Summer Fun

As we slide into the Fourth of July weekend, we wish everyone a safe and happy week or so. Please relax and take your time if you are traveling. Remember, the goal,when driving, is for everyone to arrive safely. Also remember that those long drives are some of the most memorable parts of many vacations. Enjoy the company of friends and family when you get to your destination, of course, but don't overlook the travel time as a source of great conversation and insight into your family's ideas, insights, hopes and dreams. Lastly, please remember that when the national speed limit was lowered to 55 miles per hour, America realized a 15% drop in fuel use for transportation. Fifteen percent better mileage may not seem like a large amount, but the extra few minutes per hour on the road has massive benefits for our pocketbooks and Mother Earth when multiplied by millions of drivers! Car companies and engineers may be able to deliver fuel savings like that over the course of decades, but we each have the power to make this change instantly by taking a bit more time to get where we are going.
Don't forget the sunscreen, sunglasses and a towel. You never know when the opportunity to swim will present itself! We at The Otherfish Wrap wish you peace and the best in all that you do, today, through the weekend and throughout the coming year! Blessings and Namaste', Tony C. Saladino

Remember When Reading Was Fundamental, Now It Seems That Ignorance Is In Style

In the case of the current Governor of Wisconsin, we have reached a new level of ignorance. Without understanding the history or culture of our state, economics or science, he has developed policies and made changes to our government that will take us from the top tier of states in several important areas and insert us into the roster nearer to states such as Alabama, Mississippi and Texas. I have no issue with how other states value education or the social safety net, but there were good reasons for me to choose Wisconsin as a place to settle, invest in and devote my life to. Why we have the rule that recalling our leaders cannot be begin for a year after they are elected makes no sense to me. The hundreds of thousands of people who have flocked to the state capitol and to governor walker's speaking engagements across Wisconsin should indicate that the policies he advocates are not only unsound, but unwanted by those he feels do not deserve to be represented.
The people who warned us about this man's record were spot on, but the rhetoric of hate and fear seems to have overwhelmed logic at the polls. Even if there were truth behind the lies he is willing to tell, I would seek that truth and go with it, but his allegiance is obviously to those who are privileged and stand to gain the most through further enslavement of the working people of our state.most contrary to the Wisconsin Idea is the undermining of standards of living of public workers. government is not and should never be run like a business. If government were a profit center, private industry would be all over taking the opportunity away from duly elected officials. Instead, the privateers continue to cherry pick discreet elements of government's role, swooping in to take over profitable parts of their dealings and leaving the less profitable parts, like getting real and necessary work done, to be paid for by taxpayers. In fact, the social service net has already been largely taken over by industrialists, adept at pocketing the majority of funding to cover "administrative costs" and stiffing recipients of housing, medicare and programs designed to save money through energy efficiency improvements. In twenty years, when we graduate the cadre of individuals who first experienced an education of teachers who earn less than their mentors, the chickens will finally be home to roost. By that time, picture language may have supplanted English as the preferred method of communication.
Please, let everyone you know who lives here in Wisconsin, to get behind the recall efforts. I'm sure that those who elected Mr. Walker were less inclined to accept his approaches as they just wanted to send the message "We need change". Of course, when one votes out of a sense of desperation, very little good can come from it. being responsible citizens requires far more than just showing up on election day. we need to seriously ask ourselves why power vacuums exist in government and who benefits most by finding just the right schmuck to fill the bill. People, not money are supposed to be in charge and have their needs met. Next time an ingrate helps you at a chain store, or restaurant, don't get mad at them. Place the blame on the corporados who deemed it necessary to squeeze the person's teachers even harder, making them do ever more with ever less, then ask how your dollars might be better spent somewhere else, where education and training are still deemed part of the American Way.

