology that took us light years beyond Guttenberg has devolved into a source of universal values that, for the most part, detest fact and turn their backs on reality. Oddly enough, our comedy most clearly resembles life itself, but the heroes are frequently trite dupes, boorish idiots or out of control consumers. Through marketing, we highlight the seedy side of these characters, and their ability to ally themselves with our own "reality" and sense of self. I have tried to pour myself into this mold, unsuccessfully as you might have guessed. The stories that grew out of this attempt could be inspiration for an entire book, but my hope is that others who think critically about what we are doing will have the same experience that I did. I am not stronger for the effort, nor proud of the time that I spent in search of complacency. Instead, the fire that was kindled in me during war protests of the sixties, has been tended and indeed fed by the things I have learned by participating in the current consumerist culture.
Standing in line, waiting for a store to open, the day after Thanksgiving, hoping for a "chance" to buy a two-hundred dollar television three years ago was possibly the lowest point in my search for the New American Dream. Even as I grabbed the box that held the device, I felt like a disembodied agent of consumption. By the time I had straightened my knees, from squatting down to pick up the box that held my reward, an entire pallet of identical items had disappeared and their purchasers had turned to the next "quarry" on their list. I guess my only wanting one item was my nemesis, because once in hand, I had time to reflect on the feelings that came with my action. Turning from where the pile of televisions had been, I could see dozens of faces of people who arrived too late. I saw the faces of those who I had run past on the way in who were disappointed. I nearly gave my television to one of them, but then I realized that the same expression might come across my wife's face if I came away empty-handed. If I had only waited, the same television is now half price, but the folks selling them cannot stimulate the "demand" that Black Friday inspires.
Lest I leave you with a sense of foreboding or despair, there is a move toward sanity taking place. It is the un-televised revolution that we heard of in song. An inspired marketing campaign has begun this year in which the Saturday after Black Friday is being billed as "Buy Local Day" I think Sane Saturday is a better name, but whatever we cal it, the sentiment is the same. We need to build community to overcome the exploitation and desolation of our consumerist culture, share our own abundance and reward those we care about, our neighbors, rather than faceless and unnamed corporations. We are part of an interconnected web of life, whether we know it or not. This post is my plea for everyone to start living like it, rather than acting like we are apart from that which gives us life. The give away is the most powerful tool for magic in the world. It has the power to change lives for the better, both those of the giver as well as those of the receivers.
Especially in the United States of America, there seems to be a mood of dis-ease. Often, it is blamed on one group or another with little attention to the larger picture. We seem to delight in letting people help themselves to "resources", even human ones, cash, greed, government hand-outs and nature's many bounties. Frequently we point to their successes as proof that capitalism works. When greed, exploitation and self serving ways bring our economy to it's knees, we turn away, not wanting to face capitalism's failures, telling our people to "spend our way out" of economic decline. This is the time of year that we see this most poignantly. Our leaders are short-sighted enough to continue tilting at windmills obscured by the media fog. Endemic misunderstanding has led to institutionalized ignorance. As we have seen, most issues are couched in inflammatory rhetoric, rather than insightful reflection on where we have come from or indeed where we might be headed.
Trying to get a grasp on reality in the maelstrom of media snippets can feel like a drowning man trying to grasp the greased hull of his capsized boat. At least if you are set adrift on a raft, there is the possibility of hope. When everything we grasp seems to fall away like sand on a steep slope, we can't help but take two steps back for each one forward. During the seventies and eighties, many of the social change advocates chanted the mantra, "Kill your television". Today, the times have changed enough to shout down this basic admonition. Many folks believe that they are informed and educated by the idiot box. The entertainment that this technology provides, and the constant advertising that is given life in this media format, both dull the senses and couch lies in the guise of authority. Without a highly developed sense our own value, of analysis, of truth, much of what passes the censors can lead to artificial truth, manifestation of the imaginary or even a sense of self-loathing.
