I was the lucky recipient this year of approximately 1.5 million Elderberry seeds. Of course, I planted them in the only place large enough that wouldn't be molested. If only one in one thousand makes it into a tree, that's fifteen hundred trees! What are the chances that any one acreage should be gifted the chance to grow more trees? At least for the hundred or so acres that I passed through, there is a chance, just a chance of a great profusion of life. Birds flock to Elderberry. Most times when they get ready to launch, leaving a deposit is part of their flight check. What is the chance that I would bring up bird droppings in the first paragraph? This time, 100%!
Part of the idea behind Otherfish, is the utterly malleable cultural significance of newsprint. We ain't claimin to be no high fallootin' folks or high society-types around here. The words ain't near as important as the use we get out'ta the newsprint! Entrails from fish, caught fresh that day. Upon the cutting board, or in the gut-bucket would be newsprint. To keep down flies, we just wrapped the guts up into a make-shift envelope and buried the thing whole. Being "salt of the earth" practical sort informs most of what I write here. Bird droppings and all!
Two Summers ago, my son and I went for two weeks downriver in a canoe. We went down the Wisconsin River from Castle Rock Lake, past The Dells, Portage,WI Prairie, and on to the Mississippi. We got to Wyalusing State Park while many roads were still out. They had had nearly a foot of rain overnight the week before. Everyone always said that gully washers like that always move quickly, but not the night I watched thunderheads off to the Southwest just below the Dells. 30,000 foot tall columns of light and water remained over the same place all through the night. I had never seen anything like it! Our whole trip was blessed, even the bad parts were enlightening or transformational.
We travelled at about the same rate as Joliet and Marquette did. Sliding into that ancient rhythm both calmed and transfigured me. Eyes always to the horizon, the river's fall line, the riffles and upwellings within the water, submerged obstacles, gentle inlets for lunch, or trees to escape the sun in the desert-like solar oven that can be the Lower Wisconsin Riverway. We routinely found sandy beaches too hot to walk on without shoes.
As can happen, the whole sequence of events during that fortnight led us to call it the "What Are The Chances Tour"Like a mantra that kept coming back of it's own accord, The entire event was characterized by unlikely, yet inexplicable scenarios that I believe have never been equaled in intensity or as a pure reflection of the diversity that makes up the varied culture that unfolds along The Wisconsin, an ancient transportation link.
During our trip, we met tourists, people involved in the tourist trade, fishermen, locals, retirees, thieves, kind-hearted folk, a few rude ones, defunct resort owners, from whom the river had moved away, and folks who had vast views over constantly shifting sandbars as their dining room entertainment. People living along such a river have a significantly different river in front of them at sunrise than they do at sunset. The depth and fury, or lack of it can change more in a few hours than some rivers change during the course of full weeks, or even months.
The interplay of the people and the changing waters makes for qualitatively different people. We even met a few people like us, travelling downstream, in search of something that we could not quite share in or attend to. Each time we would pull out of a place, we would ask, what are the chances? To run into a group of drunken underage kids who would keep us up all night, (one of whom, "nearly cut his hand off!") at the same place, we wondered what the chances were that the guy wouldn't charge us to stay because of the rowdies. We always fell to the conclusion that, at least for this trip, it was 100%. What were the chances that we would find restaurants who were willing to refrigerate our leftovers until morning, find folks who invited us to shower, or a pool and showers just two or three blocks from where we had set up our camp. The ride back to the river with ice from a woman who gave us spiritually inspired art. The entire trip being rain free except when we ended and didn't have to move the tent again. What were the chances? 100%.
There can only be this elusive 100% chance when you are at the limit of your resources, abilities, endurance, physical awareness, humility and ability to seek the adventure without limitations of expectation and belief. As we navigated caves, decorated by native people, on cliffs far above the river that brought the first "White Men" through this "uncharted" land, we looked upon deftly wrought lines that traced out entire trip down from The Dells. Plainly incized on the same walls were the Portage that could be taken all the way to the Lake we call ours, here in Green Bay, Lake Michigan.
The Elderberries that we plant today will change the world forever. Without an attempt to do it, nothing could result from our inaction. If we all become "Johnny Appleseeds", the change we can make is monumental. That is what is needed to change our carbon footprint. As not what you can do for yourself alone, but the Mother Earth who suckles you. I come back to the Elderberry for the fact that it is for healing. It has sixteen times the amount of anti-oxidants found in Ehinacea. By planting it, we can heal ourselves as well as the earth. Most placed that have been denuded will have to be one back to wildness through a process that involves starting with pioneer species like Elderberry, Blackberry, Service (June) berry, Sumac, raspberries, etc.
Bless you on your path to bliss, may you find a peaceful relationship with the planet and all her creatures. Namaste'. Interested in learning about your own path to sustainability, contact: ECO-Tours of Wisconsin Inc. at 1445 Porlier street, Green Bay, WI 54301, or tnsaladino42@hotmail.com
Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Hundreds of Known Killers Evade Police Daily
Having lost a third loved one to Cancer this year alone, my perspective may be a bit skewed, but the facts speak for themselves. Over four hundred compounds routinely created & released by humans fall into the category of known or probable human carcinogens. There are other substances that are called mutagens, which create genetic mutation in humans and teratogens, which cause genetic damage in the person's offspring, not the person exposed. Remember DES? Dimethyl-ethyl-stilbesterol was given to women during pregnancy and resulted in horrifying genetic damage. Even after this compound was banned for humans, it was still given to chickens to increase productivity.