Wonderful Weather

With the exception of Friday, the weather this week is supposed to be exquisite. Nancy and I have spent the last few weeks planning and working at getting our yard under control. So many loose ends have been tied up and several projects finished. Now we get to just enjoy the weather and one another. together we make good company. If there were some way of expressing the calm that has come over our part of the world, I would tell you now. suffice it to say, if the weather was this nice all the time, Florida and Arizona would empty out and Wisconsin would be teeming with snowbirds. I had to flee the coast because of the long hot summers and today makes me very glad that I did. As Goldilocks might have said, the weather here is just right!
With the advent of Midsummer comes the blossoming of new ways of thinking, new awarenesses and new growth that the winter nearly always subdues or puts to rest completely. The trips we have taken back and forth many times vibrate with life and sounds that remind us of the fact that the whole planet is alive and that each and every organism is the beneficiary of the abundant light of the season. although powers of darkness are loathe to relinquish control over us, the deck is stacked in favor of less responsibility and less servitude as barefootin' in shorts takes a front seat and relegates dress shoes and long pants to the back of the closet. Just as the season dictates that we live a little more each day, our hearts are filled with experience and enjoyment in the out of doors.
Although I will be missing another National Rainbow Gathering, my heart is with my brothers and sisters reveling in the National Forest in Washington State this week. The lead up to the Fourth of July can frequently be too hot for me. The planting schedule of ECO-Tours of Wisconsin gets severely curtailed around this time of year because the sun is high and the rains get spotty. We begin to plant again with the fall rains, but for now, we just tend to the plantings that are in the ground already. Having such beautiful weather to enjoy is "tough work" but somebody has to do it!

It Is Hard Not To Be Topical From Time To Time

As much as one might try to ignore it, the rediculosity of the near constant barrage of network news creeps into a person's consciousness. On this fine day, the latest thing to make the news is that one of the male Wisconsin's Supreme Court Justices assaulted another of the Justices in her office, while five other Justices looked on. This occurred during what is being called a "discussion" about the legitimacy of  Governor Scott Walker's recent evisceration of public employee unions. It sickens me that our "duly elected officials" cannot participate in discussions without resorting to violence. In fact, the term discussion has no place in the characterization of this event.
As telling as this crime is, it seems that the real news about it will never see the light of day. A man, (who just happens to be a self professed Republican) choking a woman who disagrees with him would warrant immediate firing in any other workplace. The fact that he was supposedly "defending" the governor's "right" to negate one hundred years of civility and good faith agreements that have been arrived at through generations of bargaining shows that expediency has certainly eclipsed decorum. Any sense of legitimacy that one holds in public office becomes null and void when thuggery such as this is not dealt with severely. The fact that we are even hearing a lame defense of Justice Prosser is disillusioning. The Justices are supposed to be guiding us to a more just future through their well-considered decisions about things that come up during the practice of our way of life. They are no more insulated from the law than any of us. If I had been in justice Prosser's office, choking him, regardless of why I might have done it, would get me at least a stay in jail. Had I ever done anything remotely similar in the workplace, I would be looking for another line of work.
As many might understand, assaulting someone based on their beliefs falls into a category we sometimes refer to as hate crimes. Sadly, the sexual overtones of a man beating up on a woman and the very nature of the crime, have yet to be elucidated by those who bring us the "news" Putting your hands around the neck of someone who is pissing you off is dangerously close to attempted murder. If he was out of control enough to overstep the boundaries of civility, there is little to suggest that the skills needed to guide a civil society toward justice exists in him. Is there any question that those who use power and control need to be held accountable for crimes that they commit? The validity of our state's highest court depends on unblemished integrity of the justices that we send there. Ruffians have no place in government generally and certainly not on the bench of the highest court in the state.

