The most common argument that folks use against the case for Global Climate Change is that we have only been keeping records about weather and climate for a hundred and fifty years or so. This is only partially true. Ancient literature and artwork may not have been done by meteorologists, but they did depict or detail conditions as far back as recorded history. 17th century prints clearly show the extent of glaciers in Europe, agricultural records from Egypt and Mesopotamia detail both floods and drought. People have always known that the environment directly effects our quality of life and noted the extremes and conditions that were either bucolic or harsh. Since the development of the thermometer we have been able to put numbers to paper that represent conditions, but saying that high blood pressure didn't exist until we had blood pressure cuffs would be an obvious misrepresentation of fact.
The ignorance that fuels the "anti global-warming" crowd would be quaint if it did not jeopardize our children's future quality of life. As we see records fall, in ever more rapid succession and in larger and larger areas, it should give pause and call us to question why. When I studied meteorology as a child, and again in college, prevailing wisdom said that relatively high and low pressure cells alternated with one another. The size of these cells rarely measured more than a few hundred miles across, and the affect of "steering" winds of the jet stream on ground level conditions usually changed on a seasonal frequency. The atmosphere was relatively stable compared to what we see today.
Another myth that the anti-climate change folks cling to is the belief that, "The atmosphere is so vast that human activity couldn't possibly affect it." The weather producing atmosphere, depending on how you measure it is roughly five miles thick. To give a sense of scale, shrink the earth down to the size of an apple. At this scale, the atmosphere would be about as thick as the skin. We can document the "Brown Cloud" that wafts off China. We can see the perma-smog over more and more urban areas. We can document human health effects from fly ash piles that result from burning coal. To say that we couldn't possibly cause change in the atmosphere again flies in the face of fact. Climate destabilization seems to be the rule rather than a series of isolated events.
Dependent as we are on conditions in far away places like Florida and California, it is time that we begin to see the climate as a unifying force in understanding of and commitment to addressing this issue. Rather than just hearing on the news that orange juice or strawberries will be more expensive at the grocery stores, or that vegetables will be more expensive next year, we need to understand our part in throwing climate out of whack. It can be hard to fathom, but imagine giant columns of air rising over the landscape. Heated air, full of particulates and hazardous substances tend to rise. I live along a fifty-mile stretch of urban development. The invisible ridge that develops along the Fox River Valley can often be "seen" on radar, like a mountain range forcing the air up and over the ridge results in higher precipitation and warmer conditions as we continue to burn fuel close to the ground.
In the Winter, we have an added problem when the warm air, full of it's hazardous chemicals tries to dissipate, but encounters very cold dense air in the area. We can plainly see our emissions build up under the "ceiling". worse yet, in winter we often get alternating winds from the Southwest during the daytime hours and from the Northeast at night. As the air moves back and forth over the urban area, the same bolus of air gets filled with more and more particulates and hazardous compounds. When you think of Green Bay, Wisconsin most folks don't think of smog. Each time I get a chance to get out of town, as I come back into the urban area, I see the smog and wonder why I have to be subjected to hazardous air daily. Most urban areas are near river mouths or in river valleys because they were accessible by water when that was the primary transportation method. It was a plus that those locations were somewhat protected from major storms, but the same morphology that protected us in the pre-industrial era acts to hold in the toxins that we spew today.
I come down on the side of independent thought, looking at facts and making up my own mind on these issues. The commitment that I have made to living a conservative lifestyle is based on the research that I have done, not the catch phrases of any organization or movement. Back in the day, someone coined the idea of "thinking globally but acting locally". It is my firm belief that this is an impossible task, designed to inspire inaction rather than change. I like the opposite concept. Think and act locally. When we look closely enough at our local environment, we can see the heavy hand of man and the destructive capacity of ignorant actions. When we walk more, talk to our neighbors more and plant more of the food that sustains us in our own yards, we can live better for less, saving money and impacting the environment far less than if we rely on others to provide our every need. When we discover the art of pre-cycling, (choosing to purchase products that can be repaired, reused or recycled rather than ones that need to be discarded after a single use.) understand the joys of walking and riding bike, learn to cultivate the soil rather than hate the dirt we walk on, and learn to live in harmony with the planet rather than fearing it, we can make positive changes on scales that are unimaginable. While thinking globally might sound nice in a sound bite, it has stifled change rather than facilitating it. Future generations will depend on having clean air, water and healthy food and soil. The way most of us are living our lives has degraded the quality of all of these resources. That is why I prefer to call "resources" gifts of Creator. We have been given Eden, but we have transformed it into the world that we see reported on the news nightly. The good news is that infinitesimally small changes implemented by the billions of earth's residents have the power to create miraculous changes virtually overnight.
If we made just one resolution for the coming year, to live as if the Earth mattered, considering the next seven generations as the Native Americans called it, the change that would flow from that one change would reverse the trends toward global catastrophe. Gaia has the power to heal herself, we just need to decide whether our species will help to recreate Eden and be around to enjoy it once it has been reestablished, or whether we will fall into the group of organisms who will never exist on the planet again. Extinction is truly forever. When we begin to live as if the Earth matters, it unleashes abundance unimaginable to those who remain under the bondage of "survival of the fittest" thinking. When I realized that survival of the luckiest is the actual fact, it allowed me to rethink many of the other lies that have been perpetrated in defense of the Power and Control model. The good old boys are on the ropes, what is needed is for us to stop beating a dead horse. Walk away from the fight, and put our energies into creating the New world Order that allows competitive and short sighted power mongers no quarter. Their "reality" is flawed and we can find myriad examples of cooperative systems that affirm life rather than tearing it down. Like Ghandi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world."
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
Merry Christmas, The Latest On Welfare for the Wealthy
I "own" two homes. At least the mortgages I pay indicate that some day I will own them...if... Well, I have been very interested in doing the "right thing" as anyone who has been reading my posts knows. This year I have installed a metal roof on one of my homes, installed two on-demand water heaters, produced even more food than last year on my own property and driven less miles than ever before. I have also invested in both insulation, air sealing and electrical energy saving devices. Because I am poor enough that I receive all of my Federal Taxes back, there isn't a single cent of incentive to help me with my energy-saving purchases. My biggest issue with this is not, as you might think, my own pocketbook. Although I would like a little help with the thousands that I have spent over the years out of my own pocket, my concern is for the affluent who are being subsidized in their quest for lower utility bills.
It is a well established fact that energy costs will continue to rise as we begin to include higher costs of procurement, negative effects of coal mining, transport and "end-use", as well as the ecological harm that results from oil and gas production, transport and use. We are past peak with regard to oil, and natural gas. 2010 saw the cost of energy rise for the first time with a concurrent drop in production. Utility companies are well aware of the fact that it is cheaper to reduce the need for more energy than to produce any additional watts, BTUs or therms. Hovering, as I do, near the poverty line, there is little to inspire my actions except for my own personal responsibility. Sometimes, doing the right thing is it's own reward. If I were rich enough to pay taxes, I would qualify for up to (what equals for me) more than a month's wages! Perhaps then I could afford to take a vacation. The ultimate benefit is financially accruing to energy corporations who reap the rewards of reduced demand. More and more of their income is based on fixed charges, service fees and procurement costs, so that they can deal with selling less energy for a higher cost. Many wealthy families might barely notice, the $1,500 Energy Tax Credit. It would hardly register on their family budget. For me to spend nearly ten percent of my annual income on energy savings means far more than someone in a 3,000 square foot drywall castle adding a few more inches of insulation to their attic. In their defense, what they save might equal my total use, but as a percentage of their bill, the savings would be minute. Surely less than running their gas fireplace for the holidays or the cost of heating the hot tub.
My investments in conservation rest solely on my shoulders. I bear the burden of their costs and reap the rewards of smaller utility bills. Several years ago, I installed what uppity solar techs call a "scorched air" furnace. It's basically a box that has double glazing on the south (sunny) side, insulation on the north (shady) side. Cool air from the house goes in on one end and warm air comes out on the other, as long as the sun is on the panel. Two automatic dampers isolate the box from the house when the sun goes down and a thermostat turns on a fan to blow cool air into the unit when the box warms up. It is a simple and elegant system that many people don't even notice sitting out behind the back porch. The solar panel cost four hundred dollars, used, and it cost about $1,000 for the installation. Right from the start, the system saved me about 1/3 of the heating bill. This unit has been producing heat sine 1972 and shows a bit of age, but works well. The system paid itself off in less than two years and now saves us nearly $1,000 per year. The way I see those avoided costs is that they help to fund my next round of improvements. Over the years I have found 30-50% energy savings easy to get from each and every home that I have owned. the problem is that very few people understand or can conceive of why these issues are important. I rest easier knowing that in fifty or more years, when my roof needs replacing, the material that comes off can be recycled. I also delight in the fact that I don't have to keep a giant container of hot water in my basement anymore! When you live in 680 square feet of space, a water heater wasting space from floor to ceiling (even if it is in the basement)seems way bigger than I have space for. The small, suitcase size, on-demand water heater that replaces it and hangs on the wall is much better suited to my small footprint lifestyle. An added benefit is that it fits our lifestyle on multiple levels. Installing a through the wall venting unit allowed us to eliminate our chimney opening up nearly four square feet per floor for living space. Efficiency isn't just about energy savings, it is about living a better lifestyle with the resources that you have on hand, spending less on resources from far far away and appreciating what is all around us all the time.
The fact is that energy providers make money on every bit of energy they sell, the hot water that flows down the drain and away from your house is money in their bank. The light left on overnight is accruing to their bottom line and the wasted trip that you took to the store that advertised one thing but ran out before you got there, helps put the children of the CEOs of some faceless energy giant corporation through ivy league university. The rules are set so that they never lose money on waste and inefficiency. It's all just a write off for them. In fact the systems that we establish to "save energy", though somewhat effective reward those who should be paying for these things themselves while the folks who are least able to afford the upgrades are stuck paying the lion's share of the bills, living in drafty old buildings and wishing that they could find a way to keep the lights on for another month. I have seen folks too poor to afford glass put cardboard up in place of a broken pane. There will always be people too poor to pay attention, but when folks like me are ready and willing to make whatever changes are needed to reduce energy use, subsidizing the changes for the well-to-do just doesn't make sense. The ultimate winners are the utility companies. Financially, the table has been set for them with all the trimmings. The poorer classes, can only hope to scrape together an ort or two for a meager holiday dinner of scraps.
It is a well established fact that energy costs will continue to rise as we begin to include higher costs of procurement, negative effects of coal mining, transport and "end-use", as well as the ecological harm that results from oil and gas production, transport and use. We are past peak with regard to oil, and natural gas. 2010 saw the cost of energy rise for the first time with a concurrent drop in production. Utility companies are well aware of the fact that it is cheaper to reduce the need for more energy than to produce any additional watts, BTUs or therms. Hovering, as I do, near the poverty line, there is little to inspire my actions except for my own personal responsibility. Sometimes, doing the right thing is it's own reward. If I were rich enough to pay taxes, I would qualify for up to (what equals for me) more than a month's wages! Perhaps then I could afford to take a vacation. The ultimate benefit is financially accruing to energy corporations who reap the rewards of reduced demand. More and more of their income is based on fixed charges, service fees and procurement costs, so that they can deal with selling less energy for a higher cost. Many wealthy families might barely notice, the $1,500 Energy Tax Credit. It would hardly register on their family budget. For me to spend nearly ten percent of my annual income on energy savings means far more than someone in a 3,000 square foot drywall castle adding a few more inches of insulation to their attic. In their defense, what they save might equal my total use, but as a percentage of their bill, the savings would be minute. Surely less than running their gas fireplace for the holidays or the cost of heating the hot tub.
My investments in conservation rest solely on my shoulders. I bear the burden of their costs and reap the rewards of smaller utility bills. Several years ago, I installed what uppity solar techs call a "scorched air" furnace. It's basically a box that has double glazing on the south (sunny) side, insulation on the north (shady) side. Cool air from the house goes in on one end and warm air comes out on the other, as long as the sun is on the panel. Two automatic dampers isolate the box from the house when the sun goes down and a thermostat turns on a fan to blow cool air into the unit when the box warms up. It is a simple and elegant system that many people don't even notice sitting out behind the back porch. The solar panel cost four hundred dollars, used, and it cost about $1,000 for the installation. Right from the start, the system saved me about 1/3 of the heating bill. This unit has been producing heat sine 1972 and shows a bit of age, but works well. The system paid itself off in less than two years and now saves us nearly $1,000 per year. The way I see those avoided costs is that they help to fund my next round of improvements. Over the years I have found 30-50% energy savings easy to get from each and every home that I have owned. the problem is that very few people understand or can conceive of why these issues are important. I rest easier knowing that in fifty or more years, when my roof needs replacing, the material that comes off can be recycled. I also delight in the fact that I don't have to keep a giant container of hot water in my basement anymore! When you live in 680 square feet of space, a water heater wasting space from floor to ceiling (even if it is in the basement)seems way bigger than I have space for. The small, suitcase size, on-demand water heater that replaces it and hangs on the wall is much better suited to my small footprint lifestyle. An added benefit is that it fits our lifestyle on multiple levels. Installing a through the wall venting unit allowed us to eliminate our chimney opening up nearly four square feet per floor for living space. Efficiency isn't just about energy savings, it is about living a better lifestyle with the resources that you have on hand, spending less on resources from far far away and appreciating what is all around us all the time.
The fact is that energy providers make money on every bit of energy they sell, the hot water that flows down the drain and away from your house is money in their bank. The light left on overnight is accruing to their bottom line and the wasted trip that you took to the store that advertised one thing but ran out before you got there, helps put the children of the CEOs of some faceless energy giant corporation through ivy league university. The rules are set so that they never lose money on waste and inefficiency. It's all just a write off for them. In fact the systems that we establish to "save energy", though somewhat effective reward those who should be paying for these things themselves while the folks who are least able to afford the upgrades are stuck paying the lion's share of the bills, living in drafty old buildings and wishing that they could find a way to keep the lights on for another month. I have seen folks too poor to afford glass put cardboard up in place of a broken pane. There will always be people too poor to pay attention, but when folks like me are ready and willing to make whatever changes are needed to reduce energy use, subsidizing the changes for the well-to-do just doesn't make sense. The ultimate winners are the utility companies. Financially, the table has been set for them with all the trimmings. The poorer classes, can only hope to scrape together an ort or two for a meager holiday dinner of scraps.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Thinking of Giving a Gift That Enriches Life?
I love the idea of giving people ideas as gifts, allowing them to see themselves in a new way or as part of a larger world. Although ECO-Tours of Wisconsin Inc. would benefit greatly from donations made in the name of you favorite gift recipient, and we would like to have additional funds to help us to plant more native trees across Northeast Wisconsin, provide eco-tours and present more environmental education tours, there are quite a few other not-for-profit organizations that could use your support this season.Many of these groups, including ECO-Tours of Wisconsin can be accessed through Paypal or have some other form of online giving available. Our group, for example, just requires the account number tnsaladino42@hotmail.com.
This year I gave the gift of a goat, funded through Heifer International. Not only do I love goats, but their milk and cheese are utilized around the world accounting for the vast majority of dairy products consumed worldwide. The joy of giving through Heifer International is that their program not only provides animals that are appropriate for local conditions in impoverished areas around the globe, leading to better standards of living for those who receive them, but the recipients must sign an agreement to share a portion of the progeny of their animals with others who are needy in their communities. This in turn leads to a better standard of living for others beyond the initial recipient.
By giving a gift of this sort, it can lead to a recognition that for some the door to financial independence can hinge on as little as $120. The cost of one goat. To see our abundance in a new light often is the first step to seeing how we can fit into a more compassionate and more supportive lifeway. With the cost of what we throw away in food waste alone, the lives of people half a world away could be transformed. Please consider making a donation in the name of folks on your Christmas, Solstice, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah or New Year's gift list. I really don't care what you call it, but the give-away is such an essential part of human society that We should all participate, no matter what we call the celebration.
This year I gave the gift of a goat, funded through Heifer International. Not only do I love goats, but their milk and cheese are utilized around the world accounting for the vast majority of dairy products consumed worldwide. The joy of giving through Heifer International is that their program not only provides animals that are appropriate for local conditions in impoverished areas around the globe, leading to better standards of living for those who receive them, but the recipients must sign an agreement to share a portion of the progeny of their animals with others who are needy in their communities. This in turn leads to a better standard of living for others beyond the initial recipient.