Although nothing can take back the damage we have already done to our bodies and the environment, certain simple steps can reduce the threat posed by these killers and eliminate the deaths of millions of loved ones in relatively short order.
There are dozens of crazy things that we do on a daily basis. I'm not going to recite the litany of insane, stupid or senseless things that humans do. I'm just flabbergasted that chemicals are extended consideration that people would never be given. If I were responsible for the deaths of thousands, nay hundreds of thousands of people, millions over the course of a generation, would I be exonerated because it would hurt the economy? No. People are "innocent until proven guilty", but these chemicals, even when proven guilty, are used with relative impunity. They continue to get away scott free. I'm struck by the odd dichotomy that exists in our heads. When a person builds a commercial workshop, they may be required to vent toxic or carcinogenic compounds out of the building, "protecting" workers from exposure to these harmful chemicals. Neighbors are then exposed to the same chemicals that would eventually kill workers or sicken them if they were in the contaminated building for eight hours per day. Shut-ins who live down the block are then exposed to these chemicals all day long, even in their sleep. Back in the Seventies, I lost my first grandmother to Cancer. Back then, commercial interests claimed that they knew nothing about dangers of hazardous compounds like perchloroethelene, merchloroethelene, or the other commonly used dry cleaning chemicals that killed her.
Doctors wanted to try to fix a lifetime of poisoning, but they were unwilling to say that the chemicals killed her. In private, they would admit that the chemicals she used daily were surely the cause of her suffering and death, but they wanted us to fund cancer research rather than blow the whistle on the true cause. The results of our actions cannot be divorced from our actions any longer! Hoping to stem the rising tide of Cancer without stopping the creation and release of these culprit compounds only points out a mass hallucination or nationwide (worldwide?) psychosis.
We have plenty of evidence on the hundreds of compounds that are killing us. We just don't have the will to protect ourselves from the damage that they cause. Since we have a history of looking the other way, these chemicals and compounds are not even questioned, taken into custody, or locked up forever to prevent future deaths.
I often wonder why we wear pink ribbons, walk or ride our bikes to fund "finding a cure", when there is more than enough evidence to ban these substances outright. It takes a fraction of the will needed to change public policy to wear a ribbon, to give a dollar (or hundreds) or to walk or ride a bike. Personally, we all get to prioritize what is important to us, what we are willing to do or work toward, but we don't get to decide which of our friends and loved-ones will be taken from us by Cancer, or when. The pain and anguish is always the same. If we all made concerted efforts to reduce our dependence on these vile killers, it would go a long way to saving our friends and family from early, and immensely painful death. Even "Cancer-survivors" go through living hell. Living under the cloud of remission brings it's own terror and no one should have to live with that either. We need to spend our time educating ourselves about where these carcinogens come from, who stands to gain from their use, and why we have not realized our own part in their creation and distribution. Rather than just taking (absorbing) our unfair share of these offenders, we need to treat them as the killers they are. Stop accepting death as the wages of business as usual, ask the hard questions, and act with the knowledge that humans are more important that some fool's pocketbook.
Although nothing can take back the damage we have already done to our bodies and the environment, certain simple steps can reduce the threat posed by these killers and eliminate the deaths of millions of loved ones in relatively short order.
There are dozens of crazy things that we do on a daily basis. I'm not going to recite the litany of insane, stupid or senseless things that humans do. I'm just flabbergasted that chemicals are extended consideration that people would never be given. If I were responsible for the deaths of thousands, nay hundreds of thousands of people, millions over the course of a generation, would I be exonerated because it would hurt the economy? No. People are "innocent until proven guilty", but these chemicals, even when proven guilty, are used with relative impunity. They continue to get away scott free. I'm struck by the odd dichotomy that exists in our heads. When a person builds a commercial workshop, they may be required to vent toxic or carcinogenic compounds out of the building, "protecting" workers from exposure to these harmful chemicals. Neighbors are then exposed to the same chemicals that would eventually kill workers or sicken them if they were in the contaminated building for eight hours per day. Shut-ins who live down the block are then exposed to these chemicals all day long, even in their sleep. Back in the Seventies, I lost my first grandmother to Cancer. Back then, commercial interests claimed that they knew nothing about dangers of hazardous compounds like perchloroethelene, merchloroethelene, or the other commonly used dry cleaning chemicals that killed her.
Doctors wanted to try to fix a lifetime of poisoning, but they were unwilling to say that the chemicals killed her. In private, they would admit that the chemicals she used daily were surely the cause of her suffering and death, but they wanted us to fund cancer research rather than blow the whistle on the true cause. The results of our actions cannot be divorced from our actions any longer! Hoping to stem the rising tide of Cancer without stopping the creation and release of these culprit compounds only points out a mass hallucination or nationwide (worldwide?) psychosis.
We have plenty of evidence on the hundreds of compounds that are killing us. We just don't have the will to protect ourselves from the damage that they cause. Since we have a history of looking the other way, these chemicals and compounds are not even questioned, taken into custody, or locked up forever to prevent future deaths.
