What Is At Stake?

The largest wetland complex on Lake Superior is at risk and the native people who depend on it for their survival are threatened by the development of a strip mine in Northern Wisconsin. Despotic mining interests from Florida seek to strip mine low grade taconite ore to be processed and shipped off to produce iron. The boom and bust cycle of metal prices has led once again to greed and corruption of our good sense as well as the erosion of our values. More iron and steel are rusting away across the Northern tier counties of Wisconsin than will ever be produced by the mine. The depression that has been caused across the Northwoods is the result of just this sort of extractive approach to economic activity and the last thing the region needs are 700 short term jobs that leave behind the legacy of toxic waste and dislocation caused by extracting the very things that make people want to live and vacation here.
The wild rice beds, (menomin) that form the basis of a culture that has been relatively stable in spite of the onslaught of white "civilization", are part of the prophecy that led these native people on their westward trek centuries ago. The grass that grows on water has not only been repeatedly harvested year after year in an unbroken chain of events since the Ojibwa came to this area, but the nutrient rich grass has flourished under their care as well. The drainage basin that feeds the marsh lies exactly where the proposed mine would be. The ore body that interests the mine owners is only part of the body of Mother Earth that the native people recognize as life giver and sacred being. If the rice beds form the heart of their culture, the water that falls upon the Penokee Range is the blood. The interactions between the atmosphere and the living cycles of life in this region are undeniable. Cursory glances over the maps of the area show that the Penokee Hills are riddled with streams and rivulets that are fed by lake effect snows during the winter and localized thunderstorms during the rest of the year. The rice and the people depend on this very wet area to feed them, nourish them and allow them to sustain not only themselves but one another. An example of the timeless symbiosis of an intact culture is at stake. The fact that the greed inspired "developers" are interested in digging a 900 foot deep hole, 23 miles long and four miles wide in this relatively unpopulated area makes the damage that they plan all the more heinous. By poisoning the wetlands and removing the mountain tops, the entire future of the native people will become untenable. It would be like poisoning all the cattle of the west in terms of our culture, or making all the wheat, corn and soybeans that we base our culture on dangerous to eat. The fact that we may be doing just those things is not a reason to allow the damage to occur but rather a wake up call for us to stop poisoning ourselves.

Don't take my word for it, check out what the Nature conservancy has to say about this most recent attack on the Penokee Range.
When I rode my bicycle around the Great Lakes in 1987, there were hundreds of environmental disasters that I could point to around the lakes, hundreds of examples of what not to do. In my way, I took the trip to share ideas about sustainability with the people who have to live with those disasters day in and day out. Back then, I didn't use those words exactly, I called it living better lifestyles with less negative impacts. The same message needs to be heeded today, especially by the multimillionaires that are proposing this strip mine, their friends in the Wisconsin  Capitol, and the people who worry about long-term unemployment across the Northwoods. The reasons for the unemployment, that is endemic to the area, is rooted in the fact that extractive processes in the past are still affecting those who continue to live here. This proposed mine is all the more heinous because not only the native people stand to lose the basis of their food system, but that local groups and governments have committed to transitioning to sustainability. For those of us who love the region, honor the natural cycles of both the forest and the lake, it feels like our "representatives" are trying to punish us and attack our sensibilities. Grinding the low grade ore to powder is the first step in the process. Not only is this extremely energy intensive, requiring increased electric generating capacity, (read dirty coal) but refining and transporting this material has already led to high rates of cancer and poisoning of the land with hazardous chemicals in other areas where this sort of "economic" activity has been tried. Until we realize that the ecosphere is not a bank to be raided at will, we will not stop the titans of industry from raping Mother Earth. Allowing foreign interests to dictate how we choose to make our living is tantamount to treason and this mine must be stopped. 

http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/wisconsin/mining-in-the-penokee-gogebic-range-whats-at-risk.xml

Meaning Making, Story Telling and Camp Songs

As much as we would like to think that we have modernized and become intellectual and as fully invested in "reality" as we seem to be, we make the same silly decisions time after time and allow our decision making to be informed by the same myths we have had for two centuries. We make meaning from the predominant stories that we are told day in and day out. I fancy myself a storyteller, but I frequently diverge from the formulaic story telling of the ancients. I try, most often, to craft my stories using real life events and salient observations that reflect both the things that remain the same throughput time as well as the changeable world that we find ourselves in. The "take away" message (and oh, how I hate that moniker) is not at all like take out food in a styro-trash clam shell. I might find a way to incorporate such an iconic and ubiquitous element within a story, but only to act as a placeholder for a larger picture, a deeper set of values and actors within the story. We each have the power to make our own meaning from whatever story we are told and for that matter the entire internal landscape of our minds is our responsibility. The story teller is only entrusted with the stories, civilization is based on the myths within the stories and those are eternal. the way we look at them may change, but birth, death, love, hate, joy, pain and life remain constant.