By giving a gift of this sort, it can lead to a recognition that for some the door to financial independence can hinge on as little as $120. The cost of one goat. To see our abundance in a new light often is the first step to seeing how we can fit into a more compassionate and more supportive lifeway. With the cost of what we throw away in food waste alone, the lives of people half a world away could be transformed. Please consider making a donation in the name of folks on your Christmas, Solstice, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah or New Year's gift list. I really don't care what you call it, but the give-away is such an essential part of human society that We should all participate, no matter what we call the celebration.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
The Last Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse was in 1638
Galileo Galilei was still alive when this event took place. Remember, he was the fellow who wrote: "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same god who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." He was the first to use the refracting telescope and witnessed the phases of Venus as well as discovering the moons of Jupiter. His astute observations and scientific rigor allowed him to prove the validity of Copernicus' theory that the planets revolve around the Sun. For this he was subjected to the inquisition, convicted of heresy and sentenced to life in prison which was reduced to lifelong house arrest because of his ill health and old age. Nearly four hundred years ago, the powers that felt threatened by his discoveries took it upon themselves to make him recant his support for Heliocentrism, although "primitive" cultures dating back many centuries had known the central place of the Sun in their cosmology. The Earth, when it eclipses the Sun, has the power to darken the Moon, just as our earthly ignorance and quest for power has the ability to block out god's love and our ability to perceive the goddess in her abundance as well. After nearly four hundred years, the powers that be are still trying to get us to forgo the use of our sense, reason and intellect. We must stand in the face of their oppression and take back these god given aspects of our make up.
The miracles that I have witnessed are things like animals hibernating. They appear to be completely dead then come out of their torpor to live again. If a frog, turtle or spider can be reborn, should we claim that they have died for our "sins" and worship them? Three days for a human is pretty good, but many animals hibernate for months! The Solstice is the most likely reason behind the season, we should all agree to disagree with the Jesus Myth. It was predated by several similar myths from far more ancient cultures. I don't want to rehash all of that again, but if you want to know more, watch the Zeitgeist movie, or study your history. Another miracle that I have witnessed is the fact that a single seed can increase itself with such vigor as to produce many thousands of times it's own weight in food while creating many times it's mass of oxygen, transforming the Earth by it's very process of living. We could learn a lot from something as delicate as a dandelion seed, or a pea. The lessons that are attributed to Jesus Christ are alive in the cornucopia, a pagan symbol that predates Jesus, the star, which is shorthand for Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit and dozens of other ancient pagan symbols. The ignorance of our age is to mistake what we must all ultimately take responsibility for, our own ultimate power, for some sort of esoteric and unproven "power" that we give a story, to guide our lives.
I have been told by well-meaning Christians that my attire, behavior, beliefs and lifestyle relegate me to burning in hell for eternity. I have seen these same folks use power and control to oppress their wives and children, unleash their hatred and anger on innocent beings, lust after both neighbors' possessions as well as their wives, destroy nature and disavow intellectual development in favor of what they call "The Word". I'm with Galileio. If subscribing to their way of thinking means that my sense, reason and intellect must be forsaken, I want no part of it. Look no further than ancient folk wisdom or the current television series in which the CEO goes to work at the lowest level in their own company to see that the clothes certainly don't make the man. I have not acted with malice toward anyone, though I do refuse to submit to the power trips of others. I believe in Love, Peace, Liberty, Truth and Justice but understand that without living in a spiritual way, few of these qualities can be understood or defined with clarity. I also believe that many of my X-tian friends and neighbors are tormented more surely on this
Earth, than they ever could be in their imaginary "hell". Fearing corruption is nearly as dangerous as hating it. In either case, the mere granting of it quarter assures it's continued existence. If we fear something profoundly enough, we will "see" it around every corner. Likewise, when we hate, our energies somehow act as a cosmic funnel, bringing the object of our disgust back into focus for us to "get a better look".
A new place in time requires new approaches and a sense of honor for those who came before. Without their insight and awareness, we cannot hope to advance the cause of humanity without the dangers of repeating their errors as well. Yes, there really is a Santa Claus, as we come to realize as we enter adulthood, the personage that we sent our letters to is a fallacy, but the abundant spirit of giving is alive among us. Some of us keep that spirit alive throughout the year, others, only when they bake more cookies than they can possibly eat themselves. So too, the spirit of the Christ Child, the young man seeking the truths of the sages of India during his "lost years", even the heretic who sought to live as the light and love of our Creator and the man who was crucified for his insubordination are imaginary as well, they live within us, not in chapter and verse of a plagiarized document translated through half a dozen languages to meet our ear or mind. It behooves us to make a distinction between the fables that we are told and the truth that lies within them.
During this time of quiet reflection and the rebirth, of the Sun, may we all find ways to more purely abide the Golden Rule, stand for what we believe in, and accommodate the needs of others in our own struggles to find happiness. Once we find the prince of Peace within our selves, may we find ways to share that personage with others. Our closest burning star gives without measure and we need to follow the lead of that heavenly body, supporting life, affirming the abundance that the sun "son" personifies. Let us not get hung up in what our parents may have told us when we were young and impressionable. Growing up requires us to make a distinction between truth and fantasy. At some point we must "let go of childish things" and take full responsibility for our own salvation. Blessed Be this day and for all time, may your spirit soar and your body be healed through right livelihood and mutual respect for all beings.
The miracles that I have witnessed are things like animals hibernating. They appear to be completely dead then come out of their torpor to live again. If a frog, turtle or spider can be reborn, should we claim that they have died for our "sins" and worship them? Three days for a human is pretty good, but many animals hibernate for months! The Solstice is the most likely reason behind the season, we should all agree to disagree with the Jesus Myth. It was predated by several similar myths from far more ancient cultures. I don't want to rehash all of that again, but if you want to know more, watch the Zeitgeist movie, or study your history. Another miracle that I have witnessed is the fact that a single seed can increase itself with such vigor as to produce many thousands of times it's own weight in food while creating many times it's mass of oxygen, transforming the Earth by it's very process of living. We could learn a lot from something as delicate as a dandelion seed, or a pea. The lessons that are attributed to Jesus Christ are alive in the cornucopia, a pagan symbol that predates Jesus, the star, which is shorthand for Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit and dozens of other ancient pagan symbols. The ignorance of our age is to mistake what we must all ultimately take responsibility for, our own ultimate power, for some sort of esoteric and unproven "power" that we give a story, to guide our lives.
I have been told by well-meaning Christians that my attire, behavior, beliefs and lifestyle relegate me to burning in hell for eternity. I have seen these same folks use power and control to oppress their wives and children, unleash their hatred and anger on innocent beings, lust after both neighbors' possessions as well as their wives, destroy nature and disavow intellectual development in favor of what they call "The Word". I'm with Galileio. If subscribing to their way of thinking means that my sense, reason and intellect must be forsaken, I want no part of it. Look no further than ancient folk wisdom or the current television series in which the CEO goes to work at the lowest level in their own company to see that the clothes certainly don't make the man. I have not acted with malice toward anyone, though I do refuse to submit to the power trips of others. I believe in Love, Peace, Liberty, Truth and Justice but understand that without living in a spiritual way, few of these qualities can be understood or defined with clarity. I also believe that many of my X-tian friends and neighbors are tormented more surely on this
Earth, than they ever could be in their imaginary "hell". Fearing corruption is nearly as dangerous as hating it. In either case, the mere granting of it quarter assures it's continued existence. If we fear something profoundly enough, we will "see" it around every corner. Likewise, when we hate, our energies somehow act as a cosmic funnel, bringing the object of our disgust back into focus for us to "get a better look".
A new place in time requires new approaches and a sense of honor for those who came before. Without their insight and awareness, we cannot hope to advance the cause of humanity without the dangers of repeating their errors as well. Yes, there really is a Santa Claus, as we come to realize as we enter adulthood, the personage that we sent our letters to is a fallacy, but the abundant spirit of giving is alive among us. Some of us keep that spirit alive throughout the year, others, only when they bake more cookies than they can possibly eat themselves. So too, the spirit of the Christ Child, the young man seeking the truths of the sages of India during his "lost years", even the heretic who sought to live as the light and love of our Creator and the man who was crucified for his insubordination are imaginary as well, they live within us, not in chapter and verse of a plagiarized document translated through half a dozen languages to meet our ear or mind. It behooves us to make a distinction between the fables that we are told and the truth that lies within them.
During this time of quiet reflection and the rebirth, of the Sun, may we all find ways to more purely abide the Golden Rule, stand for what we believe in, and accommodate the needs of others in our own struggles to find happiness. Once we find the prince of Peace within our selves, may we find ways to share that personage with others. Our closest burning star gives without measure and we need to follow the lead of that heavenly body, supporting life, affirming the abundance that the sun "son" personifies. Let us not get hung up in what our parents may have told us when we were young and impressionable. Growing up requires us to make a distinction between truth and fantasy. At some point we must "let go of childish things" and take full responsibility for our own salvation. Blessed Be this day and for all time, may your spirit soar and your body be healed through right livelihood and mutual respect for all beings.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Creativity, Determination & Innovation Drive America's Economy
The wealthy often lack these desired traits. When we get too comfortable in any sphere of our existence, change suffers. A wise friend once said, "If you're not growin' you're dyin'." This sentiment echoes this point quite well. Change is the onlt thing that remains constant in our world but you would be hard pressed to find it in our culture today. When still in college,I did a research project on the relationship between creativity and television exposure. The sheer mechanics were daunting, but in the end I was able to gain some great data and insight into some of what is ailing our nation today. In general, all the data lined up along a critical curve. As children watched more and more television, their creativity was more and more impaired. Two notable individuals from the thousand or so in the study provided exceptions to this and were exceptional for several reasons. One child scored the lowest on the assessment of creativity, but watched no television. As it turned out, their parents were Bible thumpers who didn't even own a television because they believed that it was an agent of the devil. Another child watched an inordinate amount of TV, but was still rated at the highest level of creativity. They tended to talk back to the television, challenging every premise that the advertisers could posit. As in most other realms of our lives, the more turned on you become, the more the world opens up to greet you. The more experiences that we have in the "real world" the higher our level of creativity. The more mediated our environment becomes, the less creative we become.
In my experience, I have learned that the America we hold up as a beacon to the world, the one that worships freedom and liberty, is less and less recognizable in our current perverted, media dominated era. We seem to have become part of a vast marketing scheme that leaves no room for questioning why any of our consumer goods should be purchased. In essence, we are expected to jump at the chance to buy whatever the box in our living room, or kitchen, or den tells us is fashionable. The dogged determination that led Louis and Clark to find that there was no Northwest Passage, or indeed the sustained effort required to link the nation with railroads is hard to find in our population today. The America we all learned about in school when I was young seemed to have a penchant for proving others wrong. If someone said, "You can't do that." no matter what it was, we had to prove them wrong. When they said we would never build a bridge across the Mississippi, we proved them wrong. When we began the trans-continental railroad they said that was impossible. Same with the interstate highway system and going to the moon. That was then, this is now.
Innovation flows from creativity. Trying something new often leads to new products, new ways of seeing the world and new ways of expressing who we are as a people. wealth tends to flow in the direction of what works, or more specifically, what has worked in the past. We are reaping the fruits of several generations of the faulty logic that if we do more of the same, endlessly replicating what used to work, all will be well. Even though the times have changed, there are still cheerleaders who advocate the old ways of doing business and "growing" the economy. Look around at the Christmas catalogs. Hundreds of items have been miniaturized but precious few items turn out to be "new". Invention and innovation have taken a back seat to miniaturization. We can hold a laptop computer in our hand, but many times we cannot find the time to try something new or different.
The indomitable human spirit that lived in the hearts of millions of Americans has been relegated to a status of quirky individualism, scoffed at and mocked by many. I often wonder where we would be as a nation if we were to reward novel approaches to problem solving, rather than providing corporate welfare to business as usual methodology. What if we were to value fluency and encourage folks to push the limits of what is real, good and possible? We shouldn't have let the rest of the world bring us hybrid car technology, or surpass us in renewable energy production. As we have fallen into our boob tubes, it seems we have lost perspective, purpose and a sense of who we are. If we are to survive as a nation, we need to become more than a police state in search of an excuse for eliminating rights that our citizens fought and died to protect.
If the rich were capable of taking real risks, I would be willing to follow their lead from time to time, but the entrenched values of competition, keeping up with the Jones', and playing the stock market and assuming that lack is the engine behind our economy have helped me to realize that the people with all the money are completely out of touch with reality and therefore can't get a grasp of what is needed in our current economic slump. The irony is that our electorate was told by big money to embrace the same party that drove the economy into this ditch. Now we will have to fight for change even harder. Looking at the big picture almost certainly leads to frustration and disappointment. What has worked for me lately is to look to the examples of solutions that abound all around us and the fact that there are millions of little guys making the real investments and creating new systems for meeting human and planetary needs efficiently and with malice toward none. Sweetwater Organics in Milwaukee seems to be on the right track. They have converted a giant warehouse to a three tiered living system. A greenhouse filled with food, fish and a biologically complex living filter. They will be able to annually produce hundreds of thousands of pounds of food and hundreds of thousands of pounds of protein, providing jobs, turning the tide on urban blight and feeding hungry people in the middle of a food desert.
Little things are happening daily that each in their own way contribute to the type of change that will be required. The one thing that they have in common is that they each have a dynamic person at the center of them. Someone who refuses to give in to the idea of scarcity. someone who sees the unfolding future as bright and full of potential. These are the people we all need to model ourselves after. Bernie Madoff's son committed suicide rather than face the facts that his ways were wrong and do the time that could not possibly fit the crime. The wealthy idolized his dad, because he was seen as a wealth creator. Nothing creative about it. That system was tapped long ago, he just did what had worked in the past. What is needed is revolutionary change in the way we create wealth, the way we measure success and how we think about the nature of our part in the grand scheme of things. The good old boys networks have failed us. No matter how hard they cry out, we should not waste resources keeping them on life support. Corporate welfare pays no dividend. If the least of us are worse off for the betterment of the wealthiest among us, we have forged down the wrong path. We have been lied to for so long that for many, even knowing which way is up can be difficult, but if we pay attention, understand who is behind all the messages we are inundated with and investigate the options that we have, chances are good that we will find a better path to freedom, dignity and liberty that will not enslave another or the planet that the Gods and Goddesses have blessed us with.
In my experience, I have learned that the America we hold up as a beacon to the world, the one that worships freedom and liberty, is less and less recognizable in our current perverted, media dominated era. We seem to have become part of a vast marketing scheme that leaves no room for questioning why any of our consumer goods should be purchased. In essence, we are expected to jump at the chance to buy whatever the box in our living room, or kitchen, or den tells us is fashionable. The dogged determination that led Louis and Clark to find that there was no Northwest Passage, or indeed the sustained effort required to link the nation with railroads is hard to find in our population today. The America we all learned about in school when I was young seemed to have a penchant for proving others wrong. If someone said, "You can't do that." no matter what it was, we had to prove them wrong. When they said we would never build a bridge across the Mississippi, we proved them wrong. When we began the trans-continental railroad they said that was impossible. Same with the interstate highway system and going to the moon. That was then, this is now.
Innovation flows from creativity. Trying something new often leads to new products, new ways of seeing the world and new ways of expressing who we are as a people. wealth tends to flow in the direction of what works, or more specifically, what has worked in the past. We are reaping the fruits of several generations of the faulty logic that if we do more of the same, endlessly replicating what used to work, all will be well. Even though the times have changed, there are still cheerleaders who advocate the old ways of doing business and "growing" the economy. Look around at the Christmas catalogs. Hundreds of items have been miniaturized but precious few items turn out to be "new". Invention and innovation have taken a back seat to miniaturization. We can hold a laptop computer in our hand, but many times we cannot find the time to try something new or different.
The indomitable human spirit that lived in the hearts of millions of Americans has been relegated to a status of quirky individualism, scoffed at and mocked by many. I often wonder where we would be as a nation if we were to reward novel approaches to problem solving, rather than providing corporate welfare to business as usual methodology. What if we were to value fluency and encourage folks to push the limits of what is real, good and possible? We shouldn't have let the rest of the world bring us hybrid car technology, or surpass us in renewable energy production. As we have fallen into our boob tubes, it seems we have lost perspective, purpose and a sense of who we are. If we are to survive as a nation, we need to become more than a police state in search of an excuse for eliminating rights that our citizens fought and died to protect.