I often wonder why we wear pink ribbons, walk or ride our bikes to fund "finding a cure", when there is more than enough evidence to ban these substances outright. It takes a fraction of the will needed to change public policy to wear a ribbon, to give a dollar (or hundreds) or to walk or ride a bike. Personally, we all get to prioritize what is important to us, what we are willing to do or work toward, but we don't get to decide which of our friends and loved-ones will be taken from us by Cancer, or when. The pain and anguish is always the same. If we all made concerted efforts to reduce our dependence on these vile killers, it would go a long way to saving our friends and family from early, and immensely painful death. Even "Cancer-survivors" go through living hell. Living under the cloud of remission brings it's own terror and no one should have to live with that either. We need to spend our time educating ourselves about where these carcinogens come from, who stands to gain from their use, and why we have not realized our own part in their creation and distribution. Rather than just taking (absorbing) our unfair share of these offenders, we need to treat them as the killers they are. Stop accepting death as the wages of business as usual, ask the hard questions, and act with the knowledge that humans are more important that some fool's pocketbook.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Health Care vs. Disease Care
I have been trying to decode the mystifying Health Care System since I was a child. At age seven I was diagnosed, behind closed doors, as having "Green Bay Throat". My Mother, being ignorant, asked what could be done about it. The doctor said, "Move away from here." Back then there were still a number of practical souls working in the field of medicine. He would tell us in private that the he and his colleagues knew that the chemical soup we were breathing day in and day out had the effect of depleting my immune system and that there was no way to counter the damage that pollutants were doing to my body. We asked if he would document this Green Bay Throat, but he refused. Citing the fact that he would never work again if he stood up to speak the truth in a town run by the paper mills.
I know now that virtually everyone looked the other way regarding the use of air and the water as dumping grounds for all kinds of hazardous material. The practice still takes place, although we have reigned in some of the most obvious and easily reduced waste streams. Now we face the insidious onslaught of chemicals that are harder than ever to clean up or avoid. Doctors still tell us precious little about the effects of prescription medication, lawn "care" chemicals and agricultural waste in our drinking water, the hazardous compounds created by chlorination of water, or the over four hundred toxic chemicals routinely found in the air we breathe in most major cities. We have not stopped looking the other way. This in turn leads to hazards to our health, well being and ability to lead lives that are characterized by optimum health. We spend more on health "care", as a percentage of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) than any nation, but our outcomes for this spending are way down the list. Last I heard, we rank 47th in most major indicators for health. Oddly enough, with all the talk about Health Care Reform, why are we not asking why people in 46 countries are healthier while we continue to spend wildly and get so little in return?
The most recent flap, characterized by the right-leaning tax and spend Republicans as "Why are you taking away our mammograms? This is the beginning of Health Care rationing!" Is pathetic. I know that we live in a time of serious mathematical illiteracy, but I will try to keep this simple. Average cost of a mammogram in the US is 1,000 to 6,000 dollars. Why this should be, having a six-fold variation in price for the same procedure sounds criminal, is about as clear as the x-rays themselves. If mammograms are performed on 1,900 women between forty and fifty years of age, annually for four years, it would save one life. That would be a cost of between 64 million and 384 million to save one life. Of these tests, 60% show false positives, scaring the bejeusus out of the majority of the women, adding undue stress to their lives and leading to biopsies that incur even higher costs, risk infection and a higher percentage of false negatives because they are performed much more rarely. The math on that is a bit complicated, so I will spare you that. Keep in mind the key part, to save one life!
1,140 women would be told that there was something to be concerned about on the x-ray. When actually only one would be at risk from the disease! Yet why would the doctors not mention any of the preventative steps we should all be taking to win the fight against Cancer? The over four hundred man-made chemicals that I mentioned earlier have all been implicated in genetic damage and/or Cancer. We know more about prevention than the medical establishment is telling us. To truly reform our inefficient system, we need to start with the easiest things first. Cleaning up our act with regard to poisons in the environment would be logical. Of course, it may cause some people to do things they don't want to do. It may require people to get out of certain polluting industries or devise new ways of doing things that have made them fortunes. In the future many things will change. If we are to live healthier lives, some sacrifice will be required. Business as usual has a proven track record and it is uglier the deeper you look.
When I was a child, I lost both of my grandmothers to cancer. Back then, the doctors claimed that they would decode the disease and win the battle with it scientifically. Now it has become chic to "walk for cancer", wear pink, ride for a cure, etc. Yet we still allow BPH (Brominated Phenolic Compounds) to line our canned goods cans, leach out of baby bottles, and nipples, and come in contact with our food and water. We know that they are implicated in causing Cancer! Chlorinated Organic Compounds, created when we chlorinate water, mimic Dioxin (an ingredient in Agent Orange) and PCB (Polychlorinated Biphenols). I continue to lose friends and family to Cancer. They are dying at younger and younger ages. Living proof that we are not only at a loss for winning the fight against Cancer, but pointing out the pressing need to stem the flow of toxic compounds into our bodies. At what hazard do we refuse to see the writing on the wall? Cancer is not cute. I don't think the billions spent thus far on cancer research has yielded satisfactory results. The simplest way to beat cancer is still being overlooked and my sense is that as long as doctors are in charge, they will continue to turn away from the facts regarding prevention.
