ECO-Tours Place Sugar Maples In Park

Today marks a turning point for ECO-Tours of Wisconsin Inc. Our first-ever city sanctioned planting of ten sugar maples along the East River Parkway in Green Bay. Seven ecotourists came and went during the operation, which involved digging trees, some twice as tall as participants, hauling them out into final positions and lovingly coaxing them into specialized holes, custom cut to conform to the large root systems. We even had a special guest who was riding an electric bicycle with the battery in a backpack. Amazing technology surrounds us and the creativity in using it is the only hold u[p to achieving sustainability. Our first ten trees set the stage for larger projects and more attention from local residents. To date, the loose amalgamation of friends and co-workers at Citizens for a Better Environment, who started planting trees together took thirteen years to plant their first 60,000 trees. In just the first six years since organizing officially, and accepting donations, we have planted another 60,000. In the scope of things, ten trees don't sound like much, but they will take up thousands of gallons of water into their tissues, especially during the spring thaw. In time they will tower over the houses and keep our neighborhood warmer in winter and cooler in summer.
Our guests were mostly school children who worked incredibly hard for modern-day young adults. One commented on how cool it was to give back. Indeed, the lions share of the wealth, true wealth now, not that filthy lucre, is given away every day.

I am reminded of the first time I met folks calling themselves Latin Kings, they sent a girl running after my friends and I to punch one of us. She ran down the slowest guy and punched him square in the chest, so we had to go back and see what was up!? The leader was hot at first, and even threatened us that he had a gun inside and was not afraid to use it. We talked a bit and he was duly impressed with our attire. My own costume was a studded dog collar with baby doll parts hanging from it, leather jacket, t-shirt, and jeans, one of the other two riders always looks like Mr. Natural, he's just not always truckin', the third guy always dresses like a straight, button-downs only and dress slacks. We must have made a sight. We were asked, "You folk?"
We all nodded. "How many in your gang?" We all asked in unison, what do you mean?
"If you got in trouble, how many would help you out?" We turned to one another, looking quizzical, and guestimated, fifteen or twenty, then we all agreed, thirty if you gave us a couple of days to let them all know. These kids were taken aback and recoiled slightly at the response. before half a second elapsed though, the leader asked, "Can we be in your gang?" to which we said: "No, we don't threaten people with guns or send people to punch people to get in our gang, you have to be willing to help everyone, not just your friends. If you want to be in our gang, you would have to care about others, not hurt them." then we rode off and left them to consider what king of gang they were going to become.

The few dozen non-profit groups that I have been associated with over the years shaped me and reminds me daily that there are nearly infinite resources for positive change, yet we often languish for the lack of vision and someone to stand firm and hold the rudder steady so that the rest of us can set the sails. Without a helmsman, all is lost. Volunteers run helter-skelter making ineffectual change as they drift along. In the absence of a good guide, a well crafted and succinct mission statement can help, but there is nothing, as George Clinton said best, The Awesome Power of  A Fully Functioning Mothership! Rather than allowing the fadishness of Environmentalism to wax and wane, we need constantly blossoming and deepening our eco-ethics, our environ-mentality as it were. Perhaps these ten trees will speak to the little leaguers who run by under them to their games, or the parents, or the families who walk the trail nearby. All I know is that less than ten minutes after planting one of them today, a male cardinal was enjoying a new perch, and lovin' every minute of it!

If you would like to help ECO-Tours fund more tree give-aways and ecotours, consider sending a gift to us at 1445 Porlier street, Green Bay, Wisconsin 54301-3334. Each tree costs about ten dollars by the time we buy it, pot it up, weed and water it for a few years, plant it out, water it in, protect it and weed it several times after planting. Our specialty is well-suited trees to each unique planting site, so our survival rates are excellent. With each tree potentially costing that much, we have a special interest in taking care of the trees we can afford to buy. Secure digital donations can be made through paypal by using our account number, tnsaladino42@hotmail.com We are also working on a revised business plan for taking ohe tours to a whole new level, being able to run tours by kayak, canoe, bike or hike. It will involve a bit more cost, but will open up more opportunities for more people getting out into the field with us. To book a tour, call us:(920) 884-2224. We will create a unique tour for you whenever you can get to Northeast Wisconsin.