The most topical stories often reflect age old struggles between power and weakness, lovers and haters, the rich and the poor or the dreams and realities of individuals who act as stand ins for all of those elements of ourselves. How we reflect upon the stories and what we infer from them are our own part in the age old process of deciphering the ciphers. Now, the best story tellers have the power to lead us right to the precipice, where the view is expansive and the danger is great that we might plunge over the edge into madness, but also keep just enough ground under our feet that we can remain sane. As can be seen from a study of many folk tales from a variety of cultures, there has been an attempt to soften many of the messages and events that they spoke of, seemingly to avoid scaring the children. This paired with the rampant depiction of death and dismemberment that children are exposed to on television seem odd, but that perhaps is better left for another post.The myth that we operate on today seems to be the one about our own intellectual development. As greater minds than mine have said, "Our belief in the myth that human-caused climate change is debatable has been manufactured by many of the same people who told us that the scientific evidence that smoking is bad for your health was either unclear or make-believe."

The greatest story tellers have a very deep well of stories inside them. They have stories for nearly every occasion and to teach a myriad of principles that societies across the arc of time depended on as touchstones and points of reference over the ages. One of the most useful functions of the storyteller is the ability to allow us to look at upsetting or difficult data sets and make sense of them in light of a longer view. The worst story tellers, and we are facing greater and greater threats from these, distract us from what is important and hides truth from the listeners for the sake of driving us over the edge of that cliff I mentioned earlier. The words of Ozzy Osbournes "Crazy Train" come to mind. His story was designed to be a warning, though many did not understand it at the time. For some, this song has become an anthem for self-destruction, but it was a cry for sanity in the face of overwhelming craziness. Ozzy's admonition was to step off the crazy train, or a call for help to everyone to step off. Who on Earth today can't relate to that?  We are dangerously close to the edge of environmental catastrophe, social collapse, political annihilation and intellectual collapse. Whenever times get hard, it causes stress. This stress is frequently accompanied by increases in fundamentalist religious beliefs, rebirth of old stories and old myths that got us through the last period of stress. Today, we see this happening. Trouble is, myths are only helpful when everyone shares them. The world is shrinking around many facts that disprove many of the myths we based our civilizations on over the eons. If we are to grow and prosper in the future, we need to develop more inclusive stories, that allow us to grow out of dysfunctional myths of the past, band together as a cohesive crew on Spaceship Earth and move beyond the limits or "us-them" thinking.

At the risk of sounding like a Dr. Bronners Soap Bottle, "ALL ONE!" Humans are beginning to see the truth of the matter. We are all more akin to a single organism than an endless series of individuals. For some, the myht of individualism will die hard, but for those among us who have understood this for years, it comes as no surprise that the shrinking of the intellectual landscape that has been possible through the internet means that we can plainly see beyond the arc of the Earth. Events that may take place in my tiny corner of the planet are inexorably tied to things that happen in Australia, Denmark Slovenia and Bolivia. Oddly enough, even streaming a few electrons into "the cloud" can have effects worldwide. Strangely, just in the past decade or two, the myth of the butterfly's wings being able to create thunderstorms halfway around the world has been surpassed by the power of electrons which are even less discernible. The power of moving electrons has now toppled despotic leaders in several countries and the instability is growing. The patriots who fight for the souls of their countries are growing in number and strength, in Madison, Wisconsin, across the nation with the advent of the #occupy movement across the United States and in nations across the planet. what is needed is the intestinal fortitude to relinquish out-dated myths in favor of a more universal set of ideas and insights that allow us to understand our new world order and how we can affect positive change for the next seven generations.