If the rich were capable of taking real risks, I would be willing to follow their lead from time to time, but the entrenched values of competition, keeping up with the Jones', and playing the stock market and assuming that lack is the engine behind our economy have helped me to realize that the people with all the money are completely out of touch with reality and therefore can't get a grasp of what is needed in our current economic slump. The irony is that our electorate was told by big money to embrace the same party that drove the economy into this ditch. Now we will have to fight for change even harder. Looking at the big picture almost certainly leads to frustration and disappointment. What has worked for me lately is to look to the examples of solutions that abound all around us and the fact that there are millions of little guys making the real investments and creating new systems for meeting human and planetary needs efficiently and with malice toward none. Sweetwater Organics in Milwaukee seems to be on the right track. They have converted a giant warehouse to a three tiered living system. A greenhouse filled with food, fish and a biologically complex living filter. They will be able to annually produce hundreds of thousands of pounds of food and hundreds of thousands of pounds of protein, providing jobs, turning the tide on urban blight and feeding hungry people in the middle of a food desert.
Little things are happening daily that each in their own way contribute to the type of change that will be required. The one thing that they have in common is that they each have a dynamic person at the center of them. Someone who refuses to give in to the idea of scarcity. someone who sees the unfolding future as bright and full of potential. These are the people we all need to model ourselves after. Bernie Madoff's son committed suicide rather than face the facts that his ways were wrong and do the time that could not possibly fit the crime. The wealthy idolized his dad, because he was seen as a wealth creator. Nothing creative about it. That system was tapped long ago, he just did what had worked in the past. What is needed is revolutionary change in the way we create wealth, the way we measure success and how we think about the nature of our part in the grand scheme of things. The good old boys networks have failed us. No matter how hard they cry out, we should not waste resources keeping them on life support. Corporate welfare pays no dividend. If the least of us are worse off for the betterment of the wealthiest among us, we have forged down the wrong path. We have been lied to for so long that for many, even knowing which way is up can be difficult, but if we pay attention, understand who is behind all the messages we are inundated with and investigate the options that we have, chances are good that we will find a better path to freedom, dignity and liberty that will not enslave another or the planet that the Gods and Goddesses have blessed us with.
Monday, December 6, 2010
When Will It End?
I'm sure that nearly everyone on the planet has asked themselves this question. Today, being the 145th anniversary of the 13th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution gives us pause to consider the means and methods of slavery that are still with us today. Although many slaves were treated as well as prize animals on a farm, some with "benefits", that is not saying much if you look at the quality of life that livestock enjoy today. Anti-slavery legislation passed nearly a century and a half ago, yet we are still grappling with the inhumanity that led to buying and selling of humans. Anyone who is paying attention realizes that child labor, domestic abuse, oppression, human trafficking and wage slavery are still rampant in our culture. The combined effect of these vile and reprehensible activities scar future generations and limit the ability of millions to achieve their full potential. In the darkest hours and sometimes in broad daylight, these activities continue to crush souls, deny basic human rights and funnel dollars to overlords who ignore both the spirit and letter of the law. Although most sentient beings realize, on some level, that this is wrong, it is allowed to continue for the sake of greed, profit and ancient methods used to wreak fear and havoc on populations for centuries. I have spoken of this phenomenon before and the best way I have found to name it is power and control.
What is needed is a serious and clear-headed understanding of the fact that this sort of power is unjust, corrupts humanity and is born of fear and a sense of lack. The control side of the phenomenon is dehumanizing for the perpetrator as well as the victim, because it is futile to base one's self-worth on arbitrarily foisting your reality on another or trying to "own" another just as surely as it is to be a slave to another. There has been a push to "end child abuse" on Facebook recently. Millions have changed their profile pictures to their favorite childhood cartoon characters. It is hard to imagine how making this sort of ripple in the digital realm can make positive change occur, but if someone would explain that to me, I might follow suit. There seems to be no end to the daily abuse of children, yet we are becoming enlightened to the fact that we do not own our progeny. I often wrestle with the issue myself. As a father, my purpose seems to be to teach my children right from wrong as well as how to survive in this world and the pitfalls that await them. Often their successes and failures lead me to wonder at how they came to where they are and how it is possible for them to both make ignorant choices and simultaneously reflect such deep insight. As often as I feel ignored, I develop greater respect for their independent growth. Dictating the conditions of the lives of others is truly a double edged sword. Parents who learn to wield it skillfully with deft precision and compassion are rewarded with insightful and confident children while those who lack sensitivity and/or humanity often create another generation of hostility and rage.
The old saying that "Children learn what they live..." is an excellent parable for our challenges and a valid guide for our behavior in this day and age. Just as in the environmental arena, we need to learn to see the full scale of our impact on the world around us to make sense of our daily choices and how they impact other travelers on Starship Earth. Power and control always come from feelings of lack and always lead to oppression. Domestic abuse may be the best publicized form of it, but all human rights issues boil down to this on sad fact. Perpetrators feel that they have the right, nay the responsibility to oppress others. When you are privileged, you know it and the right to exert power and control comes with that. It sounds odd but the Calvinistic belief that the oppressed bring it on themselves or deserve their station in life is still alive in our culture today. How many times will a child hear the words, "He just snapped." or "Boys will be boys." and a dozen other platitudes that are designed to cover the ass of those who would perpetrate violence? How many jokes will be told, just today, that dehumanize women and children? These are the cultural signals that allow us to diagnose an extremely sick culture. Children really do learn what they live and we, as adults, need to create positive change that will lead to a better world for the next seven generations.
The best thing about the recent economic slump is that El Norte', the land of milk and honey that supposedly existed North of the U. S.-Mexico border has lost some of it's luster. Flight to our country for economic refugees has dwindled, not because of the border fence, not because human traffickers have left the border region, not because we have spent billions in trying to make an example of those who cross over the arbitrary line in the sand, but because if these people are to be poor and denied basic human rights, they might as well do it in their homeland. Why flee to a place that has fallen on hard times if you can have the same quality of life right where you are? Human trafficking still occurs, but in this one discreet location on the face of the Earth, the rate has dropped significantly. Instead, we find more slaves coming from Asia, for both the sex trade and for our service sector jobs.
I wish that someone could tell me the difference between slavery of a century and a half ago and the methods employed by the thousands of China Buffet outlets across our great land. Typically, the employees are told where to live, how long they must work, and at what tasks. They are allowed no days off, required to work from morning to night, are fed special food that is infinitely cheaper than what is sold to the customers, and each month they are required to send money to the person who managed to get them into this country in the first place. Imagine paying $1,000 per month for the "right to work" at a restaurant, having no time to call one's own, and none of the benefits that most other Americans supposedly enjoy.
Unions have worked hard to defend basic human rights of workers, but industry has relegated most unions to shadows of themselves. Those that survive are under constant threat through the courts, political wrangling and outright attack in the media. Most of the advances that had been made have been eroded and we are once again falling back into a two tier system of wage slavery for the average man and exponential growth of incomes amongst the elite few who dictate our every action. My own union has recently allowed all of it's members to cover a one dollar or more, per day, liability (tax) on our wages because our employer arbitrarily decided that they didn't want us parking in their parking lot. If I had the option of riding mass transit to work, I wouldn't complain, but for heaven's sake, why should I pay for the right to leave my car at the job site? This seems trite when compared to the folks who risk their lives to be smuggled into our country, but are we not risking our lives daily on the highways for our employers as well? The superslab that leads to my place of employment is the most dangerous stretch of highway in the state. Risking one's life for the "opportunity" to work makes no sense, but I feel compelled to do it because I am in a profession that I love.
Finally, I want to return to the inequity created by the recent housing crisis in The United States of America. I am one of those paying a mortgage that is based on a fictitious appraisal. I told the bank when they gave me the loan that I could never sell the house for what they said it was worth, but they explained that by the time I would want to sell, that it would be worth far more than my obligation. Several years have passed and my mortgage is more than double what I could be paying in rent. Recent repairs, which always come with home ownership make the cost of living in my 680 square foot home well over $1,000 per month. The fact that I have experienced a 1/3 drop in income because of the current economic crisis matters not to the well-heeled individuals who are depending on my monthly payments, nor am I able to scrimp and save any more on my personal budget. I have tried repeatedly to get them to consider refinancing to a more sane arrangement, but to no avail. Is it any wonder? If anyone was confronted with the choice, do the right thing and make less money, or continue to do the wrong thing and get paid, I guess we all know which side to come down on. Or would we?
Doing the right thing sometimes means that we are rewarded in ways we cannot imagine. When my children exceed my expectations for instance, there is no way to put a dollar amount on that feeling. Respecting another as we would like to be respected is it's own reward. Knowing that we all deserve the right to our humanity and to be treated humanely, has the power to change the world. Please, make this a topic of conversation. Keep these things in the public consciousness. Speak of them often, turn up your own radar to detect abuse when you see it, and do not tolerate business as usual with respect to slavery in any of it's forms. We need to stand together against this vile human failing. Abolition of it from our culture can only come from vigilance. To tolerate injustice is to be complicit. We can only be as strong as the weakest among us and our freedoms are in jeopardy each time someone is abused.
What is needed is a serious and clear-headed understanding of the fact that this sort of power is unjust, corrupts humanity and is born of fear and a sense of lack. The control side of the phenomenon is dehumanizing for the perpetrator as well as the victim, because it is futile to base one's self-worth on arbitrarily foisting your reality on another or trying to "own" another just as surely as it is to be a slave to another. There has been a push to "end child abuse" on Facebook recently. Millions have changed their profile pictures to their favorite childhood cartoon characters. It is hard to imagine how making this sort of ripple in the digital realm can make positive change occur, but if someone would explain that to me, I might follow suit. There seems to be no end to the daily abuse of children, yet we are becoming enlightened to the fact that we do not own our progeny. I often wrestle with the issue myself. As a father, my purpose seems to be to teach my children right from wrong as well as how to survive in this world and the pitfalls that await them. Often their successes and failures lead me to wonder at how they came to where they are and how it is possible for them to both make ignorant choices and simultaneously reflect such deep insight. As often as I feel ignored, I develop greater respect for their independent growth. Dictating the conditions of the lives of others is truly a double edged sword. Parents who learn to wield it skillfully with deft precision and compassion are rewarded with insightful and confident children while those who lack sensitivity and/or humanity often create another generation of hostility and rage.
The old saying that "Children learn what they live..." is an excellent parable for our challenges and a valid guide for our behavior in this day and age. Just as in the environmental arena, we need to learn to see the full scale of our impact on the world around us to make sense of our daily choices and how they impact other travelers on Starship Earth. Power and control always come from feelings of lack and always lead to oppression. Domestic abuse may be the best publicized form of it, but all human rights issues boil down to this on sad fact. Perpetrators feel that they have the right, nay the responsibility to oppress others. When you are privileged, you know it and the right to exert power and control comes with that. It sounds odd but the Calvinistic belief that the oppressed bring it on themselves or deserve their station in life is still alive in our culture today. How many times will a child hear the words, "He just snapped." or "Boys will be boys." and a dozen other platitudes that are designed to cover the ass of those who would perpetrate violence? How many jokes will be told, just today, that dehumanize women and children? These are the cultural signals that allow us to diagnose an extremely sick culture. Children really do learn what they live and we, as adults, need to create positive change that will lead to a better world for the next seven generations.
The best thing about the recent economic slump is that El Norte', the land of milk and honey that supposedly existed North of the U. S.-Mexico border has lost some of it's luster. Flight to our country for economic refugees has dwindled, not because of the border fence, not because human traffickers have left the border region, not because we have spent billions in trying to make an example of those who cross over the arbitrary line in the sand, but because if these people are to be poor and denied basic human rights, they might as well do it in their homeland. Why flee to a place that has fallen on hard times if you can have the same quality of life right where you are? Human trafficking still occurs, but in this one discreet location on the face of the Earth, the rate has dropped significantly. Instead, we find more slaves coming from Asia, for both the sex trade and for our service sector jobs.
I wish that someone could tell me the difference between slavery of a century and a half ago and the methods employed by the thousands of China Buffet outlets across our great land. Typically, the employees are told where to live, how long they must work, and at what tasks. They are allowed no days off, required to work from morning to night, are fed special food that is infinitely cheaper than what is sold to the customers, and each month they are required to send money to the person who managed to get them into this country in the first place. Imagine paying $1,000 per month for the "right to work" at a restaurant, having no time to call one's own, and none of the benefits that most other Americans supposedly enjoy.
Unions have worked hard to defend basic human rights of workers, but industry has relegated most unions to shadows of themselves. Those that survive are under constant threat through the courts, political wrangling and outright attack in the media. Most of the advances that had been made have been eroded and we are once again falling back into a two tier system of wage slavery for the average man and exponential growth of incomes amongst the elite few who dictate our every action. My own union has recently allowed all of it's members to cover a one dollar or more, per day, liability (tax) on our wages because our employer arbitrarily decided that they didn't want us parking in their parking lot. If I had the option of riding mass transit to work, I wouldn't complain, but for heaven's sake, why should I pay for the right to leave my car at the job site? This seems trite when compared to the folks who risk their lives to be smuggled into our country, but are we not risking our lives daily on the highways for our employers as well? The superslab that leads to my place of employment is the most dangerous stretch of highway in the state. Risking one's life for the "opportunity" to work makes no sense, but I feel compelled to do it because I am in a profession that I love.
Finally, I want to return to the inequity created by the recent housing crisis in The United States of America. I am one of those paying a mortgage that is based on a fictitious appraisal. I told the bank when they gave me the loan that I could never sell the house for what they said it was worth, but they explained that by the time I would want to sell, that it would be worth far more than my obligation. Several years have passed and my mortgage is more than double what I could be paying in rent. Recent repairs, which always come with home ownership make the cost of living in my 680 square foot home well over $1,000 per month. The fact that I have experienced a 1/3 drop in income because of the current economic crisis matters not to the well-heeled individuals who are depending on my monthly payments, nor am I able to scrimp and save any more on my personal budget. I have tried repeatedly to get them to consider refinancing to a more sane arrangement, but to no avail. Is it any wonder? If anyone was confronted with the choice, do the right thing and make less money, or continue to do the wrong thing and get paid, I guess we all know which side to come down on. Or would we?
Doing the right thing sometimes means that we are rewarded in ways we cannot imagine. When my children exceed my expectations for instance, there is no way to put a dollar amount on that feeling. Respecting another as we would like to be respected is it's own reward. Knowing that we all deserve the right to our humanity and to be treated humanely, has the power to change the world. Please, make this a topic of conversation. Keep these things in the public consciousness. Speak of them often, turn up your own radar to detect abuse when you see it, and do not tolerate business as usual with respect to slavery in any of it's forms. We need to stand together against this vile human failing. Abolition of it from our culture can only come from vigilance. To tolerate injustice is to be complicit. We can only be as strong as the weakest among us and our freedoms are in jeopardy each time someone is abused.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Fake Terror Real Consequences
Concerning recent events, we can plainly see the real and present danger of fake explosives, fake detonators and fake operatives in the course of human events. Sadly, there is a real possibility that if our own government agents had not aided and abetted the fake bomber, some other "bad guys" might have materialized to fill their shoes, but as we have seen from several other terror related arrests, most of these "cells" lack the know-how and or wherewithal to become serious threats. Believe me, I know the complicated results that underlie the old saying, once bitten twice shy, so I do have some empathy for our Federal Bureau of Investigation. They say that 911 changed the world, but as many have seen and few have reported, the changes we have made have played into the hands of the terrorists, much more than having any beneficial effect on our safety and security. Our over the top response to terror has cost us billions, led to the repeated inconveniencing millions and eroded our rights. We have taken the very real posture of fear that cripples democracy, staunches the flow of free ideas and limits our freedoms that we often claim so many have died for.