This Morning

Before the Sun began to rise, something in the blue light of  pre-dawn woke me. I came full awake out of a blissful sleep. I could not understand why, but like a neon sign in my head, all I could think about was securing the door to one of our chicken tractors. I dismissed the thought and because I could not sleep, I decided to get up and enjoy the bluish light show playing across the midsummer sky. Beautiful weather and low humidity welcomed me to another fine day in Wisconsin. The wind itself rustled through branches high above our tiny little house and not a cloud had appeared yet in the early morning sky. A distinctly cool and fresh breath of air made it's way to my lungs through the open window and I knew that I had to be awake. Something about this day demanded my attention. To my surprise, the chickens were restless as well. Something had them on alert and their vigorous clucking told me that something was amiss. I got up with purpose less than five minutes earlier, but "the girls" would soon be glad that I did.
I looked out the kitchen window and saw a slinking tail, dark and ominous, stalking the wire mesh of the coop and I wished that I had easier access to my pellet gun. I assumed that one of the local cats was harassing the birds. I slid on shoes and immediately ran out the back door to get a better look at the culprit. The long, low, shadowy figure had disappeared behind the garden fence and I went around the other side, hoping to see the interloper but whatever it had been, but whatever it was had not waited to let me see it. The chickens had quieted, but again piped up. When I came back to calm them I saw a second creature inside he coop. A raccoon had found the weak link in the cage and got in, but could not get out of the coop. The poor thing was really wishing that it had not gotten in. The jig was up and the masked intruder, comfortable with anonymity, was having none of the fact that they were caught in the refrigerator sized cage along with tho irate birds. Like the dogs in our neighborhood, as much as they may be attracted to the chickens, thinking they could be food or playthings, once they get close, they seem completely unprepared for the ruckus the hens can make.

Pearl, our iridescent black Australorp, had herself between Pepper, our smaller barred rock and was doing her best to fend off the wary 'coon. In the end, all I had to do was to open the access door that we use to feed and water the birds and our unwelcome friend made a hasty retreat back to his realm down by the riverbank. Before the interloper was released, he seemed to be feverishly trying to get away from the birds and it was a little hard to not feel sorry for the bugger. Anxious raccoon is never a great thing to wake up to so I was glad that it just needed a route of escape to set things right. The two birds, who are recent additions to our yard, seemed to recognize that I was their defender and came by me, thanking me in their own way, for securing their cage. All was right in their world and I felt a certain sense of pride knowing that quick thinking and rapid action on my part averted a catastrophe for them.

Homeless Children Deserve A Chance At Camp.

I normally don't get caught up in the media circus that is television "news", but the other day there was a special segment on homeless children, focusing on just one county in Florida. Needless to say, multiply that problem by thousands of counties nationwide, all hit by the same real estate collapse and the amount of heartbreak and stress that presents itself is beyond comprehension. Having worked at summer camps and in programs designed for latch key kids, I know what a single stable force amongst turmoil and desolation can make the difference between success and failure in life. Listening to the stories of homeless children eclipsed the deep love and protective feeling I have for the planet and perhaps even the Great Lakes Ecosystem.
Those who know me remember that I rode bicycle 4,280 miles (6,850Km) around all five Great Lakes, taking eighty days to rediscover my world in person. For years I studied he lakes in books and through research papers dedicated to their many environmental catastrophes, but in those two and one half months of travel, I learned a lifetime of lessons. That is why I want to share what I have learned about sustainability with the next generation and especially those who have prematurely had the weight of adult issues thrust upon them. I am willing to devote my entire working life to finding more and better opportunities to teach eco-ethics, sustainability theory and practices as well as an understanding of living in harmony with the planet as well as her creatures, including people as possible.
The closest estimation of cost is about $125 per day. That figure would allow staff to attend to all of the needs of children and provide enough trained guidance to know that the principles of sustainability are evidenced at all levels of their experience. From transport, whose carbon footprint is offset with our tree planting program, to solar and wind electricity generation, from aquaponic greenhouses providing vegetables and protein, to composting, vermicultue and free range chickens, virtually everywhere a student looked, they could see evidence of humans cooperating with nature exemplified. Two weeks at camp, can easily cost thousands, but we rely on many of our own programs, and long term support of committed individuals to offset capital investments that would be used to sustain the camp over the long haul. Blocks of eighty days ($10K) can be purchased to ensure that five children can attend out camp, each for two weeks. An investment in those five children attending our unique program would come with an additional ten day stay for the generous investor who wants to see our programs in action, or at your discretion, those days could cover ten additional days for a needy child's visit instead.