Anyone who has ever gone to summer camp knows the power of the myths that they teach, the songs and stories that get passed around the campfire. When I began to sing them and tell them, I wondered about the origins and meanings that each one conveyed. Oddly enough, the older I get, the more meaning I find in them and the more important they become. The camp I worked at, College Settlement Camps of Philadelphia, provided services for many of the most difficult children of the "City of Brotherly Love". Many of the children who come to that camp have had the hardest of lives. without security, comfort, or hope, many young people who came to our camp had handicaps that are not evident on the surface. Our programs were designed to heal some of the damage caused by poverty, malnutrition and neglect. Some of our campers only had three meals per day for two weeks each summer and for many, knowing that they were cared for took a bit of time to begin to make sense to them. Our myths were not about rugged individualism and harsh realities of the streets, but of abundance and caring for one another. It was occasionally like trying to speak Chinese to chickens, but oddly enough, pairing the same messages with compassion, love and honesty slowly began to make sense for many of our charges. Sadly, at the end of their two week respite from their harsh lifestyles, we had to turn them back over to many of the worst neighborhoods of Philly. Just as the experience helped me to find my way and my voice, I am sure that the songs and stories that we shared each night at campfire are still a peart of those people's experience. what they do with it is ultimately up to them, but at least they heard the truth once in their lives.

Wherever you are, whatever station you find yourself in, never forget the powerful act of storytelling. Sharing your stories, especially if they help us to approach the most horrible truths safely, have the power to transform culture, inspire positive growth and change that has the power to outlive us. Be careful about the stories you choose to believe and even more careful about those you choose to share. The future of humanity may depend on making the right choices today. The planet surely does, and we all depend on the abundance of a healthy planet. As has been said many times before, you may be on the right track, but you will still get run over if you do nothing. Even something as ethereal as a story can help move our culture forward. Have fun and in closing, peace, Love and pass the ammunition!

Personality Calesthenics

Modern research has begun to understand various unseen elements within us. Will, for instance, has been investigated for quite some time and it is beginning, finally, to yield some clues about where it comes from and why so many of us have found it to "run out" about this time of year. Just as other aspects of personality seem to wax and wane, will is actually a resource within us that can be developed, squandered and conserved. Some of the earliest research about this subject that I read about was an experiment in which children of different ages were made to sit in a room with a marshmallow in front of them on the table. They were given the instruction, or perhaps the advice, that if they could leave the marshmallow alone until the researcher returned, they would receive two marshmallows. What was the motivation? To try to understand the will. Children who tried to stare down the marshmallow often succumbed the most quickly and never received the "reward" that a small amount of willpower would have produced. Children who averted their eyes were much more likely to achieve the goal of waiting. Some went as far as to cover their eyes, realizing that it would be easier to wait if they removed their visual stimulus which was the source of their temptation. The will it seems can be assisted and undermined by our thoughts and actions.

Last evening, we watched Inn of the Sixth Happiness, a 1958 film based on the real-life story of a woman who went to China as a missionary. Though "unqualified", she went on her own into dangerous territory and eventually was able to save the lives of over 100 children displaced by war. The movie itself showed several aspects of her will and how she developed her mind and body to overcome the temptations we all face when choosing to "do the right thing." In more recent history there has been the desire to label children who are difficult, "willful" which always set my teeth on edge. Using the term willful as a bad thing only undermines the good aspects of the will and what it can provide if we learn to strengthen and utilize our wills for perseverance and achievement. There were many who told me, for instance, that I could not ride my bike around the Great Lakes and that no one would listen to a guy on a bike teaching them about living lightly on the planet. Back in 1987 there were far too many forces telling people that rampant consumerism would lead us to a better and more fulfilling lifestyle. As we can all stand to learn, or remember a bit more often, mastering the will makes the impossible possible and makes circumstances that most would cower from become not only possible, but meaningful growth opportunities. Without seeing our goals through, we are left feeling weak and alone, which undermines further any sense of self respect that we might have had. The heroes that we celebrate often regard their own sacrifice as tiny when compared to the common good which they can serve.