I hate to climb on the conspiracy bandwagon, but the utter failings of 9-11 shout for complete revision of whatever policies were in place back then. To allow so many people who were on "terrorist watch lists" to simultaneously board the three planes that were used on that day could have easily been an "oversight". If it were just that, it might seem like pure incompetence. Failure to require cockpit doors be lockable might have been an oversight as well, but as we have learned, the government had been made aware that a plot to use commercial jets as projectiles against soft targets existed for years prior to 9-11. Maybe the FAA had better things to do, more likely, they were never told of the threat. Coincidentally, on the day of the "attack" there were military "games" up and down the East Coast, requiring F-16s to be scrambled. It is most chilling to listen to the dispatcher, who awaits just this sort of event, question, "Is this part of the exercise?" When you know with hindsight that it most assuredly was not. Had the scenario been played out as part of a movie or book, no one would have believed that so many could do so little for so long and that such a long series of mistakes could be strung together to create such a plot. Whether it was pure incompetence or an actual conspiracy is moot, the damage we have done to our own country since is blatantly obvious. The shadow government has ratcheted back freedoms and instituted fear tactics against all Americans in virtually every arena of our lives.
I do understand the very real threat posed by terrorists, but encouraging them to create mayhem to stop them is like trying to stop rabbits from reproducing through the use of tiny condoms. I am struck by the amount of time that was spent on the most recent FBI recruit. Instead of focusing on someone who was willing, but unable to carry out an attack, would not the cause of freedom and security be better served by concentrating on those who have the conviction and means to perpetrate mass destruction? I felt the need, after 9-11, to do a little figuring. Anyone who has been to New York understands that the whole rock of Manhattan is like an anthill. Throngs of people swarm up and down it's length. I wondered, what would happen if there was such a "strike" against an anthill. The answer I came to was absolutely nothing. Even if the World Trade Center had been the heart of the brood chamber, the ants would have carried off anything salvageable, creating a new chamber within hours. Within a week, or possibly as long as a month, the damage would be both inconsequential and undetectable. In our "developed" state, we have plans for a memorial. we are treating it like our own holocaust. We daily multiply the damage and danger by coining the term 9-11, repeating the story, highlighting the "threat" and refusing to ask the simple question, "Why are these crazy folks so dead set on trying to hurt our people?" It is becoming clear to some that we are a much bigger threat to ourselves than terrorists have ever been.
The America that I learned about in social studies and civics class has been eviscerated. No one is free if we are all to become suspect. The right to vote has even been undermined by fear mongering weasels with more money than we can fathom and, it seems, less concern for our country than their own wealth and dominion. The idea of an educated electorate has more or less fallen by the wayside. Like in the Harry Potter series what we fear the most cannot be named. Sadly, the difference between our early twenty-first century America and the magical world of Mr. Potter is that in the books, everyone knows who "he who can't be named" is. We, on the other hand, are led like hogs with rings through our noses from one "devil" to another. This election taxes were trotted out as the enemy. Driven by fear, like we are, it is easier to forget that the Republican juggernaut brought us a collapse of the world economy than question their motives. We seem to refuse to analyze any of the data that comes at us from whatever sources we trust, often choosing the "news" sources that most agree with our opinions. The oft repeated lies do not become true by their repetition, but it seems that we have not learned that yet.
We are a country of over three hundred million. Life is inherently dangerous. We kill more people each year by driving badly than terrorists have ever killed. Doctor prescribed medication kills more people every year than terrorists killed on 9-11. Although I am in favor of vigilance with regard a diverse set of threats, we need to keep a bit of perspective here. The same principles that apply to individuals guide the development of states. No one can be expected to thrive when basic needs are not met. Having our needs met include good nutritious food,which we know is under threat from all sides, receiving love and compassion from others, which is less and less likely in our increasingly angry land and security. True security depends on knowing we are safe, not being constantly told that we are in danger. Just as no one person can thrive under unhealthy or hostile conditions, neither can our nation thrive in an atmosphere of fear, fed only pablam and cheesecake. Searching for the nuggets of truth in the lies we are told by the mainstream press is a difficult challenge, but the value of facing the challenge is worth far more than I can put into words.
I hate to climb on the conspiracy bandwagon, but the utter failings of 9-11 shout for complete revision of whatever policies were in place back then. To allow so many people who were on "terrorist watch lists" to simultaneously board the three planes that were used on that day could have easily been an "oversight". If it were just that, it might seem like pure incompetence. Failure to require cockpit doors be lockable might have been an oversight as well, but as we have learned, the government had been made aware that a plot to use commercial jets as projectiles against soft targets existed for years prior to 9-11. Maybe the FAA had better things to do, more likely, they were never told of the threat. Coincidentally, on the day of the "attack" there were military "games" up and down the East Coast, requiring F-16s to be scrambled. It is most chilling to listen to the dispatcher, who awaits just this sort of event, question, "Is this part of the exercise?" When you know with hindsight that it most assuredly was not. Had the scenario been played out as part of a movie or book, no one would have believed that so many could do so little for so long and that such a long series of mistakes could be strung together to create such a plot. Whether it was pure incompetence or an actual conspiracy is moot, the damage we have done to our own country since is blatantly obvious. The shadow government has ratcheted back freedoms and instituted fear tactics against all Americans in virtually every arena of our lives.
I do understand the very real threat posed by terrorists, but encouraging them to create mayhem to stop them is like trying to stop rabbits from reproducing through the use of tiny condoms. I am struck by the amount of time that was spent on the most recent FBI recruit. Instead of focusing on someone who was willing, but unable to carry out an attack, would not the cause of freedom and security be better served by concentrating on those who have the conviction and means to perpetrate mass destruction? I felt the need, after 9-11, to do a little figuring. Anyone who has been to New York understands that the whole rock of Manhattan is like an anthill. Throngs of people swarm up and down it's length. I wondered, what would happen if there was such a "strike" against an anthill. The answer I came to was absolutely nothing. Even if the World Trade Center had been the heart of the brood chamber, the ants would have carried off anything salvageable, creating a new chamber within hours. Within a week, or possibly as long as a month, the damage would be both inconsequential and undetectable. In our "developed" state, we have plans for a memorial. we are treating it like our own holocaust. We daily multiply the damage and danger by coining the term 9-11, repeating the story, highlighting the "threat" and refusing to ask the simple question, "Why are these crazy folks so dead set on trying to hurt our people?" It is becoming clear to some that we are a much bigger threat to ourselves than terrorists have ever been.
The America that I learned about in social studies and civics class has been eviscerated. No one is free if we are all to become suspect. The right to vote has even been undermined by fear mongering weasels with more money than we can fathom and, it seems, less concern for our country than their own wealth and dominion. The idea of an educated electorate has more or less fallen by the wayside. Like in the Harry Potter series what we fear the most cannot be named. Sadly, the difference between our early twenty-first century America and the magical world of Mr. Potter is that in the books, everyone knows who "he who can't be named" is. We, on the other hand, are led like hogs with rings through our noses from one "devil" to another. This election taxes were trotted out as the enemy. Driven by fear, like we are, it is easier to forget that the Republican juggernaut brought us a collapse of the world economy than question their motives. We seem to refuse to analyze any of the data that comes at us from whatever sources we trust, often choosing the "news" sources that most agree with our opinions. The oft repeated lies do not become true by their repetition, but it seems that we have not learned that yet.
We are a country of over three hundred million. Life is inherently dangerous. We kill more people each year by driving badly than terrorists have ever killed. Doctor prescribed medication kills more people every year than terrorists killed on 9-11. Although I am in favor of vigilance with regard a diverse set of threats, we need to keep a bit of perspective here. The same principles that apply to individuals guide the development of states. No one can be expected to thrive when basic needs are not met. Having our needs met include good nutritious food,which we know is under threat from all sides, receiving love and compassion from others, which is less and less likely in our increasingly angry land and security. True security depends on knowing we are safe, not being constantly told that we are in danger. Just as no one person can thrive under unhealthy or hostile conditions, neither can our nation thrive in an atmosphere of fear, fed only pablam and cheesecake. Searching for the nuggets of truth in the lies we are told by the mainstream press is a difficult challenge, but the value of facing the challenge is worth far more than I can put into words.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Another Block Faces The Wrecking Ball
When the Catholic Diocese was recently destroyed, to make way for "development", I was upset, but my anger was tempered by the thought that they had built on a pagan sacred site, and that the land would be temporarily returned to a "more natural state". I'm relatively sure that eventually the site will be sold to make way for one strip mall or another and that a Pawn America, or other payday loan store will pop up there like a mushroom, but until then, we can delight in the open space and walk the land in honor and respect for it's inherent Spirit. In all my years, I have felt the energy inherent in that site. High ground always holds a special place in the hearts of spiritual seekers and the proximity to two ravines and the largest river in the area surely held great cache' with ancient locals. I always harbored dreams of reclaiming the area as a spiritual center that I have recognized since childhood.
Today, the destruction of another block in historic downtown Green Bay came to my attention. Just one long block from a locally owned pharmacy, CVS is planning to build one of their horribly ugly retail establishments. The half-dozen or so small, family-owned businesses as well as a few residential buildings will succumb to the heavy hand of "progress". The pharmacy that used to be in that location served our community for generations and was one of the few places that you could still find old medicine chest stand-bys like oil of clove, salicylic acid plasters, blackberry balsam and coal-tar salve. On the same block was a sporting goods store that figured into the lives of nearly every child raised around these parts. Many thousands of bikes were bought and repaired there and the skate sharpening services alone brought smiles to countless faces bordered by rosy cheeks. Just around the corner from these Green Bay Landmarks, were shops that sold tires, junk, beers and booze. After a twenty-four hour odyssey on my twenty-first birthday that started in St. Louis, Missouri, I finally found a place to get a beer, nestled between Wino "Whitney" Park and the drug store. The neighborhood has had it's value extracted by the richest among us for years and apparently is no longer suitable as a refuge for the poorest among us either.
It seems odd that one of the first cities in the Midwest would be so completely oblivious to it's own history. The most liveable part of our downtown has been systematically stripped of it's grocery stores, small businesses, character and consequently it's people. The things and folks that made our city great have been replaced by bankrupt malls, ugly monolithic buildings and massive debt ridden "development". Most sadly, this is not a unique story. Thousands of cities across our once great nation have succumbed to a similar plight. It seems that with the current atmosphere of in-fighting amongst fictitious "groups" and the gloom and doom "newscasters" purveying their lies and deception on all sides, we may never recover our cities. Lust amongst our politicians for more revenue has blinded them to budgetary realities that individuals understand all too well. A penny saved is truly a penny earned. Chasing after imagined tax revenues has driven our leaders to so many bad decisions that admitting the fallacy would surely require a loss of face for many. We can put lipstick on a pig, as the saying goes, but it can't possibly hide the pork and corpulent leaders whose corruption has led to the selling out of our communities.
I don't know where we will be when our neighborhoods have all vanished. I'm sure that it won't be as happy or secure a place as where I had the luxury of growing up. When we are gone, who will speak for good sense, compassion and equity? When we were children, and for generations back through human history, we knew where we were at all times. We knew right from wrong and if we forgot, there were always neighbors who could set us straight. Will our children know where they are headed if they cannot find any evidence of where they have come from? Will their children care if there is no sense of community? When every city looks the same, will individualism cease to have meaning? How will future generations express a sense of self when there is no distinction between Wichita and West Chester, San Sebastian and San Mateo and between Toronto and Tuskegee? Only time will tell. Let's hope that we don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Interested in saving a bit of history? Let me know and we can make a plan together.
Today, the destruction of another block in historic downtown Green Bay came to my attention. Just one long block from a locally owned pharmacy, CVS is planning to build one of their horribly ugly retail establishments. The half-dozen or so small, family-owned businesses as well as a few residential buildings will succumb to the heavy hand of "progress". The pharmacy that used to be in that location served our community for generations and was one of the few places that you could still find old medicine chest stand-bys like oil of clove, salicylic acid plasters, blackberry balsam and coal-tar salve. On the same block was a sporting goods store that figured into the lives of nearly every child raised around these parts. Many thousands of bikes were bought and repaired there and the skate sharpening services alone brought smiles to countless faces bordered by rosy cheeks. Just around the corner from these Green Bay Landmarks, were shops that sold tires, junk, beers and booze. After a twenty-four hour odyssey on my twenty-first birthday that started in St. Louis, Missouri, I finally found a place to get a beer, nestled between Wino "Whitney" Park and the drug store. The neighborhood has had it's value extracted by the richest among us for years and apparently is no longer suitable as a refuge for the poorest among us either.
It seems odd that one of the first cities in the Midwest would be so completely oblivious to it's own history. The most liveable part of our downtown has been systematically stripped of it's grocery stores, small businesses, character and consequently it's people. The things and folks that made our city great have been replaced by bankrupt malls, ugly monolithic buildings and massive debt ridden "development". Most sadly, this is not a unique story. Thousands of cities across our once great nation have succumbed to a similar plight. It seems that with the current atmosphere of in-fighting amongst fictitious "groups" and the gloom and doom "newscasters" purveying their lies and deception on all sides, we may never recover our cities. Lust amongst our politicians for more revenue has blinded them to budgetary realities that individuals understand all too well. A penny saved is truly a penny earned. Chasing after imagined tax revenues has driven our leaders to so many bad decisions that admitting the fallacy would surely require a loss of face for many. We can put lipstick on a pig, as the saying goes, but it can't possibly hide the pork and corpulent leaders whose corruption has led to the selling out of our communities.
I don't know where we will be when our neighborhoods have all vanished. I'm sure that it won't be as happy or secure a place as where I had the luxury of growing up. When we are gone, who will speak for good sense, compassion and equity? When we were children, and for generations back through human history, we knew where we were at all times. We knew right from wrong and if we forgot, there were always neighbors who could set us straight. Will our children know where they are headed if they cannot find any evidence of where they have come from? Will their children care if there is no sense of community? When every city looks the same, will individualism cease to have meaning? How will future generations express a sense of self when there is no distinction between Wichita and West Chester, San Sebastian and San Mateo and between Toronto and Tuskegee? Only time will tell. Let's hope that we don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Interested in saving a bit of history? Let me know and we can make a plan together.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
'Tis The Season...
We have all heard of the concept of peace, love and understanding, the comfort and joy thing as well as the rest of the myth that gave rise to the holiday season. Although being jolly has many of it's own rewards, we find ourselves facing some pretty serious times, that require a serious look as well as some fairly drastic action. I am personally accused of being "too happy", with no explanation or elaboration. I'm still not sure what that means, but I am sure that without a healthy dose of humor and levity, I would have devolved into a hopeless state long ago. I fear that many have forgotten the good that comes with our shared myths of giving and re-birth, focusing instead on acquisition and intransigence.
Especially in the United States of America, there seems to be a mood of dis-ease. Often, it is blamed on one group or another with little attention to the larger picture. We seem to delight in letting people help themselves to "resources", even human ones, cash, greed, government hand-outs and nature's many bounties. Frequently we point to their successes as proof that capitalism works. When greed, exploitation and self serving ways bring our economy to it's knees, we turn away, not wanting to face capitalism's failures, telling our people to "spend our way out" of economic decline. This is the time of year that we see this most poignantly. Our leaders are short-sighted enough to continue tilting at windmills obscured by the media fog. Endemic misunderstanding has led to institutionalized ignorance. As we have seen, most issues are couched in inflammatory rhetoric, rather than insightful reflection on where we have come from or indeed where we might be headed.
Trying to get a grasp on reality in the maelstrom of media snippets can feel like a drowning man trying to grasp the greased hull of his capsized boat. At least if you are set adrift on a raft, there is the possibility of hope. When everything we grasp seems to fall away like sand on a steep slope, we can't help but take two steps back for each one forward. During the seventies and eighties, many of the social change advocates chanted the mantra, "Kill your television". Today, the times have changed enough to shout down this basic admonition. Many folks believe that they are informed and educated by the idiot box. The entertainment that this technology provides, and the constant advertising that is given life in this media format, both dull the senses and couch lies in the guise of authority. Without a highly developed sense our own value, of analysis, of truth, much of what passes the censors can lead to artificial truth, manifestation of the imaginary or even a sense of self-loathing.
The technology that took us light years beyond Guttenberg has devolved into a source of universal values that, for the most part, detest fact and turn their backs on reality. Oddly enough, our comedy most clearly resembles life itself, but the heroes are frequently trite dupes, boorish idiots or out of control consumers. Through marketing, we highlight the seedy side of these characters, and their ability to ally themselves with our own "reality" and sense of self. I have tried to pour myself into this mold, unsuccessfully as you might have guessed. The stories that grew out of this attempt could be inspiration for an entire book, but my hope is that others who think critically about what we are doing will have the same experience that I did. I am not stronger for the effort, nor proud of the time that I spent in search of complacency. Instead, the fire that was kindled in me during war protests of the sixties, has been tended and indeed fed by the things I have learned by participating in the current consumerist culture.