The technology that took us light years beyond Guttenberg has devolved into a source of universal values that, for the most part, detest fact and turn their backs on reality. Oddly enough, our comedy most clearly resembles life itself, but the heroes are frequently trite dupes, boorish idiots or out of control consumers. Through marketing, we highlight the seedy side of these characters, and their ability to ally themselves with our own "reality" and sense of self. I have tried to pour myself into this mold, unsuccessfully as you might have guessed. The stories that grew out of this attempt could be inspiration for an entire book, but my hope is that others who think critically about what we are doing will have the same experience that I did. I am not stronger for the effort, nor proud of the time that I spent in search of complacency. Instead, the fire that was kindled in me during war protests of the sixties, has been tended and indeed fed by the things I have learned by participating in the current consumerist culture.
Standing in line, waiting for a store to open, the day after Thanksgiving, hoping for a "chance" to buy a two-hundred dollar television three years ago was possibly the lowest point in my search for the New American Dream. Even as I grabbed the box that held the device, I felt like a disembodied agent of consumption. By the time I had straightened my knees, from squatting down to pick up the box that held my reward, an entire pallet of identical items had disappeared and their purchasers had turned to the next "quarry" on their list. I guess my only wanting one item was my nemesis, because once in hand, I had time to reflect on the feelings that came with my action. Turning from where the pile of televisions had been, I could see dozens of faces of people who arrived too late. I saw the faces of those who I had run past on the way in who were disappointed. I nearly gave my television to one of them, but then I realized that the same expression might come across my wife's face if I came away empty-handed. If I had only waited, the same television is now half price, but the folks selling them cannot stimulate the "demand" that Black Friday inspires.
Lest I leave you with a sense of foreboding or despair, there is a move toward sanity taking place. It is the un-televised revolution that we heard of in song. An inspired marketing campaign has begun this year in which the Saturday after Black Friday is being billed as "Buy Local Day" I think Sane Saturday is a better name, but whatever we cal it, the sentiment is the same. We need to build community to overcome the exploitation and desolation of our consumerist culture, share our own abundance and reward those we care about, our neighbors, rather than faceless and unnamed corporations. We are part of an interconnected web of life, whether we know it or not. This post is my plea for everyone to start living like it, rather than acting like we are apart from that which gives us life. The give away is the most powerful tool for magic in the world. It has the power to change lives for the better, both those of the giver as well as those of the receivers.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Kennedy Memories
In forming an opinion about JFK, much of my awareness is governed by mediated perceptions after his death. My parents never mentioned what a President is until he was gone. A toddler, I saw a man crying on television, he was saying that the President had been shot. I went to get my mother. I remember that I was still afraid of the cold air return vent in the hall, so I got down on hands and knees and went across it from the living room to the kitchen to get my mom. Even though I was just walking at the time, I remember the mourning like it was yesterday. No one around me was untouched by the tragedy and grief of loss. I have learned over my lifetime that as I was born, the Cuban Missile Crisis unfolded, terrorizing my mom and dosing her fetus with cataclysm-response hormones. Flight is ruled out during birth and in one's layette, so the fight response is required, but you are with only yourself, so who to fight? Yes, one self. Fight your fears, sense of loss, separation and anxiety. Fight it all, on terrain within one self. Existential I will admit, but real and true for anyone who has done it. One's opinion may differ, but the media heraldry has skewed our perception of Kennedy's Presidency toward the mythic.
Presidential scholars may rate him near the middle of the pack when it comes to performance, but except in rare cases, the values JFK stood for took a severe hit on the day of his passing. Youth and optimism did not re-enter politics until two generations later. The social justice movement that seemed alive and growing in the early to mid sixties calcified and ran aground, stagnating until it was subverted by the end of the welfare state. Only recently have we turned our faces again to the light. In terms of infusing a nation with a sense of mission to their fellow inhabitants of Starship Earth, no one stands out in modern history until Obama.