From a very young age, some of us learn to rely on that which surrounds us, for support, comfort and inspiration, some even define their reality by trying to decipher these external cues. This field dependency as it is called, frequently circumvents our ability to think outside the box, grapple with timeless questions and at times prevents us from formulating broader ideas about what could be, or the infinite possibilities that lie behind (or beyond) what we can see, hear, touch, feel and taste. Learning to create or to exceed expectations requires going beyond this field dependency realizing that whatever we are experiencing is by nature only temporary, transient and ultimately distraction from achieving our goals. The most well-known book on training your personality is called How to make friends and influence people by Andrew Carnegie. Many of the best organizations require an annual re-reading of this acme tome on redesigning ourselves for all of their people. Many of the traits that we exhibit for others to see fall into the same category as swimming or riding a bicycle, once learned, they will be with us for life, but some require a bit of practice every day to yield benefits. Thinking of others, cultivating a true and natural generosity and being compassionate are actually human nature, but we have been misled about these things long enough that it makes this fact easy to forget.

Discipline, self sacrifice and adherence to a steady moral compass have become so maligned in our culture that it may sound like a fairy tale to some, but without these things, we are like sailboats without a keel, subject to the wind and waves with no way forward, unless we allow ourselves to go with the flow. We have seen where this approach leads. Now, more than ever, we need to exercise our full potential. We have the right to get more out of life than many want to give. It may require a little soul searching, a little discipline and some exercising of basic skills, but there can be no mistake that we are at a critical turning point for not only our species, but for many others as well. Continuing to allow others to exert unlimited power and control over our leaders, the economy and the basic services that many of us rely on for survival must end. It will take more than a few trips to the personality gym to regain our strength of will and improve our grasp of "reality", but with consistent effort and practice we can become strong enough to right the ship of state, regain our collective keel and turn in the direction of something better. Will alone will help us re-establish a better course, but to stay on track and continue moving in the right direction will test all of the resources that we can bring to the process. Exercising those parts of us that we refer to as heart, spirit and will can only help when we become adept at realizing where the foundations of these elements reside, build their ability to act as signposts along our paths, and to find solace and refreshment in the realm of the unseen, often untapped resourced within ourselves.

Dare I Say It?

The time has come for action. I know that the vast majority of "Americans" shun any mention of responsibility for the supposed freedoms that they love to claim. I also know that the major media sources that feed our country information try like the devil to strangle public discourse rather than encourage it. Considerable experience has also taught me that no matter what obvious path to a better way of life that I mention, probably because they all require hard work and sacrifice in the short run, are ruthlessly rejected out of hand. There is little excuse for the way we have treated one another, no justification for the raping of the planet and no cogent argument for saddling future generations with the lasting effects of war, extractive economic methods that foist boom and bust burdens on those who do not benefit from the boom times, but are crippled by the bust, poverty, ignorance and debt, but I fear, chances are that we will continue to do all of these things if we do not take a stand now for what is right and good in our civilization. Believe me, we are not, as we are told, isolated pawns in a rich man's game, unless we let ourselves be. Taking our civil rights back will be an extremely hard road and there may be more blood shed on freedom's path. Rest assured that there will be sweat, toil and sacrifice, but the change must come at whatever the price. If we continue to let the powers that be railroad us in the directions of their choosing, we are going to fall deeper and deeper into the chasm of ruthlessness and hate, remain at odds with planet Earth and succumb to the evil that drives the ultra rich to pick the pockets of our elderly, ransack the stores of knowledge that we have developed over centuries to pass on to our children and continue to exploit and confound both mothers and fathers who, after all, made a commitment to the future just by having children.

Frequently, when people ask what I do for a living, I say, "I am a living manifestation of the infinite." I say it not so much to enlighten them, because, let's face it, most folks don't have the background or level of understanding to decipher that truth, but for myself, to help remind me of what I do for a living. We are all facing terribly complex ciphers. The puzzles themselves are usually manufactured by various different interests and the pieces rarely seem to fit or have distinct information on them to give us clues about where they go or even whether they "fit" with the puzzle that we may be working on at the time. Recognizing that we are part of a centuries long struggle and that our responsibility is to the next seven generations seems to be a good place to start for many. With this basic starting point, it is easy to see that atomic energy, whether for electric power generation or war, cannot stand the basic test for safety over future generations. The radioactivity that results from our need in this moment will be a dangerous legacy for thousands of generations. One of the pieces of the puzzle will be finding our way to generating energy that does not kill, maim or saddle future generations with the cost of providing us comfort.