Standing in line, waiting for a store to open, the day after Thanksgiving, hoping for a "chance" to buy a two-hundred dollar television three years ago was possibly the lowest point in my search for the New American Dream. Even as I grabbed the box that held the device, I felt like a disembodied agent of consumption. By the time I had straightened my knees, from squatting down to pick up the box that held my reward, an entire pallet of identical items had disappeared and their purchasers had turned to the next "quarry" on their list. I guess my only wanting one item was my nemesis, because once in hand, I had time to reflect on the feelings that came with my action. Turning from where the pile of televisions had been, I could see dozens of faces of people who arrived too late. I saw the faces of those who I had run past on the way in who were disappointed. I nearly gave my television to one of them, but then I realized that the same expression might come across my wife's face if I came away empty-handed. If I had only waited, the same television is now half price, but the folks selling them cannot stimulate the "demand" that Black Friday inspires.
Lest I leave you with a sense of foreboding or despair, there is a move toward sanity taking place. It is the un-televised revolution that we heard of in song. An inspired marketing campaign has begun this year in which the Saturday after Black Friday is being billed as "Buy Local Day" I think Sane Saturday is a better name, but whatever we cal it, the sentiment is the same. We need to build community to overcome the exploitation and desolation of our consumerist culture, share our own abundance and reward those we care about, our neighbors, rather than faceless and unnamed corporations. We are part of an interconnected web of life, whether we know it or not. This post is my plea for everyone to start living like it, rather than acting like we are apart from that which gives us life. The give away is the most powerful tool for magic in the world. It has the power to change lives for the better, both those of the giver as well as those of the receivers.
Especially in the United States of America, there seems to be a mood of dis-ease. Often, it is blamed on one group or another with little attention to the larger picture. We seem to delight in letting people help themselves to "resources", even human ones, cash, greed, government hand-outs and nature's many bounties. Frequently we point to their successes as proof that capitalism works. When greed, exploitation and self serving ways bring our economy to it's knees, we turn away, not wanting to face capitalism's failures, telling our people to "spend our way out" of economic decline. This is the time of year that we see this most poignantly. Our leaders are short-sighted enough to continue tilting at windmills obscured by the media fog. Endemic misunderstanding has led to institutionalized ignorance. As we have seen, most issues are couched in inflammatory rhetoric, rather than insightful reflection on where we have come from or indeed where we might be headed.
Trying to get a grasp on reality in the maelstrom of media snippets can feel like a drowning man trying to grasp the greased hull of his capsized boat. At least if you are set adrift on a raft, there is the possibility of hope. When everything we grasp seems to fall away like sand on a steep slope, we can't help but take two steps back for each one forward. During the seventies and eighties, many of the social change advocates chanted the mantra, "Kill your television". Today, the times have changed enough to shout down this basic admonition. Many folks believe that they are informed and educated by the idiot box. The entertainment that this technology provides, and the constant advertising that is given life in this media format, both dull the senses and couch lies in the guise of authority. Without a highly developed sense our own value, of analysis, of truth, much of what passes the censors can lead to artificial truth, manifestation of the imaginary or even a sense of self-loathing.
The technology that took us light years beyond Guttenberg has devolved into a source of universal values that, for the most part, detest fact and turn their backs on reality. Oddly enough, our comedy most clearly resembles life itself, but the heroes are frequently trite dupes, boorish idiots or out of control consumers. Through marketing, we highlight the seedy side of these characters, and their ability to ally themselves with our own "reality" and sense of self. I have tried to pour myself into this mold, unsuccessfully as you might have guessed. The stories that grew out of this attempt could be inspiration for an entire book, but my hope is that others who think critically about what we are doing will have the same experience that I did. I am not stronger for the effort, nor proud of the time that I spent in search of complacency. Instead, the fire that was kindled in me during war protests of the sixties, has been tended and indeed fed by the things I have learned by participating in the current consumerist culture.
Standing in line, waiting for a store to open, the day after Thanksgiving, hoping for a "chance" to buy a two-hundred dollar television three years ago was possibly the lowest point in my search for the New American Dream. Even as I grabbed the box that held the device, I felt like a disembodied agent of consumption. By the time I had straightened my knees, from squatting down to pick up the box that held my reward, an entire pallet of identical items had disappeared and their purchasers had turned to the next "quarry" on their list. I guess my only wanting one item was my nemesis, because once in hand, I had time to reflect on the feelings that came with my action. Turning from where the pile of televisions had been, I could see dozens of faces of people who arrived too late. I saw the faces of those who I had run past on the way in who were disappointed. I nearly gave my television to one of them, but then I realized that the same expression might come across my wife's face if I came away empty-handed. If I had only waited, the same television is now half price, but the folks selling them cannot stimulate the "demand" that Black Friday inspires.
Lest I leave you with a sense of foreboding or despair, there is a move toward sanity taking place. It is the un-televised revolution that we heard of in song. An inspired marketing campaign has begun this year in which the Saturday after Black Friday is being billed as "Buy Local Day" I think Sane Saturday is a better name, but whatever we cal it, the sentiment is the same. We need to build community to overcome the exploitation and desolation of our consumerist culture, share our own abundance and reward those we care about, our neighbors, rather than faceless and unnamed corporations. We are part of an interconnected web of life, whether we know it or not. This post is my plea for everyone to start living like it, rather than acting like we are apart from that which gives us life. The give away is the most powerful tool for magic in the world. It has the power to change lives for the better, both those of the giver as well as those of the receivers.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Kennedy Memories
In forming an opinion about JFK, much of my awareness is governed by mediated perceptions after his death. My parents never mentioned what a President is until he was gone. A toddler, I saw a man crying on television, he was saying that the President had been shot. I went to get my mother. I remember that I was still afraid of the cold air return vent in the hall, so I got down on hands and knees and went across it from the living room to the kitchen to get my mom. Even though I was just walking at the time, I remember the mourning like it was yesterday. No one around me was untouched by the tragedy and grief of loss. I have learned over my lifetime that as I was born, the Cuban Missile Crisis unfolded, terrorizing my mom and dosing her fetus with cataclysm-response hormones. Flight is ruled out during birth and in one's layette, so the fight response is required, but you are with only yourself, so who to fight? Yes, one self. Fight your fears, sense of loss, separation and anxiety. Fight it all, on terrain within one self. Existential I will admit, but real and true for anyone who has done it. One's opinion may differ, but the media heraldry has skewed our perception of Kennedy's Presidency toward the mythic.
Presidential scholars may rate him near the middle of the pack when it comes to performance, but except in rare cases, the values JFK stood for took a severe hit on the day of his passing. Youth and optimism did not re-enter politics until two generations later. The social justice movement that seemed alive and growing in the early to mid sixties calcified and ran aground, stagnating until it was subverted by the end of the welfare state. Only recently have we turned our faces again to the light. In terms of infusing a nation with a sense of mission to their fellow inhabitants of Starship Earth, no one stands out in modern history until Obama.
We all stand to gain when we build on a common moral ground. As much as some relished John F. Kennedy's death, they were the same sorts of folks who seek to gain from outdated competitive models. In relishing one another, and our innate capacities, giving from a place of plenty, capital loses it's importance. What more effective nail in Capitalism's coffin, than peace, love and understanding. The good old boys club is alive and well, don't fool yourself. Vigilante justice is just what the doctor ordered for political obfuscation. The Us/Them divide is surely smaller than the television reports. Our troubles are not caused by people flooding across our borders, or "drugs" that grow naturally and have the power to heal. We blame convicted pedophiles for actions that they may not take, but ignore the vast majority of child molestations, ignore where our food comes from but get angry when food borne disease breaks out. While pointing the finger at everyone else, we can easily neglect ourselves. This is what Kennedy excelled at, reminding our citizens that through cooperation and sharing a sense of purpose, we could create miracles.
I wish that we could point out the fallacy of lack to all those who claim that "nature's way" is competition for scarce resources. My own experience has taught me the exact opposite. Where nature thrives, a profusion of life breaks out like you can't imagine. Literally billions of organisms can reside in a cup of soil. Sharing is the rule rather than the exception in these systems. Successful human endeavors often reflect this co-operative spirit rather than a competitive one. Miracle can happen and often do, but what is required is for folks to again realize that we are inextricably dependent on one another and our success. We are all responsible for the cohesion of natural systems. We are most richly rewarded for being stewards of the planet, which can allow it to support each and every one of us.
Make Miracles Happen!
Presidential scholars may rate him near the middle of the pack when it comes to performance, but except in rare cases, the values JFK stood for took a severe hit on the day of his passing. Youth and optimism did not re-enter politics until two generations later. The social justice movement that seemed alive and growing in the early to mid sixties calcified and ran aground, stagnating until it was subverted by the end of the welfare state. Only recently have we turned our faces again to the light. In terms of infusing a nation with a sense of mission to their fellow inhabitants of Starship Earth, no one stands out in modern history until Obama.
We all stand to gain when we build on a common moral ground. As much as some relished John F. Kennedy's death, they were the same sorts of folks who seek to gain from outdated competitive models. In relishing one another, and our innate capacities, giving from a place of plenty, capital loses it's importance. What more effective nail in Capitalism's coffin, than peace, love and understanding. The good old boys club is alive and well, don't fool yourself. Vigilante justice is just what the doctor ordered for political obfuscation. The Us/Them divide is surely smaller than the television reports. Our troubles are not caused by people flooding across our borders, or "drugs" that grow naturally and have the power to heal. We blame convicted pedophiles for actions that they may not take, but ignore the vast majority of child molestations, ignore where our food comes from but get angry when food borne disease breaks out. While pointing the finger at everyone else, we can easily neglect ourselves. This is what Kennedy excelled at, reminding our citizens that through cooperation and sharing a sense of purpose, we could create miracles.
I wish that we could point out the fallacy of lack to all those who claim that "nature's way" is competition for scarce resources. My own experience has taught me the exact opposite. Where nature thrives, a profusion of life breaks out like you can't imagine. Literally billions of organisms can reside in a cup of soil. Sharing is the rule rather than the exception in these systems. Successful human endeavors often reflect this co-operative spirit rather than a competitive one. Miracle can happen and often do, but what is required is for folks to again realize that we are inextricably dependent on one another and our success. We are all responsible for the cohesion of natural systems. We are most richly rewarded for being stewards of the planet, which can allow it to support each and every one of us.
Make Miracles Happen!
Monday, November 22, 2010
Pardon Me, Is that My Car You Are About To Run Off The Road?
Today, 6:50 AM, some you know what tried to run me off the road with his Range Rover. Is it too much trouble to wake up before getting behind the wheel? Law abiding drivers should not be threatened by people who can't keep their vehicles in their lane! Normally, this would not rise to the level of "news" here at the Otherfish Wrap. However, it nearly cost me my life, so it is weighted a bit differently.
A wise person once said that the best recourse would be to arm oneself with a paintball gun, then "tag" rude, offensive neglectful and inattentive drivers. It would at least give others a heads up that they might be operating erratically. A few even advocate death to bad drivers, but too often, we all made mistakes or had errors in judgment. The most important thing is to recognize that you are supposed to be in control of your two thousand pound vehicle.
Professional drivers always try to have an exit strategy and remain aware of their surroundings for rapidly changing conditions. For those of us who choose to enter into the social contract that driving requires, the object again, for those who were not paying attention, is to all arrive in at least as good condition as we enjoyed before departure. we all arrive alive if we do it well, together. Please be of one mind next time you get behind the wheel (and every time after that as well please).
A wise person once said that the best recourse would be to arm oneself with a paintball gun, then "tag" rude, offensive neglectful and inattentive drivers. It would at least give others a heads up that they might be operating erratically. A few even advocate death to bad drivers, but too often, we all made mistakes or had errors in judgment. The most important thing is to recognize that you are supposed to be in control of your two thousand pound vehicle.
Professional drivers always try to have an exit strategy and remain aware of their surroundings for rapidly changing conditions. For those of us who choose to enter into the social contract that driving requires, the object again, for those who were not paying attention, is to all arrive in at least as good condition as we enjoyed before departure. we all arrive alive if we do it well, together. Please be of one mind next time you get behind the wheel (and every time after that as well please).
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Contemplating the Inevitable?
We have set ourselves up for a rude awakening. As the old saying goes, the chickens are coming home to roost. We can only hope and pray that we will be ready for them when they get here. There has been an overwhelming lack of interest in and commitment to our collective future and by thinking only about the next quarter, as so many businesses do, we have sacrificed many of the opportunities that have come our way over at least the last twenty years. Sadly, thirty or fifty years ago, we were already throwing our hands up at many of the ills that have grown into, what seem to be, insurmountable problems.
President Obama, speaking about the recovery of the Gulf Coast, hinted at one of our county's most difficult problems to face. Each year we inject billions of tons of soil into the Gulf of Mexico. Current agricultural policy has rewarded those who strip away the very tilth of our nation's soil, those who drag implements through marginal land, and those who keep expanding their operations to the point of not knowing a single acre well. The lion's share of our tax dollars that go into agriculture are to a relative handful of operators, each with many thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of acres. The Mississippi River carries soil and it's contaminants to the Gulf faster than it can be created or protected from deadly chemical treatments.
There are now precious few rivers in our country that harbor healthy fish populations and the record that we have in cleaning them up is extremely poor. Wildlife biologists have spoken for generations about indicator species. Like the canary in the coal mine, many species speak to us about environmental quality. As we learn more and more about our surroundings, we continue to find evidence about how out of balance nature has become. Our water and soil resources are not alone in this respect. As we can see around us, our efforts to clean up environmental degradation are usually done in a one step forward two steps back fashion.
Air pollution is a perfect example. As a nation, we used to drive a relatively small number of cars. As our children began to show signs of lead poisoning, from the emissions from automobiles and lead in paint, we "cleaned up our act". However, we drive more mile every year, and the emissions of other hazardous chemicals increases over time. My own children have been found to have high lead levels and because of that I had to learn about herbs that can help rid the body of this dangerous metal. My own health was affected by toxic compounds in the environment during my bike ride around the Great Lakes. Luckily, I had the loving care of a wise woman who knew that there were steps that I could take to expel them and heal the damage that they were causing. Not everyone will be so lucky. It seems that every time we find a solution to a single problem, we are confronted with a cascade of other problems that dwarf the first one. Cleaning up water for example has increased groundwater or air pollution, because the materials that we take out of the water through sewage treatment end up being incinerated and/or landfilled.
Many of our problems today come from being totally ignorant about our lifestyle and the effects that it has on the quality of the environment.
Shopping at big box stores is the perfect example. I have seen dozens of local businesses vacate the city, my city, the one I grew up in. I know of hundreds of folks who used to have secure livelihoods whose employers could not compete with the Targets and Wal-marts of today. The environmental cost has been that most of the best land in my city has disappeared under black top and the "new" mega-stores' sprawling roofs. I would estimate that the commercial real estate, now left vacant, is at least three times the size of the new "development". The blight that these empty establishments have created are a depressing reminder of friends lost and the many pillars of our community that have lost jobs to the mega-retailers. Heck, when I was a child, there were a dozen groceries within walking distance. Now there are many more places to get beer, soda and cigarettes, but only one that has carrots, potatoes and onions. That one surviving store is at the limit of walking distance, probably beyond the limit for most folks who live in my older neighborhood.
Even education has taken a hit. It was back in the eighties that I learned that the average college textbook is written at an eighth grade reading level. I sincerely hope that it has not gone down further since then. You don't have to go any further than Jay Leno's "Man On The Street" interviews to see that we, as a nation, are becoming ignorant at an alarming rate. I asked to see my daughter's textbooks when she started her Junior year in High School. Her Social Studies book had two sentences on union history. Two sentences? "Although unions helped establish such benefits as the weekend and the forty hour week, many of their victories came as the result of violent protest. Many union activists were anarchists and criminals whose motivation and methods were questionable." Really? No wonder so many are working so hard for so little. Education cannot be accomplished through more testing, it cannot be guaranteed by buying technological equipment. What we need is a complete overhaul of our educational system that allows competition to flourish.