Welcome Home!

Tonight, I was welcomed home by some bad news, but in about a half second, I was so completely over it. I spend most of my time thinking of others, their wants and needs, how to be a better neighbor and the like. anyone who has read my blogs, letters to the editor or my books, journals and the like will know that the humanity of my fellow man is a major focus of my efforts. My neighbor came over as soon as I pulled into the driveway, explaining the whole story as he had seen it. A hooded person with light colored cargo pants smashed my car up and put out the windshield and back window with a crowbar.
My mind first ran through the obligatory moment of shock and disappointment, trying like crazy to think of someone who I may have "wronged". Coming up with nothing useful, I immediately started to wonder what could be done for their tortured soul.
As long as they remain anonymous, I guess they will have to make their own way along their tortured path. It must take quite a bit of hate to get that bent out of shape over a car! Things are what they are for a reason and trying to inject any more into them than they deserve is pointless. I think that on some level, this person has tainted the good feelings I have about our neighborhood being quiet and safe, but I know that my friends and neighbors who live around here will do whatever they can to put an end to this person's rampage. The bizarre part of the whole thing is that my car needed body work anyway and perhaps with the insurance money fixing the damage caused by this guy, some other things will be resolved as well. The trunk lid will probably get replaced as well as both of the largest windows. Perhaps, the guy was doing me some kind of favor.
The grand scheme is just that. We can not know the depth and breadth of our actions. By definition they are beyond our comprehension. as senseless and random as this event may seem, whoever took their anger out on my car was doing God's work. I only hope that they have loving hands, to assure them that everything will be alright when they get home. Oddly enough, I had just put a special message on my trunk lid with magnetic letters. It said, STOP THE MADNESS, I guess that message struck a little too close to home. Perhaps the poor fool was imasculated by the 50mpg hwy, 45mpg city stickers, or the Tree-hugging dirt worshiper bumper sticker.  I just don't know. The joys and sorrows that we feel are of our own making. I hope and pray for the person who did this to get help. I was the victim but do not feel dis-empowered. Quite the opposite in fact. The car is just a tool and as such it can be repaired or replaced.
The mental state that leads one person to strike out at another through their belongings is a bit harder to repair. I truly hope that this person seeks help. I sat through two rounds of anger management classes even though I had been the victim of abuse several times myself. It helped me to understand the depth of isolation and estrangement that the average abusive person feels. When one feels the weight of the world upon their shoulders, even if that weight is purely imagined, it can make all kinds of irrational stuff seem to make sense. It is like a psychoactive drug that people are capable of creating in their own minds. I'm sure that there are ways to reach this disturbed person and on some level they already know that they were doing wrong, because they hid their face and ran away after doing the damage. Now, they are confronted with two choices. they can either face up to their mistake, make themselves known and grow from the experience or they can try to hide, bury the pain that led to this malicious conduct and try to keep their terror plots at bay while continuing to put on a happy face for their "friends" and "loved ones".
I'm sure that we would all like to avoid all this kind of crap altogether, but as long as there are children being raised with neglect and abuse, psychopaths will abound. Even if they are just a tiny percentage of the population, the law of averages will require us to come in contact with either them or their actions sooner or later. I'm not sure exactly why I don't feel more angry or upset. For many, their car is deeply and emotionally tied to their sense of self. I prefer to ride bicycle. I feel a bit sad for my children because the car may not be road ready by this weekend, when we were supposed to go on a short trip to see one of our relatives perform for Bobfest, celebrate another old family friend getting married and to make contact with their favorite cousins. Perhaps we will get to do the trip in a loaner car that is nicer than my own! I continue to count my blessings, the car may cost some money to fix, but it won't be the first time my budget has suffered at the hands of damaged individuals that I might never meet. Come to think of it, I think I spend over double what the car repair will cost routinely to people who couldn't give a shit if I live or die. In some ways, not knowing who did the damage is better than knowing those who make our lives more difficult and have every "right" to get away with it.
My heart will not stop loving you, whoever you are...may you learn to cultivate abundance and peace within your own heart. That kind of love cannot be squandered, petty or trite. Blessed Be!