We all stand to gain when we build on a common moral ground. As much as some relished John F. Kennedy's death, they were the same sorts of folks who seek to gain from outdated competitive models. In relishing one another, and our innate capacities, giving from a place of plenty, capital loses it's importance. What more effective nail in Capitalism's coffin, than peace, love and understanding. The good old boys club is alive and well, don't fool yourself. Vigilante justice is just what the doctor ordered for political obfuscation. The Us/Them divide is surely smaller than the television reports. Our troubles are not caused by people flooding across our borders, or "drugs" that grow naturally and have the power to heal. We blame convicted pedophiles for actions that they may not take, but ignore the vast majority of child molestations, ignore where our food comes from but get angry when food borne disease breaks out. While pointing the finger at everyone else, we can easily neglect ourselves. This is what Kennedy excelled at, reminding our citizens that through cooperation and sharing a sense of purpose, we could create miracles.
I wish that we could point out the fallacy of lack to all those who claim that "nature's way" is competition for scarce resources. My own experience has taught me the exact opposite. Where nature thrives, a profusion of life breaks out like you can't imagine. Literally billions of organisms can reside in a cup of soil. Sharing is the rule rather than the exception in these systems. Successful human endeavors often reflect this co-operative spirit rather than a competitive one. Miracle can happen and often do, but what is required is for folks to again realize that we are inextricably dependent on one another and our success. We are all responsible for the cohesion of natural systems. We are most richly rewarded for being stewards of the planet, which can allow it to support each and every one of us.
Make Miracles Happen!
Presidential scholars may rate him near the middle of the pack when it comes to performance, but except in rare cases, the values JFK stood for took a severe hit on the day of his passing. Youth and optimism did not re-enter politics until two generations later. The social justice movement that seemed alive and growing in the early to mid sixties calcified and ran aground, stagnating until it was subverted by the end of the welfare state. Only recently have we turned our faces again to the light. In terms of infusing a nation with a sense of mission to their fellow inhabitants of Starship Earth, no one stands out in modern history until Obama.
We all stand to gain when we build on a common moral ground. As much as some relished John F. Kennedy's death, they were the same sorts of folks who seek to gain from outdated competitive models. In relishing one another, and our innate capacities, giving from a place of plenty, capital loses it's importance. What more effective nail in Capitalism's coffin, than peace, love and understanding. The good old boys club is alive and well, don't fool yourself. Vigilante justice is just what the doctor ordered for political obfuscation. The Us/Them divide is surely smaller than the television reports. Our troubles are not caused by people flooding across our borders, or "drugs" that grow naturally and have the power to heal. We blame convicted pedophiles for actions that they may not take, but ignore the vast majority of child molestations, ignore where our food comes from but get angry when food borne disease breaks out. While pointing the finger at everyone else, we can easily neglect ourselves. This is what Kennedy excelled at, reminding our citizens that through cooperation and sharing a sense of purpose, we could create miracles.
I wish that we could point out the fallacy of lack to all those who claim that "nature's way" is competition for scarce resources. My own experience has taught me the exact opposite. Where nature thrives, a profusion of life breaks out like you can't imagine. Literally billions of organisms can reside in a cup of soil. Sharing is the rule rather than the exception in these systems. Successful human endeavors often reflect this co-operative spirit rather than a competitive one. Miracle can happen and often do, but what is required is for folks to again realize that we are inextricably dependent on one another and our success. We are all responsible for the cohesion of natural systems. We are most richly rewarded for being stewards of the planet, which can allow it to support each and every one of us.
Make Miracles Happen!
Monday, November 22, 2010
Pardon Me, Is that My Car You Are About To Run Off The Road?
Today, 6:50 AM, some you know what tried to run me off the road with his Range Rover. Is it too much trouble to wake up before getting behind the wheel? Law abiding drivers should not be threatened by people who can't keep their vehicles in their lane! Normally, this would not rise to the level of "news" here at the Otherfish Wrap. However, it nearly cost me my life, so it is weighted a bit differently.