I know now that virtually everyone looked the other way regarding the use of air and the water as dumping grounds for all kinds of hazardous material. The practice still takes place, although we have reigned in some of the most obvious and easily reduced waste streams. Now we face the insidious onslaught of chemicals that are harder than ever to clean up or avoid. Doctors still tell us precious little about the effects of prescription medication, lawn "care" chemicals and agricultural waste in our drinking water, the hazardous compounds created by chlorination of water, or the over four hundred toxic chemicals routinely found in the air we breathe in most major cities. We have not stopped looking the other way. This in turn leads to hazards to our health, well being and ability to lead lives that are characterized by optimum health. We spend more on health "care", as a percentage of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) than any nation, but our outcomes for this spending are way down the list. Last I heard, we rank 47th in most major indicators for health. Oddly enough, with all the talk about Health Care Reform, why are we not asking why people in 46 countries are healthier while we continue to spend wildly and get so little in return?
The most recent flap, characterized by the right-leaning tax and spend Republicans as "Why are you taking away our mammograms? This is the beginning of Health Care rationing!" Is pathetic. I know that we live in a time of serious mathematical illiteracy, but I will try to keep this simple. Average cost of a mammogram in the US is 1,000 to 6,000 dollars. Why this should be, having a six-fold variation in price for the same procedure sounds criminal, is about as clear as the x-rays themselves. If mammograms are performed on 1,900 women between forty and fifty years of age, annually for four years, it would save one life. That would be a cost of between 64 million and 384 million to save one life. Of these tests, 60% show false positives, scaring the bejeusus out of the majority of the women, adding undue stress to their lives and leading to biopsies that incur even higher costs, risk infection and a higher percentage of false negatives because they are performed much more rarely. The math on that is a bit complicated, so I will spare you that. Keep in mind the key part, to save one life!
1,140 women would be told that there was something to be concerned about on the x-ray. When actually only one would be at risk from the disease! Yet why would the doctors not mention any of the preventative steps we should all be taking to win the fight against Cancer? The over four hundred man-made chemicals that I mentioned earlier have all been implicated in genetic damage and/or Cancer. We know more about prevention than the medical establishment is telling us. To truly reform our inefficient system, we need to start with the easiest things first. Cleaning up our act with regard to poisons in the environment would be logical. Of course, it may cause some people to do things they don't want to do. It may require people to get out of certain polluting industries or devise new ways of doing things that have made them fortunes. In the future many things will change. If we are to live healthier lives, some sacrifice will be required. Business as usual has a proven track record and it is uglier the deeper you look.
When I was a child, I lost both of my grandmothers to cancer. Back then, the doctors claimed that they would decode the disease and win the battle with it scientifically. Now it has become chic to "walk for cancer", wear pink, ride for a cure, etc. Yet we still allow BPH (Brominated Phenolic Compounds) to line our canned goods cans, leach out of baby bottles, and nipples, and come in contact with our food and water. We know that they are implicated in causing Cancer! Chlorinated Organic Compounds, created when we chlorinate water, mimic Dioxin (an ingredient in Agent Orange) and PCB (Polychlorinated Biphenols). I continue to lose friends and family to Cancer. They are dying at younger and younger ages. Living proof that we are not only at a loss for winning the fight against Cancer, but pointing out the pressing need to stem the flow of toxic compounds into our bodies. At what hazard do we refuse to see the writing on the wall? Cancer is not cute. I don't think the billions spent thus far on cancer research has yielded satisfactory results. The simplest way to beat cancer is still being overlooked and my sense is that as long as doctors are in charge, they will continue to turn away from the facts regarding prevention.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
CYA Disease Care System CYA
The past few months have seen tremendous change in the "health care" system. By the increasing advertising I am seeing, you would think that there are no problems at all! Never mind the fact that drug companies have increased prices by over ten percent since the first of the year. Never mind the flap over better recommendations designed to save patients the stigma and stress of false positives for breast cancer. Ignore, if you can the huge increase in ads for drugs that have been proven useless in reducing heart attack and stroke. Just try to ignore the increased advertising for affordable insurance. Oh, by the way, try not to pay any attention to the rapidly increasing waistline of over half of all Americans! Like a patient who rallies just before the death rattle kicks in, the entire system is putting a good face on their horrific record, afraid that their days are numbered.
I live in a city of 100,000 people. To the numbers in perspective: Three cities this size are eliminated, or at least their population is wiped out each year through the authorized (but inappropriate) use of prescription drugs. The illegal use of these controlled substances is the fastest growing type of recreational drug use in our country today.
Prevention of disease costs less than ten percent of the treatments designed to help patients after they become sick, but the funding isn't there for that! We are breeding a race of sick folks so that people will still have jobs treating us. This is a modern example of putting the cart before the horse. I'm pretty sure that the rise in cancer and allergies are related to environmental degradation, but this aside, we have no interest in finding out because these thoughts make us uncomfortable. What makes me uncomfortable is the fact that when I moved to Green Bay, Wisconsin, the doctors who "treated" me looked in my mouth and said, "Yep, he's got Green Bay Throat." They would say it in the office, but when we asked them to tell the newspaper, or at least write it down on some sort of document, they would wrinkle up their face and ask if we were crazy. These gatekeepers of "health" outright refused to go after the polluters of our air. They made enough money to move out of the valley, into the fresher air of the country.