Are We All In Yet?

I'm not a big fan of gambling references but here goes...When I was a youngster and had to deal with so many and such fallacious statements as I don't care to repeat, for even speaking them has proven to unleash great power for evil in the world. You know the kind, referring to how ours is the greatest country on Earth, or that we have the best medical system on the planet, or the best educational system, etc. The whole "free trade" B. S., nukes are carbon neutral, etc. Another pair that I really detest are the two that have sandwiched my personal social experience. When I was young, the right threw up the straw man about how liberals where commie freaks with their slogan, America, Love it or Leave it! and the current one, Freedom is not Free. Well, of course it is, no one in the social justice field is paid for their efforts! Every bit of that labor of love is provided on a volunteer basis.

Many of us have put our money where our mouth is for a long time. One of my first businesses was printing the image of the Great Lakes on organic cotton t-shirts. I had two main suppliers, one out East and one from Texas. I really liked the fellow in Texas, he was all about American made and even though his shirts were a bit more expensive, he was working on getting textile mills back up and running so that he would not have to ship the cotton overseas to be processed into fabric. The folks out east actually told me that a few of my first orders came at critical times when they needed capital. As the tiny, one person company that I began was about to shift gears and grow, my Texas supplier was put out of business by the state legislature of Texas who deemed growing organic cotton to be illegal. The East Coast suppliers went corporate and as soon as they found out that yuppies would pay for organic, their prices literally tripled, cutting my profit out with their rise in market share. I would love to begin again, providing ethically produced clothing at reasonable cost. I'm pretty smart, but miracles are not my specialty.
My thing is stories. I put my whole self into as many consecutive moments as possible and struggle to remember as many salient details of as many experiences as possible, so that I might convey the essential character of events that have the power to teach, enlighten and refresh those who take the time to listen.

As we pass through a typical day, there are a bewildering array of advertisements, commercials and messages that bombard our senses. Some clarity can be gained from beginning to understand who is paying for each and why. I loved my sister's idea for a bumper sticker that would say, "Whom do you serve?". I went to Target for paper toweling, a few shirts and not much else, $100! I was serving them in that moment, certainly. We need to begin to recognize that we are "all in" all the time. We are never just partly in, our whole being is enlisted in doing the work that our "maker" has set us to, but by definition, most of what we do will have no lasting impact on the world that we leave behind. My departed, ex-father-in-law used to say, "Don't matter, in 100 years, no one will know." and I mentally imagined that he was deficient in some way, like he was discouraging me from doing my level best. What took me years to understand was hat he was not voicing discouragement or the act of giving up, but the awareness that our pursuits were more important in the moment than they could ever be over a more grand scale of time. as grand an idea as we could come up with, time would have it's way at whittling away at the very core of our intention. He had turned the corner on hopelessness and realized that all one can do once one has become fully invested is bluff, hope for the best and roll with the punches.

We frequently try to change the way things are. Many dislike their homes so they remodel. Some don't like their children's teeth, so they install braces. In the old days, people would change schools or towns,  jobs or their names to try to get a new start in life. As the information age tightens the purse strings on the global economy, fewer and fewer options exist for those who wish to drop out of the rat race. as long as we are all in, and all in together, perhaps there is a way to pool resources and divvy up the pot in a more responsible manner...My own vision is to give Mother Earth 10% for each and every building permit issued, there should be 10% of project costs which go to ecological reserves, areas that will never get developed. Imagine if the least productive 10% of each and every farm were to be planted as a conservation easement and turned over for wildlife. Imagine if we mandated 10% of utility customers' bills be invested in renewable energy sources and instead of wasting money on research into pie in the sky ethanol production, implement technologies with a proven track record.
So many changes are needed, yet we act as if we have all the time in the world to "figger it out." We certainly do not!