A wise person once said that the best recourse would be to arm oneself with a paintball gun, then "tag" rude, offensive neglectful and inattentive drivers. It would at least give others a heads up that they might be operating erratically. A few even advocate death to bad drivers, but too often, we all made mistakes or had errors in judgment. The most important thing is to recognize that you are supposed to be in control of your two thousand pound vehicle.
Professional drivers always try to have an exit strategy and remain aware of their surroundings for rapidly changing conditions. For those of us who choose to enter into the social contract that driving requires, the object again, for those who were not paying attention, is to all arrive in at least as good condition as we enjoyed before departure. we all arrive alive if we do it well, together. Please be of one mind next time you get behind the wheel (and every time after that as well please).
A wise person once said that the best recourse would be to arm oneself with a paintball gun, then "tag" rude, offensive neglectful and inattentive drivers. It would at least give others a heads up that they might be operating erratically. A few even advocate death to bad drivers, but too often, we all made mistakes or had errors in judgment. The most important thing is to recognize that you are supposed to be in control of your two thousand pound vehicle.
Professional drivers always try to have an exit strategy and remain aware of their surroundings for rapidly changing conditions. For those of us who choose to enter into the social contract that driving requires, the object again, for those who were not paying attention, is to all arrive in at least as good condition as we enjoyed before departure. we all arrive alive if we do it well, together. Please be of one mind next time you get behind the wheel (and every time after that as well please).
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Contemplating the Inevitable?
We have set ourselves up for a rude awakening. As the old saying goes, the chickens are coming home to roost. We can only hope and pray that we will be ready for them when they get here. There has been an overwhelming lack of interest in and commitment to our collective future and by thinking only about the next quarter, as so many businesses do, we have sacrificed many of the opportunities that have come our way over at least the last twenty years. Sadly, thirty or fifty years ago, we were already throwing our hands up at many of the ills that have grown into, what seem to be, insurmountable problems.
President Obama, speaking about the recovery of the Gulf Coast, hinted at one of our county's most difficult problems to face. Each year we inject billions of tons of soil into the Gulf of Mexico. Current agricultural policy has rewarded those who strip away the very tilth of our nation's soil, those who drag implements through marginal land, and those who keep expanding their operations to the point of not knowing a single acre well. The lion's share of our tax dollars that go into agriculture are to a relative handful of operators, each with many thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of acres. The Mississippi River carries soil and it's contaminants to the Gulf faster than it can be created or protected from deadly chemical treatments.
There are now precious few rivers in our country that harbor healthy fish populations and the record that we have in cleaning them up is extremely poor. Wildlife biologists have spoken for generations about indicator species. Like the canary in the coal mine, many species speak to us about environmental quality. As we learn more and more about our surroundings, we continue to find evidence about how out of balance nature has become. Our water and soil resources are not alone in this respect. As we can see around us, our efforts to clean up environmental degradation are usually done in a one step forward two steps back fashion.
Air pollution is a perfect example. As a nation, we used to drive a relatively small number of cars. As our children began to show signs of lead poisoning, from the emissions from automobiles and lead in paint, we "cleaned up our act". However, we drive more mile every year, and the emissions of other hazardous chemicals increases over time. My own children have been found to have high lead levels and because of that I had to learn about herbs that can help rid the body of this dangerous metal. My own health was affected by toxic compounds in the environment during my bike ride around the Great Lakes. Luckily, I had the loving care of a wise woman who knew that there were steps that I could take to expel them and heal the damage that they were causing. Not everyone will be so lucky. It seems that every time we find a solution to a single problem, we are confronted with a cascade of other problems that dwarf the first one. Cleaning up water for example has increased groundwater or air pollution, because the materials that we take out of the water through sewage treatment end up being incinerated and/or landfilled.