I don't know how we can pull ourselves out of the tail spin that we find ourselves in. I'm not even sure that we will try until our ass is in a sling, or we hit the wall catastrophically. Most of us try to patch things up as best we can and muddle about in our usual way, ignoring the consequences. There are bright spots on the horizon. Luckily, many have seen the writing on the wall and will not abide further destructive tendencies. The growth in organic agriculture, permaculture and local food movements has been exponential. Granted, it is still a tiny fraction of one percent of our food production, but the growth is real. With the election of our current President, the public made a strong call for change. The problem that we face now is that many Americans don't realize that any worth while change requires long-term commitment and dedication. Our vote is just a temporary measure of public attitudes. Sustained effort will be required if we are to overcome the pressing issues that confront us now.
President Obama, speaking about the recovery of the Gulf Coast, hinted at one of our county's most difficult problems to face. Each year we inject billions of tons of soil into the Gulf of Mexico. Current agricultural policy has rewarded those who strip away the very tilth of our nation's soil, those who drag implements through marginal land, and those who keep expanding their operations to the point of not knowing a single acre well. The lion's share of our tax dollars that go into agriculture are to a relative handful of operators, each with many thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of acres. The Mississippi River carries soil and it's contaminants to the Gulf faster than it can be created or protected from deadly chemical treatments.
There are now precious few rivers in our country that harbor healthy fish populations and the record that we have in cleaning them up is extremely poor. Wildlife biologists have spoken for generations about indicator species. Like the canary in the coal mine, many species speak to us about environmental quality. As we learn more and more about our surroundings, we continue to find evidence about how out of balance nature has become. Our water and soil resources are not alone in this respect. As we can see around us, our efforts to clean up environmental degradation are usually done in a one step forward two steps back fashion.
Air pollution is a perfect example. As a nation, we used to drive a relatively small number of cars. As our children began to show signs of lead poisoning, from the emissions from automobiles and lead in paint, we "cleaned up our act". However, we drive more mile every year, and the emissions of other hazardous chemicals increases over time. My own children have been found to have high lead levels and because of that I had to learn about herbs that can help rid the body of this dangerous metal. My own health was affected by toxic compounds in the environment during my bike ride around the Great Lakes. Luckily, I had the loving care of a wise woman who knew that there were steps that I could take to expel them and heal the damage that they were causing. Not everyone will be so lucky. It seems that every time we find a solution to a single problem, we are confronted with a cascade of other problems that dwarf the first one. Cleaning up water for example has increased groundwater or air pollution, because the materials that we take out of the water through sewage treatment end up being incinerated and/or landfilled.
Many of our problems today come from being totally ignorant about our lifestyle and the effects that it has on the quality of the environment.
Shopping at big box stores is the perfect example. I have seen dozens of local businesses vacate the city, my city, the one I grew up in. I know of hundreds of folks who used to have secure livelihoods whose employers could not compete with the Targets and Wal-marts of today. The environmental cost has been that most of the best land in my city has disappeared under black top and the "new" mega-stores' sprawling roofs. I would estimate that the commercial real estate, now left vacant, is at least three times the size of the new "development". The blight that these empty establishments have created are a depressing reminder of friends lost and the many pillars of our community that have lost jobs to the mega-retailers. Heck, when I was a child, there were a dozen groceries within walking distance. Now there are many more places to get beer, soda and cigarettes, but only one that has carrots, potatoes and onions. That one surviving store is at the limit of walking distance, probably beyond the limit for most folks who live in my older neighborhood.
Even education has taken a hit. It was back in the eighties that I learned that the average college textbook is written at an eighth grade reading level. I sincerely hope that it has not gone down further since then. You don't have to go any further than Jay Leno's "Man On The Street" interviews to see that we, as a nation, are becoming ignorant at an alarming rate. I asked to see my daughter's textbooks when she started her Junior year in High School. Her Social Studies book had two sentences on union history. Two sentences? "Although unions helped establish such benefits as the weekend and the forty hour week, many of their victories came as the result of violent protest. Many union activists were anarchists and criminals whose motivation and methods were questionable." Really? No wonder so many are working so hard for so little. Education cannot be accomplished through more testing, it cannot be guaranteed by buying technological equipment. What we need is a complete overhaul of our educational system that allows competition to flourish.
I don't know how we can pull ourselves out of the tail spin that we find ourselves in. I'm not even sure that we will try until our ass is in a sling, or we hit the wall catastrophically. Most of us try to patch things up as best we can and muddle about in our usual way, ignoring the consequences. There are bright spots on the horizon. Luckily, many have seen the writing on the wall and will not abide further destructive tendencies. The growth in organic agriculture, permaculture and local food movements has been exponential. Granted, it is still a tiny fraction of one percent of our food production, but the growth is real. With the election of our current President, the public made a strong call for change. The problem that we face now is that many Americans don't realize that any worth while change requires long-term commitment and dedication. Our vote is just a temporary measure of public attitudes. Sustained effort will be required if we are to overcome the pressing issues that confront us now.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Cheese Culture of Wisconsin
Ironically, cheese is a "cultured product", and as such is a microcosm of our immigrant and native traditions. The better the milk, the better the cheese, the more care in processing, the better the result. Much like our larger culture, competing factors develop, vying for resources. In the most sublime situations, the depth and breadth of flavors depends on several critters getting along, each providing either food, shelter or breeding grounds for the other.
Foodies often appreciate the flavor without knowing what goes into production of their ingredients. Part of the lure of getting to know one's food is that the origin of each and every bite can have terra ware or "taste of the soil." Knowing the food, where it came from, who grew it, and how they did it transforms the experience of eating.
I've been to several parties now, where the hosts graciously put out several local cheeses to be enjoyed by their guests. Without local cheese-makers, the culture dies out. Support local cheese! Eat for a healthier planet, investigate your foodshed. Cradle to grave, Americans consume more calories of processed food, carbohydrates, fats and sugars than virtually any other nation. Consequently, that displaces vegetables. Remember, we're supposed to eat our vegetables.
It is high time to label non-food items as such. Taxing them could raise billions.
Is there a Campaign for Food Sanity? If not, there should be.
Foodies often appreciate the flavor without knowing what goes into production of their ingredients. Part of the lure of getting to know one's food is that the origin of each and every bite can have terra ware or "taste of the soil." Knowing the food, where it came from, who grew it, and how they did it transforms the experience of eating.
I've been to several parties now, where the hosts graciously put out several local cheeses to be enjoyed by their guests. Without local cheese-makers, the culture dies out. Support local cheese! Eat for a healthier planet, investigate your foodshed. Cradle to grave, Americans consume more calories of processed food, carbohydrates, fats and sugars than virtually any other nation. Consequently, that displaces vegetables. Remember, we're supposed to eat our vegetables.
It is high time to label non-food items as such. Taxing them could raise billions.
Is there a Campaign for Food Sanity? If not, there should be.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Long Rivalry Ends In A Draw
It has been said that the Dallas Cowboys were "America's Team". As memory serves, this term was coined about the time they had several players who were on work release from jail because of drug crimes. I understand that we are a drug culture with a football problem, but the fallacy of the name just sticks in some people's craw. I have traveled to over half of the states in the U.S. and have only seen a few Cowboys bars, where the entire decor is devoted to this so-called America's Team. On the other hand, virtually every state that I have been to has a Packer's bar. Something about being a little fish in a big pond has a certain attraction. With just over 100,000 people in our town, it feels especially sweet to take big city teams to the woodshed for a good thrashing. Oddly enough, if you look at the history of these teams meeting at Lambeau field, they are locked in a dead heat for wins. With a dozen wins each, it seems that there is no clear winner, but for those who have the luxury of living here in Green Bay, fresh off the win, there is no question about which team is better.
Oddly enough, there is a sense of pride in being locked in this eternal struggle. Hit for hit, pass for pass, down for down, we have matched wits, strength and strategy to a draw. Like a game going into overtime, it's clean slate between us here on the hallowed grounds of 1265 Lombardi. America's team or not, we're on an even footing with them and that in and of itself has great rewards. The sweetest victory comes when you get down to cases. The relationships that we develop between and among fans. I can't tell you about Texas, but fans here apologized in advance for the thrashing we were about to dole out. We honor and respect the fans that came to see the contest and we opened our shrine and accepted the misguided fans from "down there". Unlike some who take the game too seriously, we had compassion for our adversary. When the game became a blow out, we didn't strangle the life out of them, we held back and kept the score down. It was actually sad to see grown men at a loss for what to do in the face of our defense. Even harder, was to see the number of times that the way the cookie crumbled was so one sided.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but for today we can feel pretty good about the most recent win, we just won't talk about the fact that in Lambeau at least, we are in a dead heat with twelve wins each. Thanks for the contest, the excuse to party and the chance to cream "America's Team".
Oddly enough, there is a sense of pride in being locked in this eternal struggle. Hit for hit, pass for pass, down for down, we have matched wits, strength and strategy to a draw. Like a game going into overtime, it's clean slate between us here on the hallowed grounds of 1265 Lombardi. America's team or not, we're on an even footing with them and that in and of itself has great rewards. The sweetest victory comes when you get down to cases. The relationships that we develop between and among fans. I can't tell you about Texas, but fans here apologized in advance for the thrashing we were about to dole out. We honor and respect the fans that came to see the contest and we opened our shrine and accepted the misguided fans from "down there". Unlike some who take the game too seriously, we had compassion for our adversary. When the game became a blow out, we didn't strangle the life out of them, we held back and kept the score down. It was actually sad to see grown men at a loss for what to do in the face of our defense. Even harder, was to see the number of times that the way the cookie crumbled was so one sided.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but for today we can feel pretty good about the most recent win, we just won't talk about the fact that in Lambeau at least, we are in a dead heat with twelve wins each. Thanks for the contest, the excuse to party and the chance to cream "America's Team".
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Haloween #2 With A Bullet
Now, it has been a few years since my favorite holy day surpassed Easter as the second largest holiday based on consumer spending, but here at The Otherfish Wrap it has been noted that major media outlets have no qualms about reporting twenty or even thirty year old information as "news". At first it seemed unsavory to rehash old information and present it as news, but the more we thought about it, the more we realized that people rarely pay attention to information that makes a difference in our lives, or forget it once it is heard, so we forgive the major media players for their untimely coverage. Now we must humbly ask that you do the same for us. Fact is, several years ago, The Otherfish Wrap was still a dormant fanzine. So, please allow us to turn the wheel of time back to a time when some of the best news we have heard in a while came to light.
In our consumer culture, people often judge things by how much money they generate. Halloween, on one level, is just one more thing that has commodities associated with it. When it surpassed Easter as the number two holiday, pagans were elated. Because the Christians co-opted so many of our holy days, the thought of Hallows Eve making such a strong showing was both comforting and exhilerating. Now don't read too much into this, because the gaudy and skull infested celebration that passes for Halloween has about as much to do with the pagan calendar & pagan values as Christmas has to do with the rebirth of the Sun. In our day, we have lost sight of many of our traditions because it is economically expedient to have us just buy things without asking why. The fact that the veil between our world and the other is thinnest at this time makes no difference to the majority here in the U.S. but to ancient people it was a time of ancestor appreciation and recapitulation. Celebrations included the give away, revelry and the release of self in honor of greater forces that we wished to invite back into our lives and psyches.
We all know the power of costuming in creating characters. Who wouldn't want to be a superhero, princess, witch, or zombie? Heck, it seems that any and all manner of beings come to life on this night, many of which we fantasize about all year long. When I was a child, I was Captain Hook to my sister's Tinker Bell, The Tin Man to my sister's Dorothy. The heartless, or villainous characters are, for some, the most fun to try on because they are the most different from our normal selves. For many years now I have transformed myself into Jacob Marley's Ghost for Halloween. You may know him as the famous character from A Christmas Carol who says the immortal line, "I wear the chain I forged in life." For him, each link was a chance that he had to help someone else, that he passed up in his diligent quest for wealth. Each of us bears the burden of the opportunities overlooked, friends not made, promises not kept, and ignorance based in pursuit of money, so in this way I remind myself and hopefully others to make the best choices we can in our daily lives, being the best we can be day in and day out, in honor and respect of our fellow humans. Jacob Marley knew that we all deserve it, he just learned a little too late!
The repressed or neglected part of ourselves is free to take center stage on this holy day. Inexplicably, we are drawn to these dark recesses of self, looking for release from our ego-induced captivity. Who hasn't felt the release of putting on a mask, channeling if you will, the disembodied spirit of some one or some thing else? As you may have seen, this is the one night that folks can mix humor with seriousness, desire with abhorrence, and beauty with disgust. For many, this night of the living dead, or fright night is looked forward to much more than Christmas or for that matter, their Birthdays! Pagan rites serve deep human needs. That's why the conquerors used so many of our sacred sites, virtually all of our equipment, so many of our rites, and nearly all of our practices to dominate and subjugate us. Bell, Book and Candle to name just a few. The fact that Halloween may one day surpass Christmas as the biggest holiday makes some quiver with fear, while others quiver with expectation. I for one am of the latter camp.
It is a bit ironic that the number three holiday is Easter. For pagans, Oestara may be the rite most clearly stolen from us by the Christians. It is one of the only Christian holy days that is based on the moon cycle, and it is all about the fecundity of the earth being coaxed out of hibernation by the returning Sun. The fertility symbols associated with it are the egg and the rabbit, one, the essence of reproduction, the other one of the most prolific creatures known to humans. I'm sorry for lecturing, but the time has come for us to reestablish ties with our ancestors, to get in line with earth centered approaches to our lives and to begin again with a new perspective, recreating relationships with people, profits and our planet.
A wise friend told me once that the environmental crisis would be over when folks from Florida eat oranges and drink their juice rather than eating apples and drinking apple juice and folks from around here (the Western Great Lakes Region)enjoy the apple and drink it's juice rather than that of the orange. Appreciating what abounds where we are is the first step in bio-regionalism. Interestingly enough, most of the costumes that you see out on this night will be fashioned from whatever we have on hand. Why else would bobbing for apples, or oranges, be so popular? How else to explain the great traditions of the season? We use what we have in new ways and create something bigger and more profound than we ever though possible in our daily slumber.
In our consumer culture, people often judge things by how much money they generate. Halloween, on one level, is just one more thing that has commodities associated with it. When it surpassed Easter as the number two holiday, pagans were elated. Because the Christians co-opted so many of our holy days, the thought of Hallows Eve making such a strong showing was both comforting and exhilerating. Now don't read too much into this, because the gaudy and skull infested celebration that passes for Halloween has about as much to do with the pagan calendar & pagan values as Christmas has to do with the rebirth of the Sun. In our day, we have lost sight of many of our traditions because it is economically expedient to have us just buy things without asking why. The fact that the veil between our world and the other is thinnest at this time makes no difference to the majority here in the U.S. but to ancient people it was a time of ancestor appreciation and recapitulation. Celebrations included the give away, revelry and the release of self in honor of greater forces that we wished to invite back into our lives and psyches.
We all know the power of costuming in creating characters. Who wouldn't want to be a superhero, princess, witch, or zombie? Heck, it seems that any and all manner of beings come to life on this night, many of which we fantasize about all year long. When I was a child, I was Captain Hook to my sister's Tinker Bell, The Tin Man to my sister's Dorothy. The heartless, or villainous characters are, for some, the most fun to try on because they are the most different from our normal selves. For many years now I have transformed myself into Jacob Marley's Ghost for Halloween. You may know him as the famous character from A Christmas Carol who says the immortal line, "I wear the chain I forged in life." For him, each link was a chance that he had to help someone else, that he passed up in his diligent quest for wealth. Each of us bears the burden of the opportunities overlooked, friends not made, promises not kept, and ignorance based in pursuit of money, so in this way I remind myself and hopefully others to make the best choices we can in our daily lives, being the best we can be day in and day out, in honor and respect of our fellow humans. Jacob Marley knew that we all deserve it, he just learned a little too late!
The repressed or neglected part of ourselves is free to take center stage on this holy day. Inexplicably, we are drawn to these dark recesses of self, looking for release from our ego-induced captivity. Who hasn't felt the release of putting on a mask, channeling if you will, the disembodied spirit of some one or some thing else? As you may have seen, this is the one night that folks can mix humor with seriousness, desire with abhorrence, and beauty with disgust. For many, this night of the living dead, or fright night is looked forward to much more than Christmas or for that matter, their Birthdays! Pagan rites serve deep human needs. That's why the conquerors used so many of our sacred sites, virtually all of our equipment, so many of our rites, and nearly all of our practices to dominate and subjugate us. Bell, Book and Candle to name just a few. The fact that Halloween may one day surpass Christmas as the biggest holiday makes some quiver with fear, while others quiver with expectation. I for one am of the latter camp.