We are all in and if we don't do something soon, we will be facing a crisis, as permanent state of affairs, position that will be virtually impossible to extricate ourselves from. We all know what to do, what needs to be done and for many of us we are beginning to understand the reasons why most politicians are so tight-lipped on many of these issues. It is high time that we as a society backed slowly away from many of the unsustainable practices that we are involved in. We need to redesign our urban areas to become more humane, encourage people and their money to come closer to the city center, and re-build a sense of stability by sharing ourselves with others. If it were not for this phenomenal tool, there would be no one to share this sort of information with you, unless you came to Wisconsin and visited me. I would be honored to receive your request for information on the next big thing. we are always working, and would like to tell you more about what we are up to...

On The Road To Utopia

When the average persons considers utopia, it is through the prevailing social haze of disharmony, distrust and disillusionment that clouds virtually everything we do. The most difficult thing to bear along our collective path is the excess baggage that we often carry that serve no useful purpose other than to drag us, or hold us down. I remember a few of my earliest backpacking treks. I would return home after a week or two in the wilds, only to find a few things that had been carried over miles of trail and that served no purpose along the way. A pair of pants, a writing pad or a few cans of sardines might not seem like very much excess baggage, especially when considered separately but all three, together, over a forty mile hike clamoring up mountains and wading through rivers definitely makes them seem more like liabilities rather than necessities. We have got to consider well the thoughts and action that we carry with us in our lives each day, to begin to make sense of the complex idea of Utopia, it's implications for ourselves, others and the entire planet that we share, at least for the time being, with all the critters that we share the Earth with.
Turn the average American head and you will find a sickening array of advertising, disturbing images and disarray. Between the murder and mayhem that often feeds us visually through television, the nauseating line-up of mind-numbing commercials and the "news" that most would agree has absolutely nothing to do with our lives, it is a wonder that have not degraded both mentally and socially, further faster. I, for one, feel that it speaks volumes to what some refer to as "human nature". If we listen to the Malthusians, the end is extremely near. This phenomenon has been with us since people first gathered together in groups trying to ward off the dark and cold. It seems that for some, knowing that their suffering will indeed end on some specific date helps them to cope, or perhaps, it lets them continue to ignore what needed to be done to make real, positive and lasting change in the world around them.
Case in point, several folks I know around town continue to post signs referencing specific Bible passages. If they have any real and positive effect on the world, I have not seen it. In fact, other than distracting drivers, they contribute nothing to society at large. Most often they serve only to distract and feed a false sense of security in the people who post the signs. When you meet these individuals, their countenance is gruff, belligerent, sardonic, sarcastic or just cold. In my estimation, anyone who believes crap that influences them to become ignorant, angry, rude, distrustful, judgmental and hateful needs to find another "good book" to read. What would be even better is if they would stop trying to inject nearly two thousand year old texts into our consciousness while we are trying to drive. I selectively watch the "tube", limit my exposure to commercials of all kinds, try to remember to "put on my thinking cap" when I am exposed to commercial messages as much as possible and try to remember to question whom each message serves, which can be a mammoth task in this day and age. Many are content to let the vast majority of the messages we are bombarded with daily fly under their radar, directly into the sub-conscious.
If we are to find a path to sustainability and alleviate any significant amount of pain in the world at large, we need to discover those things in our pack that limit our progress and either take them out of our collective "pack", or find ways to use them as examples for future generations to help educate our children about the plight of hanging on to things rather than investing in people. When one finds themselves with nothing, it can be scary. Believe me, I have been there. Another person that I cared about deeply took their life last week. A person who was always quick with a smile, a happy story and some good news. As odd as it may sound, even though he was a casual acquaintance and all-around-good-man, I couldn't find the words to ask him what was wrong the last time we worked together. Was it my own ignorance? Was it social conditioning? Was it selfishness? Perhaps it was a combination of all three. In retrospect, I did notice that his teeth and hair needed care. Not to "blame" myself, but I did notice. Do we need to ask others, "What is going on with you?" Surely, we do. Old way thinking leads many to ignore their fellow humans, unless they either do something extraordinary for us, or occasionally if they do something for society. Perhaps a simple tenacity on the topic of how things are going would serve everyone a bit more than biblical admonitions, commercials and more crime programs on the tellie.
I am frequently reminded of the old Cat Stevens song, But I Might Die Tonight, since first hearing it back in the seventies, I took it's messages to heart. There were times that I considered the possibility that it would be at my own hand, surely. I often wonder if anyone ever makes it through a lifetime without at least considering suicide a few times. When I was young, I was convinced that I would not make it past thirty. I was prepared to be martyred because of the violent rhetoric and seething hatred that the right expressed toward peaceful loving people. Since I always sensed that the spiritual world was every bit as valid as the physical one, I never feared death. I would not say that I "faced it" like we are led to believe the steely eyed soldier might, tauntingly or defiantly. I look to that transformation as more of another part of life, like taking out the trash or changing a poopy diaper. No fun, perhaps, but necessary. I have relatives in the death industry, so like with most things I have seen, I try to learn from all aspects life rather than rejecting any part of it. In my experience, when people pass the veil, often their survivors say that it makes them value life more fully. "Each and every moment are gifts", because you never know when your final act will occur. Perhaps if we allowed the true value of our decisions become real to us, believe me this can take a lifetime to learn. Perhaps if we developed the skill to reach out with our hearts, not just harsh words and judgement. Perhaps if we could develop skills to value one another as the true miracles that we are, the road would seem less bumpy, a lot shorter and it would seem to open out infinitely, like the blossoming lotus flower. If nothing else, at least there would be a lot less extraneous crap in our rucksacks.