Transportation, as well, needs to be transformed. As we learn to reestablish connections to the locations in which we live, produce more of our food locally and begin to re-think the last generations decision to separate people from capital, goods and services, we will have to use triage in dealing with the empty suburbs. When I was a child, even tiny towns had bakeries, medium sized ones had several and it was rare to find a neighborhood that didn't have fresh bread within walking distance. Try that today and chances are you would be wearing out a lot of shoes. The right wingers seem to be overjoyed with their own voices chanting the mantra of "mass transit can't work", yet in truth, it is the greed of folks who live on the city edge that forces us to expand every other service to the point of recklessness and whatever the opposite of thrift is. The properties that lie beyond city services are going for inflated prices because everyone seems to want their little piece of heaven, but then the trash needs to be picked up, eventually hey want curb and gutter and fresh clean water like the rest of us, so we pay for their wants by sacrificing our own needs. Them subsidization of suburban fringe communities is at once a greedy money grab for the outlying communities, hoping for increased revenues from taxes and a multi-generational sentence for those who cannot afford to flee the cities. It has been frequently pointed out by people far smarter than I that the ultra-rich only call it class warfare when we fight back. I am somewhat resolved to the fact that I may forever be a city mouse, but I should not bear the burden of contaminated air, water and soil left behind by the wealthy exploiters of planet earth. We need their wealth and education to help us solve the pressing problems of the city, not having them squander their money and time mowing acre and a half lots that used to produce food.

It is hard to tell a farmer who has struggled all their life that they are not entitled to millions in retirement because they sell their land to Target, Costco or Wal-mart, only to have it paved over and ruined for ever, but one can look back just a few generations and find people who went into farming because of a deep connection to the earth and a desire to do what was right for their communities. Now, many have been kow towed into thinking that it is every person for themselves and if their greed is not as over the top as the next guy, they will end up losing everything. Some say that growing population will inevitably force the further degradation of the planet, but improving the efficiency with which we do business and increasing quality of life for all people, our needs will become much easier to meet and with far less environmental damage as well. We need to stand up and let local decision makers know that we will not tolerate another back room deal to sell out the towns and cities of our great nation for he sake of another get rich quick scheme that only benefits the few at the expense of the many. All of this is hard work that needs doing if we are to leave our children anything worthwhile.

We have been told that the generation gap is inevitable, but that is another popular lie foisted upon us by those who really don't care about us. If your children see you working for a better world, and you explain to them that all of your efforts are to salvage a liveable world for them, you will be surprised at how quickly they will respond to the great and pressing needs as well. if they see you buying into the lies and deception that "business as usual" wants to sell you, they will see what you are made of and hate you to the core. Fortunately, there are more voices joined in the cry for justice than ever. With a bit of work and taking some time to get involved, we are making change happen. It comes at a time when the inertia of bad decision making has all but overwhelmed us, but there are those all across the globe who realize that we must take one last gaps and fight our way back to shore, or we will surely perish. This is truly a fight for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, not only for ourselves, but for the coming generations as well. The time has come to stop standing idly by and "waiting for the world to change". We have every right and the responsibility to take charge, not only of our own lives, but the direction of the governments that we supposedly elect and the discourse about what will make this a better place and time to live in. Get involved, become agents of change and remember, the hardest part is starting. Once you resolve to give your life to the betterment of others, the rewards are nearly infinite and the difficulties along the way transform from boogey men into temporary hiccups and gems along our spiral path.