Pardon me if I'm calling out folks who we were trained to respect, but there is fault enough to go around. Drug company representatives lie, stretch the truth, and claim statistically insignificant risks of their products. When your relative is the one dying, it won't matter if it is statistically insignificant. I have spoken with enough people who know, these corporate outlaws are protected, even encouraged by our government, no matter what they tell us. Even the insurers are to be questioned. Why do we allow them to make bets on our health? How can they be allowed to cut us off for making claims? If I were to make a bet and lose, I'm pretty sure that I would have to pay. Most questions have easy answers, this issue isn't much different. People who have a vested interest in business as usual will tell you that many of these problems are difficult to solve and "too complex" for you to understand, but don't believe it. If something looks like a red herring, smells like fish, and lurks beneath the reflective surface, avoiding the light of day, there is a good bet that it is a red herring. Shady characters hate the light of day, and people looking at them. Lets turn the lights on this decrepit system, expose the charlatans and get on with funding for prevention.
I live in a city of 100,000 people. To the numbers in perspective: Three cities this size are eliminated, or at least their population is wiped out each year through the authorized (but inappropriate) use of prescription drugs. The illegal use of these controlled substances is the fastest growing type of recreational drug use in our country today.
Prevention of disease costs less than ten percent of the treatments designed to help patients after they become sick, but the funding isn't there for that! We are breeding a race of sick folks so that people will still have jobs treating us. This is a modern example of putting the cart before the horse. I'm pretty sure that the rise in cancer and allergies are related to environmental degradation, but this aside, we have no interest in finding out because these thoughts make us uncomfortable. What makes me uncomfortable is the fact that when I moved to Green Bay, Wisconsin, the doctors who "treated" me looked in my mouth and said, "Yep, he's got Green Bay Throat." They would say it in the office, but when we asked them to tell the newspaper, or at least write it down on some sort of document, they would wrinkle up their face and ask if we were crazy. These gatekeepers of "health" outright refused to go after the polluters of our air. They made enough money to move out of the valley, into the fresher air of the country.
Pardon me if I'm calling out folks who we were trained to respect, but there is fault enough to go around. Drug company representatives lie, stretch the truth, and claim statistically insignificant risks of their products. When your relative is the one dying, it won't matter if it is statistically insignificant. I have spoken with enough people who know, these corporate outlaws are protected, even encouraged by our government, no matter what they tell us. Even the insurers are to be questioned. Why do we allow them to make bets on our health? How can they be allowed to cut us off for making claims? If I were to make a bet and lose, I'm pretty sure that I would have to pay. Most questions have easy answers, this issue isn't much different. People who have a vested interest in business as usual will tell you that many of these problems are difficult to solve and "too complex" for you to understand, but don't believe it. If something looks like a red herring, smells like fish, and lurks beneath the reflective surface, avoiding the light of day, there is a good bet that it is a red herring. Shady characters hate the light of day, and people looking at them. Lets turn the lights on this decrepit system, expose the charlatans and get on with funding for prevention.
When is a Bow not a Bow? Wow! wow.
The recent fabricated flap over Obama's "tell tale" bow to foreign leaders neither shocks or amazes me. Remember the blood lust that was fabricated in preparation for both Iraq invasions which had the net effect of killing over one million (some estimates are as high as three million) innocent human beings? The same infantile "logic" is at work now. Our "friend's" enemy is our enemy. How soon we forget the slant wells that first got Iraq in trouble, not that they got caught stealing Kuait's oil, quite the opposite! Kuait was stealing Iraq's oil. Kuait got our support throughout and when no action was taken to deprive them of the stolen crude, the Iraqi leader sent troops to storm the border. It has been a while, but to refresh your memory, our blood and treasure were called upon to get Kuait back on the map. Foolishly we were investing in a tinderbox. Rather than honoring the foreign leader who had a legitimate gripe, we went in with guns blazing, terrorizing innocent people, adding another layer of oppression and death in our wake. The senseless bombing of civilian targets in the hopes of getting Saddam "by chance" only served to take out sources of fresh water and electricity effectively changing a modern, secular culture back into a third world nation virtually overnight. I watched it on CNN. It was "pretty".
My point is that we have the choice to believe whoever we want. Perhaps by honoring other world leaders instead of telling them in no uncertain terms what we want to hear, we would find a way to peace that would save lives and further our interests instead of creating untold havoc that can only breed contempt. We have trouble spending a single night without power. People in much of the world have found ways to exist with just a few hours of juice (sometimes even less) per day. The unpatriotic people who said that it was unpatriotic, or at least unamerican to say the war was wrong are now eager to question our current, fairly elected commander in chief. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, we see how flimsy their paper tigers truly are. The malarkey about what nation our President was born in, questioning his faith, color, and motivation are all ruses designed to question, not the man's ideas, not even his desire to help us regain standing on the world stage, but his legitimacy. People who find fault with intellect are as dangerous as the times we find ourselves in. Putting their faces and ideas before the public with a twenty-four hour news cycle has crippled public opinion, taken focus away from real issues, and created a culture of despots willing to say anything if it will get them a shred of notoriety.
The complete fabrication of evidence for Iraq II, as well as the strengthened alliance with Saudi Arabia, who issued passports to the majority of the 9-11 conspirators, must give us pause. When we support police states, or agencies of torture, human trafficking, corruption and terrorism of their own citizens, it cheapens us. It undermines our lofty goals of self-determination for all humans on the planet. Perhaps, if we all got behind an honorable man, with an honorable message, we would regain a bit of respect in the world. Obama's bow gave him a chance to visually confirm that he respects the leader of another country. It is a good feeling to be respected. Wouldn't it be a breath of fresh air if we were to be respected back? Sabre rattling only assures that you will have to unsheathe the weapon at some future date. Offers of meeting people on an equal to equal basis is our only hope for peace and respectability in the future.