Unleash Your Fury Appropriately

I tried to hold my "tongue", I really did. Now that we have had a week-long masturbatory period to pat ourselves on the back, wring our hands, and massage the facts in the matter of the killing of Osama Bin Laden, I can't help but say a few things on this matter. Of course, if this man was as terrible as we made him out to be, we certainly won't miss him. The pictures that I have seen of his compound surely did not reflect the quarters of a person who could mastermind his way out of a paper bag. That being said, there are plenty of mentally ill people who live in squallor that don't rise to the level of federal intervention, inciting international strife or all out stalking by the authorities. in fact, when the news obsesses over any story of so little consequence for so long, one has to wonder what we are supposed to be paying attention to that has slipped under the radar during our period of preoccupation with minutia.

We are frequently given something to think about by the media, often in far off places, when there are serious things that need our attention right here at home. Most often, if we did pay attention to our own business, it would be inconveinient for the powerful people who dictate policy. Watching many of the programs that bill themselves as news looks more like a cavalcade of mayhem, stupidity and distraction of the highest order. My wife put it so well when she described it as being the same as when the greeks invented sport, to keep the public from paying attention to politics. The antics of a woman injecting her eight year old child with botox cannot be allowed to rise to the level of national debate. Her State Child Protective Services people are investigating her, that is all you need to know. If anything, we should ask ourselves, "What creates that level of desperation in a mother, that she would feel compelled to "erase wrinkles" from her child for the sake of winning a pageant.