Desperation and the Trickle Down Effect

Having survived the "Reagan Revolution", and the ensuing decades of republican inertia has taught me a few things about education, politics, economics and our social fabric generally. We have been duped into thinking that the richest individuals are benevolent. The sickening refrain often spewed by those in power, "A rising tide lifts all boats." only applies to those wealthy enough to have a boat. Just this week I saw several things that drove home the idea that the only thing that has trickled down due to the enacted Republican Agenda has been desperation. We have seen the failed policies play out in nearly every field. Our schools, having suffered from endemic underfunding over the past generation are crumbling, poorly maintained and often nothing more than warehouses for our youth. Gone are the days of hope springing from educational institutions. Just yesterday I heard a story from a teacher that her Principal told her not to worry too much about a certain pupil. "You can't expect much from him he said."
"Why not?" she asked.
"Because he is black." responded the Principal.
I'm sad to have to relay this story on Martin's Birthday, but the truth is sometimes unsavory, and needs to be accepted and understood as fact to help us to move beyond the shackles of hatred and the tyrannical chains of oppression. No person is unable to develop, unless we prevent them from accessing the tools that they need to better themselves. The way we develop is often a response to factors that we do not see or understand. What we do see and make sense of is frequently the result of actions that remain hidden from view or misunderstood because the driving forces behind our lives know that they can be just as effective keepers of the wage slaves while remaining out of sight, or hidden behind the corporate shells that we think are in charge.
The many lies perpetrated upon the American People have no basis in fact, but repeated often enough, they have led to a total abandonment of good sense and decorum. We have been taught that there are "two sides" to every story. Truth has become a malleable term to be debated by the most reactionary people that the media can get their hands on. Now, we are able to distort fact and fiction until they not only represent one another but supplant one another when that becomes necessary.
Terms like "too big to fail" fly in the face of free market economics, but the same people who decry the need for massive bail outs also confer the laurel wreath of respectability to corporate raiders and the gambling house we call the stock market. Corporate welfare is class warfare, but the only time that the media uses the term is when the poor begin to fight back.

Late last week I saw a neighboring property with a gigantic heap of trash our front. The poor woman who lived there moved away, but her things were piled as tall as a person and both twice as high and three times as wide. More than a dozen people came and went from the pile, hoping to find something of value. One took every electrical cord they could find, another took a broken toy, still others took musty clothing and pots with missing lids. One fellow came early, before the pile had formed and removed every metal object this lady had amassed in the year and a half that she had lived there. In spite of all the rifling through the pile, it never seemed to get any smaller. The density of the pile was something to be amazed at. The density of crap that has been injected into the public debate is similarly dense.
Two decades ago, there were two old men who had junk pickers licenses in Green Bay, now there are several dozen people and many are young families with their children in tow. No longer are there other opportunities to make a living for these folks of meager means.

While I watched the endless parade of folks digging through the trash, another neighbor came home with a truckload of pressure treated wood that he will feed into his wood burner. In spite of the fact that he knows that toxic materials will be released when he burns it, the warmth is worth the cost in his mind. Ashes laden with poison will make their way into his garden and onto his dinner plate, but he needs the warmth to survive the coming cold weather. Life is preferable to the alternative, but he should not have to poison himself, his family or the neighbors just to get by.

What is necessary now is a reemergence of what we used to call good old common sense. The fact that we must lead, so that the leaders will follow has never been more critical than today. Ask those in charge any questions and there is a good chance that they will respond with canned answers that have been regurgitated for the better part of two decades. The same people who claim that they stand for "life" will let babies cry themselves to sleep from lack of food. Those who are opposed to sex ed. will blame young mothers for their difficult position and claim that somehow telling them what their sex organs are for made them use them. The same people who claim that government should not provide a safety net for those who fall through the cracks of capitalism wouldn't give a dime to help others whether it would be for education, homeless shelters, food programs or through a church. The crowd who focuses on "liberty" understand that word to mean that whatever they want should be theirs for the taking, whether or not it harms another or leads them to not have their own needs met. The "pursuit of happiness" crowd is similarly attentive to their own desires for freedom but without responsibility for fellow humans, future generations or the world around them. These ideals that have formed the basis of our culture for over two hundred years have never been as misunderstood as they are today and the ability of our schools to counteract the debilitating claims made by the media about what we are to make of the lies are both underfunded and under attack.

I continue to harp on the rampant beliefs of Calvinism, only because many believe them without even knowing where the ideas come from. The problem with common sense is that it has become far too uncommon. I heard an excellent saying today. The only thing that the poor lack is money. In the world that we have allowed to develop, this alone is enough for those in power to judge them as thugs, criminals and people who lack morals. Actually, the opposite is more often true. The oppressed under the current system are often the most benevolent. It has been proven time and time again that the poor give a greater percentage of their meager income to charity. The white collar crime that goes unpunished creates a level of mayhem and dislocation that far outweighs the petty theft and property crimes that poor people engage in to help them survive in our capitalist society. Rather than try to defend moral choices that people make, I will resist the urge to share what I believe and try to stick to what I know. wealthy or poor makes no significant difference in many moral choices, but the privileged classes seem to think that they have the right to justify any action whereas the poor often blame themselves for the bad behaviors of others.