As I told many before the election, "We may get Obama on the ticket, he may even win the election, but I guarantee even after he gets in office, we will still have to fight for him." This is the part where we have to fight. Let the media folks who incite argument, even when we all agree, know that we won't take their pablum anymore. If we let all the scared, paranoid, hateful people keep spewing their lies, who will be informed enough to see through their veil of ignorance? I contend that there are things far more important than Wall Street, more important than the earnings of insurance companies, yes, even more important than auto makers. The future of our planet may hinge on decisions we must make today. I'm all for a leader who knows enough to respect our fellow travelers on Starship Earth. Now, all we need is to convince the talking heads.
My point is that we have the choice to believe whoever we want. Perhaps by honoring other world leaders instead of telling them in no uncertain terms what we want to hear, we would find a way to peace that would save lives and further our interests instead of creating untold havoc that can only breed contempt. We have trouble spending a single night without power. People in much of the world have found ways to exist with just a few hours of juice (sometimes even less) per day. The unpatriotic people who said that it was unpatriotic, or at least unamerican to say the war was wrong are now eager to question our current, fairly elected commander in chief. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, we see how flimsy their paper tigers truly are. The malarkey about what nation our President was born in, questioning his faith, color, and motivation are all ruses designed to question, not the man's ideas, not even his desire to help us regain standing on the world stage, but his legitimacy. People who find fault with intellect are as dangerous as the times we find ourselves in. Putting their faces and ideas before the public with a twenty-four hour news cycle has crippled public opinion, taken focus away from real issues, and created a culture of despots willing to say anything if it will get them a shred of notoriety.
The complete fabrication of evidence for Iraq II, as well as the strengthened alliance with Saudi Arabia, who issued passports to the majority of the 9-11 conspirators, must give us pause. When we support police states, or agencies of torture, human trafficking, corruption and terrorism of their own citizens, it cheapens us. It undermines our lofty goals of self-determination for all humans on the planet. Perhaps, if we all got behind an honorable man, with an honorable message, we would regain a bit of respect in the world. Obama's bow gave him a chance to visually confirm that he respects the leader of another country. It is a good feeling to be respected. Wouldn't it be a breath of fresh air if we were to be respected back? Sabre rattling only assures that you will have to unsheathe the weapon at some future date. Offers of meeting people on an equal to equal basis is our only hope for peace and respectability in the future.
As I told many before the election, "We may get Obama on the ticket, he may even win the election, but I guarantee even after he gets in office, we will still have to fight for him." This is the part where we have to fight. Let the media folks who incite argument, even when we all agree, know that we won't take their pablum anymore. If we let all the scared, paranoid, hateful people keep spewing their lies, who will be informed enough to see through their veil of ignorance? I contend that there are things far more important than Wall Street, more important than the earnings of insurance companies, yes, even more important than auto makers. The future of our planet may hinge on decisions we must make today. I'm all for a leader who knows enough to respect our fellow travelers on Starship Earth. Now, all we need is to convince the talking heads.
Friday, November 6, 2009
It's Official!
Even with this week's Bullish announcement of the sale the largest transportation company in America, by famously shrewd investor, Warren Buffett, we could not bully our way out of the statistics of our spasming economy. The psychological threshold to a full scale Depression has been passed. 10.2% unemployment has been a reality in many parts of the country for quite some time, but the nationwide average crossed into this crippling territory for the first time in twenty-six years thanks to continuing fallout from the "Reagan Revolution" which promised a rosy future for everyone as more and more wealth concentrating in the top echelons of income would "trickle down" creating good jobs and security. The slash and burn approach to governmental agencies like the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), DHSS (Department of Health and Social Services), FDA (Food and Drug Administration), DATCAP (Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection) as well as a veritable alphabet soup of other agencies has led to less and less oversight, less and less protection, and ultimately less and less healthy and wealthy lives for the middle class and the poorest among us. The rise in incomes for the top ten percent of United states citizens have come from the systematic exploitation of the bottom ninety percent among us. These real losses have hit the poorest the hardest as you might imagine.
We can no longer deny that there is classism (even though spell check doesn't think so) in our culture. The poor among us are many many more times as likely to be incarcerated. As we see every day, the wealthy thieves, get off with a slap on the wrist, or perhaps a huge bonus for picking our collective pockets, while someone who tries to escape the brutal truth of their lives at the bottom of the income "ladder" ends up with years of prison for their victimless crime. Remember the "Roaring Twenties"? Wealth was siphoned off by "organized crime" through providing folks illegal goods. The same thing is going on now with huge drug cartels that do not respect international borders. When we look to the law to put them out of business, their buying power provides clout with governmental agencies that are charged with enforcing the law. Corruption is not only a foreign problem. It is alive and well in the heartland. Simultaneously, large subsidies and corporate welfare is paid for by all ofr us, but benefits only a tiny fraction of the population. In some cases we end up worse off for the expenditure of public funds for dubious purposes.