Even if we do not recognize the duplicity and condecention that is expressed by the way news is teased and tortured, we can all agree that most of what passes for "news" is far more about entertainment and distraction than creating an informed public that knows how to be better citizens. The reason for the term "Fourth Estate" is that in our country, we have a tri-cameral system of government. The Executive Branch, consisting of the President and his/her cabinet, The Congress, made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and the Judicial Branch, who are responsible for deciding matters of Constitutional Law. The fourth estate is the term given to the fourth branch of government which is responsible for educating the populace about what the other three branches are doing. Without an infomed public, you can see the direction that we are doomed to drift toward.

The majority of what passes for news now is simply a collection of snippets designed to make one want to turn the channel, or station, but like a car wreck, most folks can't help but look on in astonished horror. If there is any redeeming quality that I am overlooking, please, someone, point it out to me! I honestly can't understand why we would be burdened with a murder that takes place half a world away. I cannot see the sense in tying up billions of dollars worth of equipment and technical expertise in floods whose causes are virtually unmentioned. There are things that need to be understood and changes that need to be made, by all of us, to help solve the pressing issues of the day. As long as we remain insulated from the truth of the issues, and continually provided the fodder that leads us to assume that we are powerless in an out of control world, no change is possible. I was recently quite entertained by an hour-long, supposed in-depth news program about the rapidly escalating diagnosis of depression among young people and women. I kept thinking that if you are paying the least bit of attention and you don't get depressed sometimes, that is the real disease!

The pent up anger and hostility that many of us are getting used to feeling is caused by knowing way too much about "news" that should never be covered in the first place. When the salient points are glossed over and the tiniest of details are rendered ad nauseum for us to ponder instead of what really matters, we are left with unresolved angst. many news casters have said that as long as there is a pretty picture on screen, they are allowed to say almost anything, they can even tell the complete and unvarnished truth, but when the viewer is looking at their face, and only their face, they must never say anything that could be, even remotely, construed as controvercial. In an age that relies on continual controversy, it is funny that we cannot tell the truth about a single thing of consequence. Have we become that fearful of offending someone that we are willing to turn our heads away from the fact that we pump billions of tons of our fertile soils into the Gulf of Mexico each year? Are we going to remain so insistent that we are a moral country that even our nationalized immorality will go unexamined? when the folk song asked, "How many times must a man turn his head, pretending he just doesn't see." it was a call to action, not a rhetorical question.

Those responsible for what we see and hear will never feel compelled to do their jobs any differnetly, until we get up the guts to change the channel. Most of us realize that we are just having our chains yanked, but as long as we honor the scenarios that they dole out for us, refusing to heed the real meaning behind the messages we are spoon-fed, we will continue to feel depressed and out of sorts. Fortunately, we have the power to turn off the television and actively do what is needed to right the badly listing ship of state. What is needed is genuine change, not hype. Many of us belong to the legions that have become turned off to business as usual. For those of us that have moved beyond the distractions that pass as "news", reintegrating intro the real world, the one with historically low crime rates, the one with pressing ecological problems and the one in which our freedoms carry with them serious responsibilities, life is truly worth living. Great happiness lies beyond the twenty-four hour news cycle. please get out and explore the revolution that is not being telivised. Invite your elected officials to participate and for all of our sake, place the blame for where we find ourselves on those who do the most to create our realities. Money is not, and has never been the root of all evil, the lust for money and the greed and deception that continuously concentrates wealth and power is the root. Stop participating in herd mentality and you just might find solutions to many of the problems that the news cycle continues to ignore. It is high time we reject the sensibilities that led us to our current situation. Sustainability is possible. We will all need to participate in making our way to it, but it can be done, and with less effort than you may think.

Hooray, Hooray The First Of May!