Many of our problems today come from being totally ignorant about our lifestyle and the effects that it has on the quality of the environment.
Shopping at big box stores is the perfect example. I have seen dozens of local businesses vacate the city, my city, the one I grew up in. I know of hundreds of folks who used to have secure livelihoods whose employers could not compete with the Targets and Wal-marts of today. The environmental cost has been that most of the best land in my city has disappeared under black top and the "new" mega-stores' sprawling roofs. I would estimate that the commercial real estate, now left vacant, is at least three times the size of the new "development". The blight that these empty establishments have created are a depressing reminder of friends lost and the many pillars of our community that have lost jobs to the mega-retailers. Heck, when I was a child, there were a dozen groceries within walking distance. Now there are many more places to get beer, soda and cigarettes, but only one that has carrots, potatoes and onions. That one surviving store is at the limit of walking distance, probably beyond the limit for most folks who live in my older neighborhood.
Even education has taken a hit. It was back in the eighties that I learned that the average college textbook is written at an eighth grade reading level. I sincerely hope that it has not gone down further since then. You don't have to go any further than Jay Leno's "Man On The Street" interviews to see that we, as a nation, are becoming ignorant at an alarming rate. I asked to see my daughter's textbooks when she started her Junior year in High School. Her Social Studies book had two sentences on union history. Two sentences? "Although unions helped establish such benefits as the weekend and the forty hour week, many of their victories came as the result of violent protest. Many union activists were anarchists and criminals whose motivation and methods were questionable." Really? No wonder so many are working so hard for so little. Education cannot be accomplished through more testing, it cannot be guaranteed by buying technological equipment. What we need is a complete overhaul of our educational system that allows competition to flourish.
I don't know how we can pull ourselves out of the tail spin that we find ourselves in. I'm not even sure that we will try until our ass is in a sling, or we hit the wall catastrophically. Most of us try to patch things up as best we can and muddle about in our usual way, ignoring the consequences. There are bright spots on the horizon. Luckily, many have seen the writing on the wall and will not abide further destructive tendencies. The growth in organic agriculture, permaculture and local food movements has been exponential. Granted, it is still a tiny fraction of one percent of our food production, but the growth is real. With the election of our current President, the public made a strong call for change. The problem that we face now is that many Americans don't realize that any worth while change requires long-term commitment and dedication. Our vote is just a temporary measure of public attitudes. Sustained effort will be required if we are to overcome the pressing issues that confront us now.
President Obama, speaking about the recovery of the Gulf Coast, hinted at one of our county's most difficult problems to face. Each year we inject billions of tons of soil into the Gulf of Mexico. Current agricultural policy has rewarded those who strip away the very tilth of our nation's soil, those who drag implements through marginal land, and those who keep expanding their operations to the point of not knowing a single acre well. The lion's share of our tax dollars that go into agriculture are to a relative handful of operators, each with many thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of acres. The Mississippi River carries soil and it's contaminants to the Gulf faster than it can be created or protected from deadly chemical treatments.
There are now precious few rivers in our country that harbor healthy fish populations and the record that we have in cleaning them up is extremely poor. Wildlife biologists have spoken for generations about indicator species. Like the canary in the coal mine, many species speak to us about environmental quality. As we learn more and more about our surroundings, we continue to find evidence about how out of balance nature has become. Our water and soil resources are not alone in this respect. As we can see around us, our efforts to clean up environmental degradation are usually done in a one step forward two steps back fashion.
Air pollution is a perfect example. As a nation, we used to drive a relatively small number of cars. As our children began to show signs of lead poisoning, from the emissions from automobiles and lead in paint, we "cleaned up our act". However, we drive more mile every year, and the emissions of other hazardous chemicals increases over time. My own children have been found to have high lead levels and because of that I had to learn about herbs that can help rid the body of this dangerous metal. My own health was affected by toxic compounds in the environment during my bike ride around the Great Lakes. Luckily, I had the loving care of a wise woman who knew that there were steps that I could take to expel them and heal the damage that they were causing. Not everyone will be so lucky. It seems that every time we find a solution to a single problem, we are confronted with a cascade of other problems that dwarf the first one. Cleaning up water for example has increased groundwater or air pollution, because the materials that we take out of the water through sewage treatment end up being incinerated and/or landfilled.