The economic terror that has been unleashed on the world is directly attributable to large cash flows that defy oversight by any governmental agency. This has to stop. Just having huge cash reserves, enough to hide in foreign banks or a stash as gold somewhere, should not give someone the air of propriety. As long as we worship dollars, we will tend to forget the value of humanity, truth or justice. Building communities that are supportive and sustainable is not yet rewarded. Without funding the necessary changes we are only demonstrating continued reliance on un- sustainable extractive economic structures. When food co-ops can form and get money as easily as a new superstore, we will send the message that there is a way to get healthy food for less money. When priorities change, it will be evidenced by the way we think about health, safety and wealth. We need to rethink what our needs are so that we can get a handle on our wants. There will be a much deeper sense of security when our basic needs can be met at lower cost.
My own situation, as a professional had improved through educating myself and keeping myself in demand. Just in the past five years, I have had to learn to live on less than half of the income to which I had become accustomed. This, at a time that prices, for most things, continued to rise. Many of the things that I thought I had worked my way up to have been taken away. Just as I was climbing out of poverty, the rules changed. Health insurance, travel, vacations of any type, gifts for the giving, etc. have all gone the way of the dinosaur in my life. The moral anguish of not being able to give one's children the things they need to thrive creates desperation in most folks. Even those who are still "making it" in this economy have had to curtail their spending on extras. What we find now is that there are less and less dollars available to flow around in the economy.
Many of us started talking about these issues as far back as the eighties. Each dollar spent in the local economy tends to circulate ten to twenty times, rewarding our neighbors and enriching our local, sustainable community. If we spend our dollars at places owned or managed by far off corporations, the money tends to fly away, never to return. The same is true of our children. If they feel that they have to move away to achieve their dreams, they most-likely will never return to enrich our neighborhoods. In my time, I was called names for what I knew to be true, perhaps by the time my grandchildren become adults, the tide will have shifted and the truth will be self-evident to our decision-makers as well as the general public.
The good that can come of this economic downturn lies in our ability to learn and grow. Knowing that what worked in the past will no longer be helpful to us and being willing to ask ourselves hard questions like: Where do we go from here? These are the new realities with which we must grapple. These are the challenges of our age. If we think positively about ten percent unemployment, we might see our way to a new place in which those ten percent went out into the world to help others, start new initiatives that build community and help take care of our children. With modest amounts of investment we could allow new businesses and new approaches to old problems to arise that would surpass our wildest dreams of what could be.
Imagine, having all of our needs met at a fraction of the cost. It is possible through time tested and readily available structures. Co-operatives for food, transit and housing are already on the rise. The local food movement has unleashed a new breed of local economies, based on food for people and profit. What begins the process of change is changing our ideas. Then we need to make the sacrifices needed to reorient our lives. This frees us up, to have the latitude to re-envision a new social and economic order that will be sustainable for the next seven generations.
Peace be with you! Blessed Be! and Namaste', your humble servant, tcs
We can no longer deny that there is classism (even though spell check doesn't think so) in our culture. The poor among us are many many more times as likely to be incarcerated. As we see every day, the wealthy thieves, get off with a slap on the wrist, or perhaps a huge bonus for picking our collective pockets, while someone who tries to escape the brutal truth of their lives at the bottom of the income "ladder" ends up with years of prison for their victimless crime. Remember the "Roaring Twenties"? Wealth was siphoned off by "organized crime" through providing folks illegal goods. The same thing is going on now with huge drug cartels that do not respect international borders. When we look to the law to put them out of business, their buying power provides clout with governmental agencies that are charged with enforcing the law. Corruption is not only a foreign problem. It is alive and well in the heartland. Simultaneously, large subsidies and corporate welfare is paid for by all ofr us, but benefits only a tiny fraction of the population. In some cases we end up worse off for the expenditure of public funds for dubious purposes.
The economic terror that has been unleashed on the world is directly attributable to large cash flows that defy oversight by any governmental agency. This has to stop. Just having huge cash reserves, enough to hide in foreign banks or a stash as gold somewhere, should not give someone the air of propriety. As long as we worship dollars, we will tend to forget the value of humanity, truth or justice. Building communities that are supportive and sustainable is not yet rewarded. Without funding the necessary changes we are only demonstrating continued reliance on un- sustainable extractive economic structures. When food co-ops can form and get money as easily as a new superstore, we will send the message that there is a way to get healthy food for less money. When priorities change, it will be evidenced by the way we think about health, safety and wealth. We need to rethink what our needs are so that we can get a handle on our wants. There will be a much deeper sense of security when our basic needs can be met at lower cost.
My own situation, as a professional had improved through educating myself and keeping myself in demand. Just in the past five years, I have had to learn to live on less than half of the income to which I had become accustomed. This, at a time that prices, for most things, continued to rise. Many of the things that I thought I had worked my way up to have been taken away. Just as I was climbing out of poverty, the rules changed. Health insurance, travel, vacations of any type, gifts for the giving, etc. have all gone the way of the dinosaur in my life. The moral anguish of not being able to give one's children the things they need to thrive creates desperation in most folks. Even those who are still "making it" in this economy have had to curtail their spending on extras. What we find now is that there are less and less dollars available to flow around in the economy.