There is no shortage of children who can benefit from some time in the country, experiencing nature and having fun adventures in fresh air and all kinds of weather. especially in these times where the number of homeless children in America has doubled from one year ago, it is high tiome that we respond with an innovative program of training our most disadvantaged children what can be done with an eye to the future and the inspired actions toward sustainability. children of hardship often become future leaders and knowing that the goodness to help out exists especially when the chips are down, can make a world of difference in how they turn their lives, and our planet around.
Many of our actions are designed to make our immediate friends, family and environment better, through our unique programs, we allow exponential change to occur and spread it all around, into other communities, that the children return home to and into the future as they raise their own families into the future. The time has come to re-think education from the ground up. Living the future now is the only way to invite the next generation to accept the inevitable change that is needed to achieve sustainability in their lifetime.
Tony Saladino is a liflong environmentalist, shaman and permaculture enthusiast who has led the organization, ECO-Tours of Wisconsin for the last seven years and was formerly the local leader of Citizens for a Better Environment's Green Bay office. Prior experiences as nature guy for the City of Green Bay and for College Settlement Camps of Philadelphia make him an excellent choice for both outdoor guide,sustainability expert and guide for those interested in having both the highest standard of living possible, while assuring that mother Earth will not suffer in the process of providing you abundance.
Corporate rentals during the off season at our facility include leadership training and team building exercises and outdoor adventures to build cohesion between employees and management teams.
Reach us at (nine2zero) 884-triple two-four or write using snail mail to 1445 Porlier street, green Bay, Wisconsin 54301-3334. you can also make donations directly through paypal at: tnsaladino(number forty-two)@hotmail.com. You can also e-mail us at that address.
bless you for sharing this note around. If you cannot personally invest in giving a child this opportunity, let others know who can either consider a gift or share this opportunity with their friends.
bless you for taking the time to read this post, I know it was a little long.