Many of our problems today come from being totally ignorant about our lifestyle and the effects that it has on the quality of the environment.
Shopping at big box stores is the perfect example. I have seen dozens of local businesses vacate the city, my city, the one I grew up in. I know of hundreds of folks who used to have secure livelihoods whose employers could not compete with the Targets and Wal-marts of today. The environmental cost has been that most of the best land in my city has disappeared under black top and the "new" mega-stores' sprawling roofs. I would estimate that the commercial real estate, now left vacant, is at least three times the size of the new "development". The blight that these empty establishments have created are a depressing reminder of friends lost and the many pillars of our community that have lost jobs to the mega-retailers. Heck, when I was a child, there were a dozen groceries within walking distance. Now there are many more places to get beer, soda and cigarettes, but only one that has carrots, potatoes and onions. That one surviving store is at the limit of walking distance, probably beyond the limit for most folks who live in my older neighborhood.
Even education has taken a hit. It was back in the eighties that I learned that the average college textbook is written at an eighth grade reading level. I sincerely hope that it has not gone down further since then. You don't have to go any further than Jay Leno's "Man On The Street" interviews to see that we, as a nation, are becoming ignorant at an alarming rate. I asked to see my daughter's textbooks when she started her Junior year in High School. Her Social Studies book had two sentences on union history. Two sentences? "Although unions helped establish such benefits as the weekend and the forty hour week, many of their victories came as the result of violent protest. Many union activists were anarchists and criminals whose motivation and methods were questionable." Really? No wonder so many are working so hard for so little. Education cannot be accomplished through more testing, it cannot be guaranteed by buying technological equipment. What we need is a complete overhaul of our educational system that allows competition to flourish.
I don't know how we can pull ourselves out of the tail spin that we find ourselves in. I'm not even sure that we will try until our ass is in a sling, or we hit the wall catastrophically. Most of us try to patch things up as best we can and muddle about in our usual way, ignoring the consequences. There are bright spots on the horizon. Luckily, many have seen the writing on the wall and will not abide further destructive tendencies. The growth in organic agriculture, permaculture and local food movements has been exponential. Granted, it is still a tiny fraction of one percent of our food production, but the growth is real. With the election of our current President, the public made a strong call for change. The problem that we face now is that many Americans don't realize that any worth while change requires long-term commitment and dedication. Our vote is just a temporary measure of public attitudes. Sustained effort will be required if we are to overcome the pressing issues that confront us now.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Cheese Culture of Wisconsin
Ironically, cheese is a "cultured product", and as such is a microcosm of our immigrant and native traditions. The better the milk, the better the cheese, the more care in processing, the better the result. Much like our larger culture, competing factors develop, vying for resources. In the most sublime situations, the depth and breadth of flavors depends on several critters getting along, each providing either food, shelter or breeding grounds for the other.
Foodies often appreciate the flavor without knowing what goes into production of their ingredients. Part of the lure of getting to know one's food is that the origin of each and every bite can have terra ware or "taste of the soil." Knowing the food, where it came from, who grew it, and how they did it transforms the experience of eating.
I've been to several parties now, where the hosts graciously put out several local cheeses to be enjoyed by their guests. Without local cheese-makers, the culture dies out. Support local cheese! Eat for a healthier planet, investigate your foodshed. Cradle to grave, Americans consume more calories of processed food, carbohydrates, fats and sugars than virtually any other nation. Consequently, that displaces vegetables. Remember, we're supposed to eat our vegetables.
It is high time to label non-food items as such. Taxing them could raise billions.