I'm always thrilled, borderline ecstatic, when May Day rolls around. Most years find us gathered around a May Pole, dancing and thrilled to be honoring the reunification of the Lord and Lady in an eternal dance that assures our survival and the fertility of the planet. Most years I take full advantage of the season to find fun and enjoy the sun. It's virtually always a great excuse for a roll in the hay, drinking fermented fluids and enjoying the company of old and new friends, family and the larger community whose members have usually sequestered themselves away during the long dark winter. It is a great time to enjoy the longer days and to sit by a fire during the cool night.
This year I have been having some somber thoughts and serious distractions from the change in season. Oddly enough, this year marked the twenty-fifth annual remembrance of the Chernobyl disaster. It is odd how we can so thoroughly forget things that change the world for both the better and the terribly worse, except on their "anniversary." In many ways we would surely melt down ourselves if we were to keep things like Chernobyl in the mind's eye for too long. Realizing the truth of what went on there and what continues to be reality for millions of suffering individuals makes it difficult to laugh, play and celebrate the season. What I knew about Chernobyl when it blew up was virtually nothing. What I have come to know since then has made me more grown up than I ever wanted to be. News and information about that place and the people of that region have continued to come to me over the years, but this year was strikingly different. I heard a first-hand account of what happened to one young girl who lived near there and how the lives of millions changed in one brief moment.
May Day celebrations were not canceled near Chernobyl after the explosion, even though a cloud of radiation covered hundreds of square miles. Men, women and children wore short sleeves and danced in the streets, staying out in the beautiful weather for hours at the annual festivals and their government knew that they would be exposed to radiation but did not want to alarm them. Cancer rates have increased exponentially since then and the cities for miles around have now been cleared of their populations. Weeks after the release of what later became known as the "black cloud", children were evacuated, leaving all the cities around there childless.What most disturbed me at the time was the utter lack of concern many seemed to have for the people. The United Nations estimates that seven million people are still living with sicknesses and diseases caused by the accident at Chernobyl twenty five years ago. Estimates of the dead are many times higher than that, although records were not kept, except for what they referred to as "liquidators", those who went in after the explosion to "clean up."
Their bodies were buried under lead shielding because they became sources of radiation by just being at the site. A few survive to this day, and are given a paltry sum of twenty dollars each month to help them pay for food. Some of the terrible consequences of that fateful day can be found at: http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/chernobyl
Be prepared for just enough truth to change you for life.
It is time that we all join together to change the direction we are headed. Allowing the nuclear age to continue only assures more accidents and more suffering at the hands of technocrats who seem to want to remain illiterate about the extent and quality of change that radiation poses for our people and our planet. By now, because of the recent events in Japan, we have more than likely heard the term half-life. This is the time period that it takes for the radioactivity in a specific element to be reduced by half. In the case of plutonium, it has a half-life of 24,000 years. If you believe in Christ, that's over ten times as long as it has been since he walked on Earth. That's how long it will take for the radiation to be reduced by half, both from Chernobyl and now, in Japan. There have been other nuclear accidents as well as mistakes that were not treated as accidents, that have resulted in the same sorts of contamination. Just a few sites where problems will outlive our memory of them are at Three Mile Island, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Of course, Chernobyl, at Rocky Flats, in an area that has been subsumed by Denver, at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and at several sites in the Desert Southwest here in our own country. We must not forget the purposeful mayhem of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or the hundreds, perhaps thousands of sites where we have released radioactive materials without regard for the local populations or showed the slightest concern for documenting our efforts to contaminate them.
It is hard to celebrate this joyous holiday when you feel so terribly that we must change or perish. It seems almost silly to rejoice in the unending fertility of nature at this wonderful celebration of spring, when you know that humanity has come so far along the path to our ultimate destruction.
Perhaps next year, or twenty five years from now, we will be looking back at this time and wondering how our leaders could have been so stupid. My feeling is that we should have done the serious business of shutting these activities down before they ever got started. Science told us what to expect. The lies that humans told about  the nuclear age were totally at odds with reality. We all need to work together to get the word out about this dangerous technology. Truth stands up to closer inspection and can stand on it's own. Lies need to be constantly propped up. Learn the truth about nuclear energy and you will never see it the same way again, I guarantee, it will help you to see through a multitude of lies that we have been told for the past fifty years.