It is a bit ironic that the number three holiday is Easter. For pagans, Oestara may be the rite most clearly stolen from us by the Christians. It is one of the only Christian holy days that is based on the moon cycle, and it is all about the fecundity of the earth being coaxed out of hibernation by the returning Sun. The fertility symbols associated with it are the egg and the rabbit, one, the essence of reproduction, the other one of the most prolific creatures known to humans. I'm sorry for lecturing, but the time has come for us to reestablish ties with our ancestors, to get in line with earth centered approaches to our lives and to begin again with a new perspective, recreating relationships with people, profits and our planet.
A wise friend told me once that the environmental crisis would be over when folks from Florida eat oranges and drink their juice rather than eating apples and drinking apple juice and folks from around here (the Western Great Lakes Region)enjoy the apple and drink it's juice rather than that of the orange. Appreciating what abounds where we are is the first step in bio-regionalism. Interestingly enough, most of the costumes that you see out on this night will be fashioned from whatever we have on hand. Why else would bobbing for apples, or oranges, be so popular? How else to explain the great traditions of the season? We use what we have in new ways and create something bigger and more profound than we ever though possible in our daily slumber.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Stand Together To Overcome The Divide And Conquer Strategy
We have been through the worst of our latest economic downturn. The numbers have stopped their drastic decline and slight improvements are reported almost daily. Just yesterday the word came out that Real Estate sales figures were up 6% from last year at this time, although it still languishes at 80% less than four years ago. I hope that we have not forgotten how we got to where we are now. I also wish that the majority of people take time to sift through the lies that are told in defense of business as usual for the wealthiest among us. I'm sick and tired of being called names and abused because I want to help others. Our greed inspired, capitalist system is on the ropes as surely as the "communist" system that focused on a strong central government controlling all aspects of daily life. If we do not begin to treat one another better and find ways to help each other, there is little hope of turning the corner on this terrible tragedy that was the logical outcome of Reagan's "Trickle-down Economics".
The big money is still riding on the old way that business has been done in the past. This male dominated, good old boys network survives by beating down others, keeping them at odds with one another and a plethora of lies perpetrated by mass media. One of the biggest lies perpetrated by the rich is that of race. It seems to me that the only reason that racism continues is to facilitate the divide and conquer method of command and control. Calvinism too is a veiled attempt to blame the victims of capitalism. People who love to consider themselves enlightened have no problem blaming those whose blood sweat and tears make their way of life possible, for all manner of ills. This election cycle, the "conservatives" have outspent "liberals" by a factor of five to one. Considering that their cohorts helped bring our economy to it's knees, perhaps it is like a tithe, designed to placate their troubled conscience.
When we look critically at the varied and diverse populations around the world, we find that we are much more similar than different. There are those who I personally see as different, but that is mostly because I don't really know them. No matter who I take the time to get to know, I find their struggles, feelings and ideas are more and more similar to my own. I'm not saying that there are no differences, but that they are far fewer and less important than the ideas, beliefs and understandings that are similar between us. I have lost track of the number of bullies that I have become "friends" with after I fought back. Somehow, my own weakness mirrored their own. It seems that by showing them that I too could be driven to hate made them respect me.
It is high time that we the people stand together with one voice to say that we won't be lied to any longer. It is time that most of the most wealthy among us stop pitting one group against another. It is time for a maximum wage, and the people need to express their desires clearly. Not one of us is "worth" more than 100 times what someone else might be. Say that you could meet your needs with ten dollars per hour, if someone made one thousand dollars for the same hour, that would seem excessive. The most influential people are not the movie stars or sports heroes that command millions per performance, but those who make these excessive sums as corporate executives, eclipsing the rates of pay of even the most enduring stars. Together, the non-financial S&P 500 companies (forgive me this rant once more before the election) hold enough cash on hand and short term debt owed them to create a second stimulus plan, that's right, 764 Billion! (or so) Now why would the wealth builders just hold pat? It isn't hard to see, they have enough capital to create the second dip in our economy, strangling even more folks out of their wealth and leaving themselves sitting pretty to swoop in and absorb even more rices resources for cheaper prices and eventually luring ever more desperate workers for ever lower salaries. Don't be naive, there is good reason that people make a distinction between old and new money. While there has been a recent flush of folks entering the billionaire category, they are still a pitiful minority amongst their peers.
Big money has gotten used to getting everything that they want, Don't give them Congress too! This has been what has fought Obama at every turn, the moneyed interests. We need so many things right now, that to put any of them off will only inspire chaos. Our babies, especially those born in hospital, are not born gracefully into our families any longer.Instead, doctors intervene more often and achieve poorer outcomes than in many other nations. The care that we give at any age is more expensive and of poorer quality here than in most industrialized nations. By the time we send our children to school, in The U.S., many of them have already been diagnosed with environmentally caused illnesses, or in some cases, inability to utilize the resource that is school. Many of our schools are failing our children. The Black Market Economy swallows up many of our young people and we put some of them in prison. Every step of the way, the largest corporations are given welfare, and all the while our infrastructure is looking more and more like a tattered old quilt. With so many crises to attend to is it any wonder that our presidents always go gray?
We all know the same things to be true. The lying bastards who want your vote will stop at nothing to regain control even if the ship is sinking from their weight. The bloated corporations need to live like the rest of us and pay their way entirely. I hate seeing people who live off the sweat of my labors, but have not a care about paying me a living wage with at least a few days off to relish with my loved ones, the security of knowing that if I get sick, I won't lose my house and the peace of mind that comes from knowing that my air and water are clean and that my food won't make me sick or die. You don't have to answer, but I'm sure we're all thinking the same thing. I just had to say it.
The big money is still riding on the old way that business has been done in the past. This male dominated, good old boys network survives by beating down others, keeping them at odds with one another and a plethora of lies perpetrated by mass media. One of the biggest lies perpetrated by the rich is that of race. It seems to me that the only reason that racism continues is to facilitate the divide and conquer method of command and control. Calvinism too is a veiled attempt to blame the victims of capitalism. People who love to consider themselves enlightened have no problem blaming those whose blood sweat and tears make their way of life possible, for all manner of ills. This election cycle, the "conservatives" have outspent "liberals" by a factor of five to one. Considering that their cohorts helped bring our economy to it's knees, perhaps it is like a tithe, designed to placate their troubled conscience.
When we look critically at the varied and diverse populations around the world, we find that we are much more similar than different. There are those who I personally see as different, but that is mostly because I don't really know them. No matter who I take the time to get to know, I find their struggles, feelings and ideas are more and more similar to my own. I'm not saying that there are no differences, but that they are far fewer and less important than the ideas, beliefs and understandings that are similar between us. I have lost track of the number of bullies that I have become "friends" with after I fought back. Somehow, my own weakness mirrored their own. It seems that by showing them that I too could be driven to hate made them respect me.
It is high time that we the people stand together with one voice to say that we won't be lied to any longer. It is time that most of the most wealthy among us stop pitting one group against another. It is time for a maximum wage, and the people need to express their desires clearly. Not one of us is "worth" more than 100 times what someone else might be. Say that you could meet your needs with ten dollars per hour, if someone made one thousand dollars for the same hour, that would seem excessive. The most influential people are not the movie stars or sports heroes that command millions per performance, but those who make these excessive sums as corporate executives, eclipsing the rates of pay of even the most enduring stars. Together, the non-financial S&P 500 companies (forgive me this rant once more before the election) hold enough cash on hand and short term debt owed them to create a second stimulus plan, that's right, 764 Billion! (or so) Now why would the wealth builders just hold pat? It isn't hard to see, they have enough capital to create the second dip in our economy, strangling even more folks out of their wealth and leaving themselves sitting pretty to swoop in and absorb even more rices resources for cheaper prices and eventually luring ever more desperate workers for ever lower salaries. Don't be naive, there is good reason that people make a distinction between old and new money. While there has been a recent flush of folks entering the billionaire category, they are still a pitiful minority amongst their peers.
Big money has gotten used to getting everything that they want, Don't give them Congress too! This has been what has fought Obama at every turn, the moneyed interests. We need so many things right now, that to put any of them off will only inspire chaos. Our babies, especially those born in hospital, are not born gracefully into our families any longer.Instead, doctors intervene more often and achieve poorer outcomes than in many other nations. The care that we give at any age is more expensive and of poorer quality here than in most industrialized nations. By the time we send our children to school, in The U.S., many of them have already been diagnosed with environmentally caused illnesses, or in some cases, inability to utilize the resource that is school. Many of our schools are failing our children. The Black Market Economy swallows up many of our young people and we put some of them in prison. Every step of the way, the largest corporations are given welfare, and all the while our infrastructure is looking more and more like a tattered old quilt. With so many crises to attend to is it any wonder that our presidents always go gray?
We all know the same things to be true. The lying bastards who want your vote will stop at nothing to regain control even if the ship is sinking from their weight. The bloated corporations need to live like the rest of us and pay their way entirely. I hate seeing people who live off the sweat of my labors, but have not a care about paying me a living wage with at least a few days off to relish with my loved ones, the security of knowing that if I get sick, I won't lose my house and the peace of mind that comes from knowing that my air and water are clean and that my food won't make me sick or die. You don't have to answer, but I'm sure we're all thinking the same thing. I just had to say it.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Elections Less Than Two Weeks Away
Being a poll worker for over two decades and paying attention to politics since childhood, I have never seen the money that has been spent on this mid term election. Nation-wide, "conservatives" are outspending "liberals" by five-to-one. No matter what the Supreme Court allows, it is immoral and anti-democratic to let money translate into votes. One accusation that has come up in this election cycle is that the "US Chamber of Commerce", a private corporation, accepts money from overseas to influence elections with so-called "issue ads". If a foreign national is prohibited from helping me in the voting booth, why should they be allowed to produce ads telling me who to vote for?
The public is entitled to have presented to them, the true costs to society of the "business as usual" model. There are too many ways to cloak tax breaks for the biggest businesses in a mantle of economic impact, to list here. But for the name it is always just one thing, corporate welfare. We all pay for it. We have not had free markets since at least 1906. Before that, snake oil salesmen abounded; much like today, we still have our charlatans and carpetbaggers. The most stark difference is that snake oil salesmen would get away with twenty dollars and leave behind bamboozled hang-over sufferers, but today's sharks hawk people's life savings and retirement funds. More, not less government regulation could have prevented market crashes many dozens of times. The most powerful forces in America today want us to vote a certain way. That is obvious from what is on the TV. Most of the biggest money is being spent to ravage the few who had the guts to stand up against politics as usual.
Here in Wisconsin, Russ Feingold, co-author of Mcain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation, took on directly the power of large corporate players to guide policy. His opposition in this election has the audacity to claim the Russ is a yes-man, big spender and Washington insider. What is really needed is some sort of truth commission to guard against outright lies and deception, especially in the ads funded by agents from outside the campaigns. If you went to a doctor, would it be a dirty word to call him a career, doctor? What about your mechanic, a career mechanic. One would expect that experience in the halls of Congress, would enhance aplomb and aid in diplomacy. Are we to stand by as excellent representatives are discarded in favor of unimaginably moneyed interests hijacking our representative democracy?
The non-financial S&P 500 companies have enough cash on hand and short term loans to fund a second stimulus of the American economy, but they are holding those funds out of the economy until workers are even more desperate and prices fall again, allowing them to pick up even better deals. These are the same folks who touted trickle down economics and world trade agreements. Why they should have any say at all in politics is beyond me. Our Constitution talks about people, not corporations. Sadly, in economic ways, lack of food availability, ecological damage, dismal health care and woeful educational institutions, we all pay when the rich are allowed to play, elsewhere. The vast majority of the extremely wealthy are also extremely un-famous. They live in the shadows of anonymity, but let their wishes be known through funding politics as usual. We need to know that they are an incredibly strong force in politics, able to contribute vast sums through "issue ads" that do no more than slander an opponent.
When the American Way becomes justification of lies as striving for truth, ignoring the writing on the wall, forsaking our own history, or lying to ourselves about what constitutes freedom, justice or liberty, it will be a way that I want no part of. I wonder why there has been no class action suit against the banks, their appraisers and Wall street for colluding in the massive housing run up. American homeowners lost 30-50% of their home's value and bear no responsibility for the rapidly falling prices. Being taxed on the former valuation, when the market has suffered this much is like stealing 30-50% more in tax.
A friend said it best, there needs to be a nationwide strike. All workers stand firm and offer terms. We will work the same number of hours, for twice the pay, or we will work half as many hours for the same pay. The benefit for corporate America is that they could choose which it would be. For all those who got cut to half time, it would open up the possibility of getting more education, staying home with the kids, starting a new business or enjoying partial retirement. Those who doubled their pay would win also, because they could afford to spend more, save more and live better, supporting their community, the many new businesses and beyond that, one another.
Another solution that I came up with was to break America down into thirteen climate-based colonies, encompassing several states, or parts of states but with similar ecological concerns. These would function as states do now. In one fell swoop we would cut the number of U.S. Senators to 26, from 100. States would remain for Congressional purposes only and allow that chamber to be cut from 435 to just 100, two from each state. This alone would make it harder for corporations to exert their influence on the representatives because of their relatively small number, they could be held accountable much more easily. In addition, we would save on general operations, offices and aides. The total number of representatives would drop from 535 down to 126. The cost of Congress then might conceivably be 25% of what it is now. Any one who has served on a board knows that when groups become too big, bad things happen or worse yet, nothing happens! We voted for change two years ago and the Democrats who fought tooth and nail against any change should go, in essence they were voted out two years ago. A way forward will never be found until someone sticks their neck out.
The third interesting idea that I have heard talked about has been the theory of a maximum wage. Unions worked to bring us a minimum wage, but the idea of a maximum one seems to have never been considered. No one is capable of being ten times as valuable as I, nor am I ten times more valuable than anyone else. If I'm average, then a total swing of maybe twenty times would be close to adequate. That puts us in the realm of income range being from about 16,500 for a minimum wage earner to twenty times that, 330,000 our hypothetical maximum wage. I'm sure that most folks you meet would be thrilled to have an income even half that. What we must not be afraid to do is to talk about the many ways that we could improve our American Experiment, to meet the needs of the largest number of people for the least damage to the planet, as well as one another. I am not the only one who thinks everything needs to be on the table in our search for solutions to our pressing problems. If there are cheaper and better ways of doing anything, institute it. There is no reason that our health care should be worse that dozens of other countries when we pay the largest amount of our earnings for it, more than any other country!
We need to reaffirm our commitment to create positive change in the face of entrenched corporate interests that pursued greed to it's obvious conclusion threatening our entire economy. We deserve to have clean air, conservatives don't stand for that any more. We should be able to eat the fish out of every lake and stream in the US without consuming toxic compounds. Small government folks most often side with the regulated community to be honest in their reporting. Before you vote, remember that Abe Lincoln, the first American Republican President would roll over in his grave if he heard what Republicans are proposing today. We must not succumb to the angry mob mentality that screams "Throw them all out!" Reformers must stay and become more powerful. Those well-heeled friends of the corporate elite are the ones that must fall away to reclaim our democracy. Vote for public servants, not corporate mouthpieces. In the words of Honest Abe, "Though passion strains, it must not break the bonds of our affection."
The public is entitled to have presented to them, the true costs to society of the "business as usual" model. There are too many ways to cloak tax breaks for the biggest businesses in a mantle of economic impact, to list here. But for the name it is always just one thing, corporate welfare. We all pay for it. We have not had free markets since at least 1906. Before that, snake oil salesmen abounded; much like today, we still have our charlatans and carpetbaggers. The most stark difference is that snake oil salesmen would get away with twenty dollars and leave behind bamboozled hang-over sufferers, but today's sharks hawk people's life savings and retirement funds. More, not less government regulation could have prevented market crashes many dozens of times. The most powerful forces in America today want us to vote a certain way. That is obvious from what is on the TV. Most of the biggest money is being spent to ravage the few who had the guts to stand up against politics as usual.