Much as we might like to turn our heads away from salient facts, we are living in a time characterized by the lowest crime rates America has seen in thirty years, not because the criminals have all been locked up, but because no one thinks that they can get ahead through criminality. As desperate as we have all become, we know that stepping out of line will only rain more shit down on our heads. an entire generation of black youth has been imprisoned and the wealthy thieves are receiving bailouts paid for by the taxpayers whose children go to bed hungry, are failing in school and ready to pump out the next generation of folks who will have even less chance of their needs being met. What has worked along the way has been the deep and inspired outpouring of love that is not part of any party. The sense of community responsibility that many outsiders share. The thousands and hundreds of thousands of humble servants who operate homeless shelters, food pantries, after school programs and not-for-profits picking up the slkack that government feels is necessary to balance their books.

Anyone who studies the matter will tell you that governments are not like families or business. Austerity in hard times never works for governments, unless you are seeking to force dislocation and social break down on the populace. Austerity on the level of the household makes sense. We all need to survive until next month, so cutting expenses to pay the bills only makes sense. Government relies on deficit spending always. They are doing the work of improving infrastructure and services that pay off dozens and hundreds of years later, you have to borrow to do that kind of work. The far right, anti-tax crowd are cutting public good off at the roots. Without teaching our children, we will surely handicap our hope for the future. Cutting social programs hurts many more people than it could possibly help. By amassing more and more capital in fewer and fewer hands, we assure the continued exploitation of the greatest number of people. If we looked at taxes as the price we pay to live in a civil society rather than a penalty for working, things could change overnight. The nature of the debate could include issues such as caring for one another, the difference between wants and needs and how to find abundance through making sustainable choices. Changing minds is easier than one might think, the best place to start is by seriously questioning who is being served by the lies that are foisted upon us.

Finally, the Stove is Back In the House

Living without a hearth, got old really fast. We had a jolly old time the first few nights sitting around a fire, roasting hot dogs and sausages, but the cold food diet gets old rather quickly. The past month or so we had lots of lettuce wrap sandwiches, tuna salad, egg salad, chicken salad and plain old salad. for a fellow whose Paganspace screen name is Saladman, you might expect me to be okay with a diet of nothing but salad. Quite the contrary, other foods have their place, in fact, I love a wide variety of salads, as part of a wider menu. i am looking forward to the baking of gluten free breads, the making of occasional casseroles, stir frying several handfuls of vegetables, etc. The way we positioned the stove in our new kitchen allows the cook to see from down along the river to the street in front of the house. It is now possible to include the chef in the flow of normal conversation throughout the first floor and not ever feel too far away from the warmth of the flame on the burners.

I have written extensively on the cultural aspects of gathering around fire, whether it is for cooking, warmth or ceremony, fire touches us in ways that other elements cannot. The fire in our on-demand water heater is sequestered inside a tiny box smaller than many suitcases, and double insulated from our exes by the appliance shell and a jacket of water inside a thin copper bladder. In the furnace, it is even more remote in that it occurs inside a larger box away from prying eyes under the heat exchanger for the unit. On the stove, below the oven and under the broiler flame, the dancing magic of fire lends a warmth to the home that the others cannot. Heck, I've roasted meat and hot dogs, even made toast directly over the gas flame, much like a primitive crouched above a smoky fire, but without the soot and smoke. What luxury, to have fire at the command of a single knob! They say, the best parties always end up in the kitchen, so we hope to have many wonderful gatherings in the new space that we have created, both for our home and the budding not-for-profit, ECO-Tours of Wisconsin Inc.

Our tiny organization has surpassed the 160,000 tree mark, this year planting for the first time in cooperation with the City of Green Bay Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department. The space that we have created has not only benefited our tiny home immensely, but allows for more than a dozen folks to gather comfortably to discuss future plant-ins, educational programs and potluck meetings. If you are near enough to get to green Bay, let us know and we will at least put the tea pot on for you, share a tour or develop a full day program specifically tailored to your interests. As we reach the end of our construction project, we are reminded of the many ways that we are blessed and the many ways we can all give back. Those who are blessed with a hearth can always share the gift of warmth and good cheer around a fire.