Frequently Asked Questions About Sustainability

When I first began learning about the environment, prevailing sentiment was that whenever something was out of sight, it could be put out of mind. This had led to contamination of each and every resource we had access to as well as some that were out of reach as well. groundwater contamination was running rampant, as was surface water contamination. The lane was being despoiled and the air was being filled with toxic compounds. Sadly, little has changed over the past fifty years. In fact, much of the contamination is getting more insidious and less well regulated. This leaves the burden of awareness and action on individuals. government and most major industries don't care enough to reign in their waste and pollution, but for those who do, there are vast territories to explore and even greater profits awaiting those who take on the challenge of sustainability.
The number one question everyone has is what is sustainability? This sounds simple enough until you realize how utterly divorced from the concept we have become. The best way to understand the concept is to think of four primary system conditions. First, the ecosystem that we rely on for our health and well-being should not be subjected to increasing concentrations of substances extracted from the earth's crust. Secondly, the ecosystem should not be subjected to increasing concentrations of substances produced by society. Third, the ecosystem should not be degraded by physical means. And fourth, human needs have to be met worldwide. Sounds simple, right? It really is, but the media would have us think that these four system conditions are virtually unattainable and that the very consideration of such change is difficult and best left to the experts.
My own path to sustainability has taught me that nothing can be further from the truth. As a matter of fact, even those with below average intelligence can grasp the concepts and find ways of living more lightly on the planet if given half a chance. As we face a future in which resources have been squandered and despoiled, costs continue to escalate wildly. Waste and pollution are working their magic on our culture as you are reading this in ways that have yet to be discovered. The true costs of business as usual have been put on the backs of generations of as yet unborn children who will face even more disease and illness from lack of clean water, air and soil on which to grow the food that they will need to sustain themselves for generations. Ultimately, the responsibility for making positive change happen falls to us. Only those alive today can hope to change the future for the better. Understanding that all of our human activities have impacts on the future is the first step to understanding the idea of sustainability.
People have come to realize that as the price of gasoline has doubled, to keep the same standard of living while using petroleum based fuels, the use of these fuels needs to be cut in half. Similarly, when the cost of heating our homes doubles, we can still have the same standard of living only by turning the thermostat down to halfway between what we felt was comfortable and the outside temperature. Tricky thing when the mercury plummets to below zero for days on end. The second option would be to double the amount of insulation that envelops our homes, but that might be far more difficult than just donning some sweaters. sustainability has the best chance of success when the system conditions are considered during the design and building process. Retrofits are commonly very labor intensive and the marginal difference that can be achieved when trying to refit an existing system can be daunting.
Take, for example, our installation of a "scorched air" solar panel. Basically, it is an insulated box, airtight, except for an inlet and an outlet hole, with glazing on the south facing side. as the sun pours in, it heats the box and the air inside. a fan pushes cooler air in and hot air is then pushed out the other end and ducted into the house. Designing this into the south wall of all new construction that is in climates where winter heating is required makes perfect sense. Adding it onto a home that is 100 years old presents some special challenges. The optimal angle for such a device at my latitude, just south of the 45th parallel is around thirty degrees. Do we need to mandate south facing walls be at this angle for new construction? It would make free heat possible and reduce the costs of adding solar heating in the future, especially if it were not put in from the start. Sustainability requires attention to what is best as opposed to what we have always done. The highest percentage of "solar homes" were built just after the depression hit, because money was tight and sun was usually abundant. adding a few more windows on the south facing walls and leaving a few out of the north side was easy enough, but we have lost that awareness because of our pathetically high standards of living. When the energy crisis of the seventies hit, the tendency was to go overboard and put all the windows to the south causing overheating problems. as with most things, moderation is the key.
The concept of waste is changing. Each and every thing we throw "away" has to go somewhere and be dealt with by someone else. This has true costs and there are some costs that are avoided by pushing the responsibility for paying for them into the future. Developing the next landfill will cost millions, but the cost of that work will fall on future generations, "so why worry?" Well, it is because there is no away and the children that we will leave this society to will not have the vast resources that we have gotten used to to help save them from the inevitable need for more space for their trash. Instead, we need to look at our waste stream as a rich source of energy and materials. Aluminum, as many know is infinitely recycleable and when recycled, uses a fraction of the energy that it takes to refine it from bauxite ore. Recycling aluminum not only reduces the need for mega-mining operations, but conserves energy as well. These are the sorts of specific changes that we need if we are to meet the challenges of creating a sustainable society. Each of us can make great change if we take a little time to think about our impact on the planet and ask serious questions about where the things we use daily come from and ultimately end up.

Burgeoning Sense of Lack Threatens Sustainability

While the aristocracy continues to extract vast sums of money and resources from the earth and her people, even those in the "richest countries in the world" are having to make due with less. Less travel means less exposure to other people and other ideas. If it were not for the internet, there would be a nearly complete collapse of awareness and understanding of the variety of cultural differences that we all live amongst. Provincial thinking only worked when we were in tiny isolated communities. Currently we are experiencing a mushrooming of information and a growing sense that we are all one big family. Our myths are entwined, our laws are overlapping and our cultural similarities far outweigh our differences. In the infinite arc of time, the changes that overtake us daily in the early twenty-first century (according to the Julian Calendar) are greater than those experienced throughout a whole lifetime just a few hundred years ago. Information storage and retrieval alone account for more change than we could have fathomed just twenty short years ago. Our imaginations have had the tethers of possibility loosened and we are able to set course on wider seas each day.