Is there a Campaign for Food Sanity? If not, there should be.
Foodies often appreciate the flavor without knowing what goes into production of their ingredients. Part of the lure of getting to know one's food is that the origin of each and every bite can have terra ware or "taste of the soil." Knowing the food, where it came from, who grew it, and how they did it transforms the experience of eating.
I've been to several parties now, where the hosts graciously put out several local cheeses to be enjoyed by their guests. Without local cheese-makers, the culture dies out. Support local cheese! Eat for a healthier planet, investigate your foodshed. Cradle to grave, Americans consume more calories of processed food, carbohydrates, fats and sugars than virtually any other nation. Consequently, that displaces vegetables. Remember, we're supposed to eat our vegetables.
It is high time to label non-food items as such. Taxing them could raise billions.
Is there a Campaign for Food Sanity? If not, there should be.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Long Rivalry Ends In A Draw
It has been said that the Dallas Cowboys were "America's Team". As memory serves, this term was coined about the time they had several players who were on work release from jail because of drug crimes. I understand that we are a drug culture with a football problem, but the fallacy of the name just sticks in some people's craw. I have traveled to over half of the states in the U.S. and have only seen a few Cowboys bars, where the entire decor is devoted to this so-called America's Team. On the other hand, virtually every state that I have been to has a Packer's bar. Something about being a little fish in a big pond has a certain attraction. With just over 100,000 people in our town, it feels especially sweet to take big city teams to the woodshed for a good thrashing. Oddly enough, if you look at the history of these teams meeting at Lambeau field, they are locked in a dead heat for wins. With a dozen wins each, it seems that there is no clear winner, but for those who have the luxury of living here in Green Bay, fresh off the win, there is no question about which team is better.
Oddly enough, there is a sense of pride in being locked in this eternal struggle. Hit for hit, pass for pass, down for down, we have matched wits, strength and strategy to a draw. Like a game going into overtime, it's clean slate between us here on the hallowed grounds of 1265 Lombardi. America's team or not, we're on an even footing with them and that in and of itself has great rewards. The sweetest victory comes when you get down to cases. The relationships that we develop between and among fans. I can't tell you about Texas, but fans here apologized in advance for the thrashing we were about to dole out. We honor and respect the fans that came to see the contest and we opened our shrine and accepted the misguided fans from "down there". Unlike some who take the game too seriously, we had compassion for our adversary. When the game became a blow out, we didn't strangle the life out of them, we held back and kept the score down. It was actually sad to see grown men at a loss for what to do in the face of our defense. Even harder, was to see the number of times that the way the cookie crumbled was so one sided.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but for today we can feel pretty good about the most recent win, we just won't talk about the fact that in Lambeau at least, we are in a dead heat with twelve wins each. Thanks for the contest, the excuse to party and the chance to cream "America's Team".
Oddly enough, there is a sense of pride in being locked in this eternal struggle. Hit for hit, pass for pass, down for down, we have matched wits, strength and strategy to a draw. Like a game going into overtime, it's clean slate between us here on the hallowed grounds of 1265 Lombardi. America's team or not, we're on an even footing with them and that in and of itself has great rewards. The sweetest victory comes when you get down to cases. The relationships that we develop between and among fans. I can't tell you about Texas, but fans here apologized in advance for the thrashing we were about to dole out. We honor and respect the fans that came to see the contest and we opened our shrine and accepted the misguided fans from "down there". Unlike some who take the game too seriously, we had compassion for our adversary. When the game became a blow out, we didn't strangle the life out of them, we held back and kept the score down. It was actually sad to see grown men at a loss for what to do in the face of our defense. Even harder, was to see the number of times that the way the cookie crumbled was so one sided.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but for today we can feel pretty good about the most recent win, we just won't talk about the fact that in Lambeau at least, we are in a dead heat with twelve wins each. Thanks for the contest, the excuse to party and the chance to cream "America's Team".
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