We would be honored to share our time with folks who would like to help us plant trees, explore sustainability or just enjoy the natural areas around our place. Even though we would consider ourselves in center city, the corridor of over 110 acres that we live along as well as the Fox, East River System that flows through Green Bay provide ample opportunity for exploration on flat water by canoe, on foot or by bicycle. Blessed are those who give, for without them there would be no receiving. If we know you are coming we might even make a gluten free cake!
 

Get Up, Stand Up, Stand Up For Your Rights

I went to the Solidarity Sing Along, which happens daily Monday through Friday at the Wisconsin State Capitol, in addition to feeling great about the continued protests, I found a forlorn potted cedar tree! When we tug at a single thing in nature, even our own heart, we find it attached to everything else. In addition to several hundred people singing, singing for their lives, we were given heart by the 185 students from Pulaski High School who played one of our protest songs, Union Maid, at the Tournament of Roses Parade. The progressives are not asking for anything more than we have ever asked for. We want our rights back, our teachers back, our jobs back and the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. What we do not want is wage slavery, disenfranchisement and condemnation of the values that made our nation great. When peaceful loving people unite, those with power and control issues will always try to run us down, shoot us, arrest us, destroy our property, taunt us to act violently and judge our actions as class warfare. True class warfare involves buying representation and perpetrating lies that scare the populace into acquiescing on matters of  corporate welfare, lax environmental protection and continued neglect of infrastructure and our children's education. The real terrorists are the Rethuglicans who lie to themselves and others that there are two classes of Americans, "True Americans", those who accept the domination of the masses by global corporate raiders and the malcontents, who are protesting the wholesale destruction of our way of life. In fact, it is the majority who want their interests to be represented who are doing the bulk of the working and living and dying in this country who stand to gain the most from democracy, freedom and liberty. One of the greatest ironies is the impoverished right wingers who cannot understand that they are being used as pawns in an ugly campaign to divide and destroy our nation from the inside.

The same folks who have been made to swallow the bait of Calvinism are now being used as bait themselves to catch even larger fishes. Our victim culture has mushroomed into a mass of people swarming to blame others when their own actions cut off any possibility of success. Failed policies of the far right have come home to roost around the world and the left is still offering the same solutions that we have been in support of for the last several generations. Neotribalism and support for local communities, rather than obsene financing of CEOs and corporados is still the only way to create jobs, protect the environment from extraction, desecration and untold destruction. In Wisconsin, at this very moment, the head of our Department of Natural Resources is trying to find a way to fast track a mine that would forever taint the waters of Lake Superior. Please, get educated, get active and stop international interests from ruining the places we hold most dear. Becoming involved can be as simp[le as writing a letter to the editor, carrying a sign or speaking out in public against the ethical void from which these agents come. Mining is a no-win situation, except for those who own the mine and never set foot in the countries they destroy for their own wealth. mines and pipelines only enhance two parts of the economy, prostitution and drugs (including tobacco and alcohol). Take a trip through any mining district and see the multi-generational depression that accompanies the bust. Centuries can pass without recovery. the few places that have come back have been because gambling allows the same sorts of powerful interests to run gambling houses for the extraction of wealth from mostly old folks who are bussed in to sacrifice their retirement checks for a chance at luxury.

Things never make us happy. It is only through cultivating a deep and abiding love for our selves that we can find true happiness. once this is accomplished, we have abundant love to share with others. those who are weak and feeble of spirit can be taught to love again if only we share with them our truth and acceptance. The greatest salve for any scar is love. We are not fully human if we do not find it in our hearts to love our selves first and once this is accomplished, that same love flows out to others unconditionally.  I think of it this way. I'm sure we have all heard ad infinitum the admonition that "God loves sinners, but hates sin." We are all manifestations of god so we too have the power to love one another yet hate the actions that pollute our air, soil and water, the actions that cripple entire communities and the influence of greed, deceit and hatred that are perpetrated by powerful interests. We are far more alike than we are different. Those who seek to pit us person against person are doing far more damage to our culture and country than terrorists ever have, or ever will. Get angry if that is what it takes, flex your hate muscle just enough to understand it's power, but then take the next step toward healing and understand that the lies perpetrated by big business and capitalism have been with us for over a century, so defeating them and disarming those in power today will be a long and difficult road. know in your heart that the effort will be worth it. If not for our children, for theirs. If not in our lifetime, at least someday someone will look back on our time as one of making commitments to saving the people, the planet and the possibility of life on planet earth.