I spent a bit of time today looking at the page views for this blog over the past two years. I was amazed by two things. The numbers of page views dwarf the total numbers of copies of my old fanzine. The international readership that has found my blog too has been phenomenal. Whereas my old printed version of The Otherfish Wrap took days to produce and were limited to how far those actual pieces of paper could travel, using electronic media allow me to write more quickly, use less resources and touch the lives and intellect of far greater numbers of people as well as touching them over a larger geographic area. The rapid pace of change is like a double edged sword. The Earth seems to have been distilled. I have to appreciate and understand that my audience is larger than I can fathom, yet still appreciate each and every reader. No small task for someone who feels most at home with old way organizing techniques of hand shaking, hugging and sharing meals with those who share similar ideas, supporting them through their own unique crises and sharing a sense of abundance in the face of oppression by the power elite. By streaming electrons is discreet ways, we can relate to one another in a whole new way that years ago took weeks, months or years, in an instant.

The difficulty arises in that we can see more and more details that pertain to the lives of the aristocracy. It is strange and strikingly different from our own lives, although more and more people, of all social and political colors are beginning to see the facts about where we have come to and where we are headed. Our understanding of where we have come to and the choices that we make for the future depend on an ever expanding storehouse of data. Understanding that we can never "know it all" is at the heart of both compassion and sustainability. Honoring our limits and accepting our interdependence on an intact and integrated whole can be both humbling and enlightening. "Having it all" becomes more and more tied to letting go rather than acquisition. Getting to see how the other half lives can be disorienting because our "reality" is so dissimilar to that of the wealthy of any culture. The difficult hurdle that we need to overcome is the thinking that somehow the wealthy "have" something that is valuable. In fact, the more "well-off" frequently suffer from dislocation from their own families, often their communities, and their materialism often interferes with their appreciation of both spiritual and emotional riches that are hard to take into account in dollars (or any currency) alone.

As we have been shown more and more details of the lives of the ultra wealthy, the power brokers and the marketers of capitalism, we see many more things that we lack, understand a bit more fully how little our lives matter to the ruling class and, in some cases, dream of what we would do if we "won the lottery". What we don't seem to see enough of is what really makes for a fulfilled life. Loving, being loved, holding babies and sharing of oneself all seem to receive short shrift in out materialistic societies. Is it inevitable that we will always want what we cannot have? Or, are we capable of getting beyond this sense of lack for the sake of future generations? Frequently I am asked, "What would you do if you won the lottery?" My response is most often to give it all away. I would buy land to make parks, especially in areas that are urbanized, but in the headwaters as well, to help protect water quality. I would especially like to give it to not-for-profit organizations like ECO-Tours of Wisconsin so that their programs of reforestation and environmental education will live on after my passing. Coming from poverty and lack, perhaps, has given me a different perspective than many, but the quality of life that others can hope for and experience weighs more, in my mind, than my own freedom from want. Acquisition only inspires until the act of procurement has passed. At this magical moment, the very object of our desire changes from an inspiration to action to an eternal responsibility. A tax, if you will, that must be paid in the form of protection, maintenance and upkeep, as long as we "own" it. When I get my "dream house", it won't make me happy unless I can share it with others. When I get a sailboat, I will take people out in it to bring them pleasure, that is what I will love about it. Sustainability cannot be about competition for scant resources. No other creature is as enamored with the idea of lack as humans have proven to be. I will stand as a testament to abundance. I will make a go of it no matter how limited my resources, I will continue to try to reach out to those I love whether I have much or little. I will continue to produce as much of my own food as possible, care for whatever part of the planet I may find myself in as possible and care for and support those around me. Hopefully, leading by example will teach an enduring lesson to those around me and inspire in others a reciprocal relationship that benefits the earth, her creatures and the very systems that provide us with clean air, water, food and protection from the elements when we need it.