Here in Wisconsin, Russ Feingold, co-author of Mcain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation, took on directly the power of large corporate players to guide policy. His opposition in this election has the audacity to claim the Russ is a yes-man, big spender and Washington insider. What is really needed is some sort of truth commission to guard against outright lies and deception, especially in the ads funded by agents from outside the campaigns. If you went to a doctor, would it be a dirty word to call him a career, doctor? What about your mechanic, a career mechanic. One would expect that experience in the halls of Congress, would enhance aplomb and aid in diplomacy. Are we to stand by as excellent representatives are discarded in favor of unimaginably moneyed interests hijacking our representative democracy?
The non-financial S&P 500 companies have enough cash on hand and short term loans to fund a second stimulus of the American economy, but they are holding those funds out of the economy until workers are even more desperate and prices fall again, allowing them to pick up even better deals. These are the same folks who touted trickle down economics and world trade agreements. Why they should have any say at all in politics is beyond me. Our Constitution talks about people, not corporations. Sadly, in economic ways, lack of food availability, ecological damage, dismal health care and woeful educational institutions, we all pay when the rich are allowed to play, elsewhere. The vast majority of the extremely wealthy are also extremely un-famous. They live in the shadows of anonymity, but let their wishes be known through funding politics as usual. We need to know that they are an incredibly strong force in politics, able to contribute vast sums through "issue ads" that do no more than slander an opponent.
When the American Way becomes justification of lies as striving for truth, ignoring the writing on the wall, forsaking our own history, or lying to ourselves about what constitutes freedom, justice or liberty, it will be a way that I want no part of. I wonder why there has been no class action suit against the banks, their appraisers and Wall street for colluding in the massive housing run up. American homeowners lost 30-50% of their home's value and bear no responsibility for the rapidly falling prices. Being taxed on the former valuation, when the market has suffered this much is like stealing 30-50% more in tax.
A friend said it best, there needs to be a nationwide strike. All workers stand firm and offer terms. We will work the same number of hours, for twice the pay, or we will work half as many hours for the same pay. The benefit for corporate America is that they could choose which it would be. For all those who got cut to half time, it would open up the possibility of getting more education, staying home with the kids, starting a new business or enjoying partial retirement. Those who doubled their pay would win also, because they could afford to spend more, save more and live better, supporting their community, the many new businesses and beyond that, one another.
Another solution that I came up with was to break America down into thirteen climate-based colonies, encompassing several states, or parts of states but with similar ecological concerns. These would function as states do now. In one fell swoop we would cut the number of U.S. Senators to 26, from 100. States would remain for Congressional purposes only and allow that chamber to be cut from 435 to just 100, two from each state. This alone would make it harder for corporations to exert their influence on the representatives because of their relatively small number, they could be held accountable much more easily. In addition, we would save on general operations, offices and aides. The total number of representatives would drop from 535 down to 126. The cost of Congress then might conceivably be 25% of what it is now. Any one who has served on a board knows that when groups become too big, bad things happen or worse yet, nothing happens! We voted for change two years ago and the Democrats who fought tooth and nail against any change should go, in essence they were voted out two years ago. A way forward will never be found until someone sticks their neck out.
The third interesting idea that I have heard talked about has been the theory of a maximum wage. Unions worked to bring us a minimum wage, but the idea of a maximum one seems to have never been considered. No one is capable of being ten times as valuable as I, nor am I ten times more valuable than anyone else. If I'm average, then a total swing of maybe twenty times would be close to adequate. That puts us in the realm of income range being from about 16,500 for a minimum wage earner to twenty times that, 330,000 our hypothetical maximum wage. I'm sure that most folks you meet would be thrilled to have an income even half that. What we must not be afraid to do is to talk about the many ways that we could improve our American Experiment, to meet the needs of the largest number of people for the least damage to the planet, as well as one another. I am not the only one who thinks everything needs to be on the table in our search for solutions to our pressing problems. If there are cheaper and better ways of doing anything, institute it. There is no reason that our health care should be worse that dozens of other countries when we pay the largest amount of our earnings for it, more than any other country!
We need to reaffirm our commitment to create positive change in the face of entrenched corporate interests that pursued greed to it's obvious conclusion threatening our entire economy. We deserve to have clean air, conservatives don't stand for that any more. We should be able to eat the fish out of every lake and stream in the US without consuming toxic compounds. Small government folks most often side with the regulated community to be honest in their reporting. Before you vote, remember that Abe Lincoln, the first American Republican President would roll over in his grave if he heard what Republicans are proposing today. We must not succumb to the angry mob mentality that screams "Throw them all out!" Reformers must stay and become more powerful. Those well-heeled friends of the corporate elite are the ones that must fall away to reclaim our democracy. Vote for public servants, not corporate mouthpieces. In the words of Honest Abe, "Though passion strains, it must not break the bonds of our affection."
Saturday, October 16, 2010
* * * * WARNING * * * * *
WORKING LOADS ARE FOR STAGEHAND IN GOOD CONDITION WITH APPROPRIATE SUPERVISION, IN NON-CRITICAL APPLICATIONS AND UNDER NORMAL SERVICE CONDITIONS. WORKING LOADS ARE NOT APPLICABLE WHEN STAGEHAND IS SUBJECT TO SHOCK OR DYNAMIC LOADING. THESE CAN CAUSE FAILURE OF A STAGEHAND THAT IS NORMALLY STRONG ENOUGH TO HANDLE THE JOB. DO NOT STAND IN POSSIBLE RECOIL PATH IN CASE FAILURE OCCURS. DO NOT USE THIS STAGEHAND WHERE LIFE, LIMB OR PERSONAL SAFETY ARE INVOLVED UNLESS PROPER TRAINING HAS BEEN RECEIVED AND PROPER EVALUATION OF ALL RISKS HAVE BEEN TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT. IF YOU ARE IN DOUBT OF PROPER STAGEHAND USE, CONSULT THE JOB STEWARD OR BUSINESS AGENT.
Several years ago, a spool of rope came through Green Bay with one road show or another. This warning appeared on the spool, however everywhere that it said rope, I changed to stagehand oddly enough I think it is an even more crucial warning for stagehands, but that is another story. When I first read the warning, I though that it was a sad testament to the state of our litigious society. I'm sure the lawyers had a lot of valuable fun at the manufacturers expense, however as I read it I began to feel a subtle hope welling up inside me that somewhere, someone might begin to understand that using ropes, or stagehands for that matter, is not to be taken lightly. I have seen both rope and stagehands pushed beyond their limits and in neither case is it pretty.
Several years ago, a spool of rope came through Green Bay with one road show or another. This warning appeared on the spool, however everywhere that it said rope, I changed to stagehand oddly enough I think it is an even more crucial warning for stagehands, but that is another story. When I first read the warning, I though that it was a sad testament to the state of our litigious society. I'm sure the lawyers had a lot of valuable fun at the manufacturers expense, however as I read it I began to feel a subtle hope welling up inside me that somewhere, someone might begin to understand that using ropes, or stagehands for that matter, is not to be taken lightly. I have seen both rope and stagehands pushed beyond their limits and in neither case is it pretty.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Green Bay, A Drinking Town with a Packer Problem
When the Super Bowl buzz starts before the regular season begins, it's a good bet you are living in Green Bay. Once we pass mid season, adults and many school children know the arcane mathematics of which teams have to lose to which other teams to assure that we make the playoffs. Many are the homes with at least a "Packer" Room, if not a bit o' the old Green and Gold spread through each and every corner of the house. This is a town where mailboxes are mounted on miniature goal posts and shutters and awnings can be found that are team colors or emblazoned with the trademarked "G". Even my own history includes brushes with greatness in the form of Packer players and team legends. Like the movie "Idiocracy", folks from around here are often suspicious of intellectual pursuits, especially when they interfere with game day activities.
We also have the distinction of being one of the cheapest places in the entire country to go out for drinks. When they came up with the idea of the mini-extension for big pick ups, the kind that fit in the sleeve for your towing ball, people around here immediately discovered that they were the perfect size to hold two more coolers for extra beer. Now, folks with this arrangement don't have to lower the tailgate to get to their beverages. Wandering through the sea of "tail-gaters" before a home game, drinking and the Packers seem to unite into a single two-headed force to be reckoned with. All manner of creativity and human endeavor can be seen on display. The improvised canopies, the hopped up electrical systems for watching the pre-game show on big screen TVs, and the many meat charring devices are all enlisted to create a party of epic proportions.
One of my favorite contraptions was made from a weed whacker. The tiny gasoline powered motor was enlisted to run a blender so that margaritas could be made on-site. I must admit that some of the awe was inspired by the fact that the traditional old fashioned, a drink that I knew more about as a child than any child has a need to know, was giving way to a nationally popular drink like that. I'm not saying that our drinking ways are all bad, but sometimes I wonder what life here would be like if folks developed other skills. We live in a state that allowed pharmacies to sell bitters for medicinal purposes during prohibition, so drinking is part of the culture. Some things cannot be changed. They say that knowing when you are beaten in your efforts to change the world is a valuable attribute. People here don't even like the suggestion that someone would mess with their access to or enjoyment of fermented fluids or distilled spirits. I had a friend here, who lost his job as a bartender for refusing to serve liquor to an obviously pregnant woman.
There are stories, still hanging in the air around here about the great plays, the goal line stands and the amazing victories that paved the way to legendary status as a football city, but for each of those stories there are hundreds if not thousands of them that honor the drinks that were had to accompany them. I have my own, so as not to feel left out. The playoff game late in the season where we trounced the Carolina's Panthers comes to mind. Having no ticket, I rode bicycle up to Lambeau, just to participate in the tailgate party. I took one of my favorite foods, a fermented, cheese-like spread made out of cashews to share with anyone brave enough to try it. I'm not a big drinker, so I just brought food. About ten minutes before game time, I was leaving, to rush home and watch the game on TV. some folks saw me and invited me to use an extra ticket that they had. It seems that the one fellow's girl-friend had stood him up and they were willing to let me have her seat. During the game, they purchased beer after beer, for all of us. I lost count, but it was enough that late in the third quarter, the fellow I was sitting next to leaned over and said, "With all the beers I have bought you, you're going to have to put out." History tells us that we won that game, but I was out of there! I spent the final quarter trying to not get thrown out by security because I was watching from anywhere but near that guy. I think that I spent the last quarter ducking in and out of vomitoria, catching a few plays at each before moving on to the next. I was drunk enough that I shouldn't have got back on my bike, but we were far enough ahead that I still left a little early to beat traffic.
This season has been especially hard on Packer Country. Most notable was the loss to the Bears, old rivalries die hard. Then, there is the double whammy of winning the games that we did win by such a slender and ugly margin! The dozen or so decent plays we make each week have been easily overshadowed by record numbers of penalties, giving the other team a half dozen chances to beat us, and an injury roster nearly as large as the units we send on to the field! Of course, the Super Bowl buzz is still around, but it has been a bit muted as of late.
Now, the Packers Organization (and it is always referred to as such, so as not to get it confused with the Packers that you can cheer for.) says that they are planning to expand seating in the stadium around the South End Zone. This would ruin the games, especially the late season ones, by blocking out the sun that gloriously fills the stadium during the day. Even when there is thick overcast, the bowl warms up enough to make it tolerable. That playoff game that I spoke of before was on one of those days when the high temperature only rose to about 10 degrees. The difference between being in sun and being in shadow makes a world of difference if you have to sit there for three hours. "Real fans" should not bear the burden of supporting fat cats in this way, losing their only luxury when the mercury drops below freezing. I say, and everyone agrees who has been to a home game in winter, build it up to thirty stories on the north end if you want, but let the sunshine continue to stream into the bowl. That's one of the things that makes Lambeau Field so great!
Sure, we may lose an occasional child or five to senseless drunk driving incidents. We also have our share of other relatives who have passed because of drunken drivers, but we still have The Pack. Even though the certificates that they printed to raise funds for "our team" may not be worth anything, really, we still feel like we own them and that they are worthy of our undying respect and admiration. Go Pack Go! One has to wonder are we the only stadium that is lit and maintained with tax dollars? Where else would they consider closing schools and libraries, but be willing to increase taxes for a game that takes place just eight days per year?
We also have the distinction of being one of the cheapest places in the entire country to go out for drinks. When they came up with the idea of the mini-extension for big pick ups, the kind that fit in the sleeve for your towing ball, people around here immediately discovered that they were the perfect size to hold two more coolers for extra beer. Now, folks with this arrangement don't have to lower the tailgate to get to their beverages. Wandering through the sea of "tail-gaters" before a home game, drinking and the Packers seem to unite into a single two-headed force to be reckoned with. All manner of creativity and human endeavor can be seen on display. The improvised canopies, the hopped up electrical systems for watching the pre-game show on big screen TVs, and the many meat charring devices are all enlisted to create a party of epic proportions.
One of my favorite contraptions was made from a weed whacker. The tiny gasoline powered motor was enlisted to run a blender so that margaritas could be made on-site. I must admit that some of the awe was inspired by the fact that the traditional old fashioned, a drink that I knew more about as a child than any child has a need to know, was giving way to a nationally popular drink like that. I'm not saying that our drinking ways are all bad, but sometimes I wonder what life here would be like if folks developed other skills. We live in a state that allowed pharmacies to sell bitters for medicinal purposes during prohibition, so drinking is part of the culture. Some things cannot be changed. They say that knowing when you are beaten in your efforts to change the world is a valuable attribute. People here don't even like the suggestion that someone would mess with their access to or enjoyment of fermented fluids or distilled spirits. I had a friend here, who lost his job as a bartender for refusing to serve liquor to an obviously pregnant woman.
There are stories, still hanging in the air around here about the great plays, the goal line stands and the amazing victories that paved the way to legendary status as a football city, but for each of those stories there are hundreds if not thousands of them that honor the drinks that were had to accompany them. I have my own, so as not to feel left out. The playoff game late in the season where we trounced the Carolina's Panthers comes to mind. Having no ticket, I rode bicycle up to Lambeau, just to participate in the tailgate party. I took one of my favorite foods, a fermented, cheese-like spread made out of cashews to share with anyone brave enough to try it. I'm not a big drinker, so I just brought food. About ten minutes before game time, I was leaving, to rush home and watch the game on TV. some folks saw me and invited me to use an extra ticket that they had. It seems that the one fellow's girl-friend had stood him up and they were willing to let me have her seat. During the game, they purchased beer after beer, for all of us. I lost count, but it was enough that late in the third quarter, the fellow I was sitting next to leaned over and said, "With all the beers I have bought you, you're going to have to put out." History tells us that we won that game, but I was out of there! I spent the final quarter trying to not get thrown out by security because I was watching from anywhere but near that guy. I think that I spent the last quarter ducking in and out of vomitoria, catching a few plays at each before moving on to the next. I was drunk enough that I shouldn't have got back on my bike, but we were far enough ahead that I still left a little early to beat traffic.
This season has been especially hard on Packer Country. Most notable was the loss to the Bears, old rivalries die hard. Then, there is the double whammy of winning the games that we did win by such a slender and ugly margin! The dozen or so decent plays we make each week have been easily overshadowed by record numbers of penalties, giving the other team a half dozen chances to beat us, and an injury roster nearly as large as the units we send on to the field! Of course, the Super Bowl buzz is still around, but it has been a bit muted as of late.
Now, the Packers Organization (and it is always referred to as such, so as not to get it confused with the Packers that you can cheer for.) says that they are planning to expand seating in the stadium around the South End Zone. This would ruin the games, especially the late season ones, by blocking out the sun that gloriously fills the stadium during the day. Even when there is thick overcast, the bowl warms up enough to make it tolerable. That playoff game that I spoke of before was on one of those days when the high temperature only rose to about 10 degrees. The difference between being in sun and being in shadow makes a world of difference if you have to sit there for three hours. "Real fans" should not bear the burden of supporting fat cats in this way, losing their only luxury when the mercury drops below freezing. I say, and everyone agrees who has been to a home game in winter, build it up to thirty stories on the north end if you want, but let the sunshine continue to stream into the bowl. That's one of the things that makes Lambeau Field so great!
Sure, we may lose an occasional child or five to senseless drunk driving incidents. We also have our share of other relatives who have passed because of drunken drivers, but we still have The Pack. Even though the certificates that they printed to raise funds for "our team" may not be worth anything, really, we still feel like we own them and that they are worthy of our undying respect and admiration. Go Pack Go! One has to wonder are we the only stadium that is lit and maintained with tax dollars? Where else would they consider closing schools and libraries, but be willing to increase taxes for a game that takes place just eight days per year?
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