Many of us started talking about these issues as far back as the eighties. Each dollar spent in the local economy tends to circulate ten to twenty times, rewarding our neighbors and enriching our local, sustainable community. If we spend our dollars at places owned or managed by far off corporations, the money tends to fly away, never to return. The same is true of our children. If they feel that they have to move away to achieve their dreams, they most-likely will never return to enrich our neighborhoods. In my time, I was called names for what I knew to be true, perhaps by the time my grandchildren become adults, the tide will have shifted and the truth will be self-evident to our decision-makers as well as the general public.
The good that can come of this economic downturn lies in our ability to learn and grow. Knowing that what worked in the past will no longer be helpful to us and being willing to ask ourselves hard questions like: Where do we go from here? These are the new realities with which we must grapple. These are the challenges of our age. If we think positively about ten percent unemployment, we might see our way to a new place in which those ten percent went out into the world to help others, start new initiatives that build community and help take care of our children. With modest amounts of investment we could allow new businesses and new approaches to old problems to arise that would surpass our wildest dreams of what could be.
Imagine, having all of our needs met at a fraction of the cost. It is possible through time tested and readily available structures. Co-operatives for food, transit and housing are already on the rise. The local food movement has unleashed a new breed of local economies, based on food for people and profit. What begins the process of change is changing our ideas. Then we need to make the sacrifices needed to reorient our lives. This frees us up, to have the latitude to re-envision a new social and economic order that will be sustainable for the next seven generations.
Peace be with you! Blessed Be! and Namaste', your humble servant, tcs
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
No Idea
First off, let me say that I have no idea how or why this post was created. It seems that there have been fairly large numbers of people "reading" it, but to what end, or who these people might be, I have no idea. That is because until now, there was virtually nothing here other than what looked to be a post of nothing, not a word. Touching one another or influencing one another, or touching each other deeply in ways that change lives across great distances is great, but it seems curious to me that there would be rogue devices that are just pulling down content, or lack of it, for no reason.
I have been told that if I add a photo to each post, and have a way to tease out how often they are viewed, rather than my words, that somehow this will give me a better idea of who is really reading my content. It mat seem strange but a picture might be able to help determine who is reading my work and who is not. What I prefer is to hear from those who have been influenced, those who are taking issue with what I have said or even those who are thankful for hearing my point of view. Without these things, or donations to help me continue to write, there is little evidence that I am reaching people.
My message to the fourteen readers who came across this empty post over the last three weeks, I have no idea what this was or how it got there. Believe me, when I sit down to write, I always have something to say! Even if only WTF? How can we find our way forward without the probing light of day that is shed by communication into the abyss? How can we trust one another to make reasoned decisions without mentioning any facts? How can we assume to know something if we accept the opinions of others without getting to the bottom of where their "truth" comes from?
This link is to something that I have known for a long, long time, it seems to help us to see a larger picture and I post it here to help people to understand that we frequently fear things we do not understand far more than we fear the policies that have been based on lies, fed to us with "good intentions" by others who do not have any facts, credibility or understanding about the positions that they have taken. Each of us has probably had a grandfather, uncle or father who said:"Don't ask why, just do it.", "I said so, that's why." or something to that effect. What they mean when they say those sorts of things is: "I don't know why." or "I feel uncomfortable with the fact that I don't have any good reasons to back up my position." What they are telling you to do is to bend to their will, accept power and control as our fate and to unquestioningly put yourself below them on the social hierarchy.
Just say no to ignorance. Here are some ideas, perhaps you have had a few of them yourself. Don't take my word for it. Educate yourself! This is just a jumping off point. You may want to make some popcorn before you start. If you tend to get angry when you have to suffer fools, be warned, there are a few in this film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnFJYxCx7zk
I have been told that if I add a photo to each post, and have a way to tease out how often they are viewed, rather than my words, that somehow this will give me a better idea of who is really reading my content. It mat seem strange but a picture might be able to help determine who is reading my work and who is not. What I prefer is to hear from those who have been influenced, those who are taking issue with what I have said or even those who are thankful for hearing my point of view. Without these things, or donations to help me continue to write, there is little evidence that I am reaching people.
My message to the fourteen readers who came across this empty post over the last three weeks, I have no idea what this was or how it got there. Believe me, when I sit down to write, I always have something to say! Even if only WTF? How can we find our way forward without the probing light of day that is shed by communication into the abyss? How can we trust one another to make reasoned decisions without mentioning any facts? How can we assume to know something if we accept the opinions of others without getting to the bottom of where their "truth" comes from?
This link is to something that I have known for a long, long time, it seems to help us to see a larger picture and I post it here to help people to understand that we frequently fear things we do not understand far more than we fear the policies that have been based on lies, fed to us with "good intentions" by others who do not have any facts, credibility or understanding about the positions that they have taken. Each of us has probably had a grandfather, uncle or father who said:"Don't ask why, just do it.", "I said so, that's why." or something to that effect. What they mean when they say those sorts of things is: "I don't know why." or "I feel uncomfortable with the fact that I don't have any good reasons to back up my position." What they are telling you to do is to bend to their will, accept power and control as our fate and to unquestioningly put yourself below them on the social hierarchy.
Just say no to ignorance. Here are some ideas, perhaps you have had a few of them yourself. Don't take my word for it. Educate yourself! This is just a jumping off point. You may want to make some popcorn before you start. If you tend to get angry when you have to suffer fools, be warned, there are a few in this film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnFJYxCx7zk
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