Whom Do We Serve? (part two)

Years ago, my sister came up with the idea of a bumper sticker that would say just those four words. I wish that I had begun printing them then. Some ideas are so valuable that they need to be put into public consciousness and action immediately. The very act of asking this question brings far more to the table than many are willing to bring up, think about and share with others. These are the sorts of questions that are [pure gold in the realm of human evolution. If we refuse to think about these concepts, then we must be willing to relinquish the very freedoms that our founding fathers worked so hard to secure. The servitude that I am  bound to is due to my "business" with Wells Fargo Bank. Their recent re-finance of our debt will "save" two hundred dollars per month, but the time cost of that relief means that I will be paying Wells Fargo Bank an extra 10 thousand dollars, nearly half a year of the salary I collect for doing my job. I was so naive when the banks got their bailout after crashing the economy, I thought the gravy train was a one time thing. Sorry! The bank bail out continues and their freight is being paid by the few who were doing everything possible to stay afloat on the world-wide economic collapse that followed. In essence I was one of their "best customers". I have never been late on a single payment and whatever I had to do to meet my obligations, I did. It is a lasting sting, like an un-scratchable  itch, that I voluntarily entered into a social contract, I would domicile within the city limits of Green Bay, Wisconsin, serve my community, commit to a long-term relationship with neighbors, etc. I am but one of about 100 thousand people who are willing to live under the coal dust that blows through our neighborhoods, in an area where the fish can't be eaten safely, alongside petroleum tank farms and pipelines, coal piles and fly ash, we are actually paying the very real costs of all the toxic compounds in our environment, while faraway billionaires reap the benefits of our out-dated fossil energy system.

This view of the back of our rental shows another project in process. First I had to build a frame for the sun shade, next we are going to mount it over the upper porch which gets searing hot. My original plan was to utilize the solar collector behind the sun screen as an awning for the second floor, but it is way too heavy to lift up there with just a handful of friends. The solar panel was built in 1974 and has been providing 1/3 of the heat for the building for nearly ten years. This one piece of equipment has allowed me to pass fossil fuel savings on to dozens of renters who just want to feel warm in the winter. Some don't care if the heat comes directly from the Sun or from fossil energy. Those who do, like me, really love it.

On the bumper of a car, it relates directly to the fossil fuel addiction that requires us to serve people who frack, explore and "drill baby drill"! Not to mention the toxic emissions from refineries, waste land that is created, or the boom/bust economic effects of the fossil fuel industry. I have to state plainly that I have a problem with the word industry. Industry in my mind creates, fossil fuel exploitation can only, by its very nature, destroy. The only sensible possible future will use electric vehicles that are solar rechargeable.

I serve humanity generally by my teaching about biochar. When soils become healthier, so do the people who feed on the products of that soil. I once thought that buying an old quarry would be the best way to do organic agriculture, because all the soil in your beds would have to be created, so you would know the source of your compost, so you could keep it relatively clean. My soils, here in town contain lead, from the years that we were first using the automobile. Even after the petroleum distillers knew that the lead was poisonous, they fought to keep lead in gasoline un-regulated for several generations. I have to be aware of how much parent soil I add to my compost pile and the quality of the soil before I add it to food/flower beds. I do not want to introduce lead into the places I grow food and as long as I have control over what soil goes where, I can be especially careful not to add contaminated soils to my beds. Generations to come will benefit because I take the time to heal the soil, build it and enrich the native creatures who call the soil home. Serving these creatures pays back dividends that are undeniable, but hard for some to fathom. When the soil is healthier, the air is fresher, as the soil gets healthier, it holds more water, moderating temperature changes. The cascading feedback loops that are created between the soil and the organisms who inhabit it, create waste products that are literally food for plants. Serving the bottom of the food chain influences the health of the higher organisms who live around them.

If I had a dollar from every one of my pageviews, I could purchase a twenty acre parcel and begin to restore virtually all of it! Serving the future is the only hope we have. Those who claim that it is "too late" are just looking for an excuse to not put our money where our mouths are. Whom do you serve?

Strange Days Indeed

This solstice falls very close to midnight tonight. Not only will the Sun be at the lowest point on the horizon, but at least here in Green Bay, it will occur in the middle of the night. On this, the longest night near the time our ancestors used to call all bells. The Pacific ocean is currently warmer than we have recorded at any time since record-keeping began and the warm air has so much intensity that we, in the Upper Midwest are experiencing the warmest late fall ever. Midwinter here used to be the time when rivers turned hard, there were days on end where even the weak Sun could not raise the temperatures above zero during the days. We occasionally had temperatures far below zero. This year, we are wondering if the ground will even freeze solid.

The days have become strange in so many other ways as well, it is difficult to explain them all, or even list them. The citizens of the rest of the world, and some on our territory as well as wondering if we have collectively lost our minds. We seem to be completely delusional, running a slate of Teathuglican candidates that reflect all of the worst features of the ugly American. We have liars, cheaters, connivers, despicable hate mongers ala Hitler and both ignorant and foolhardy candidates running their mouths about things they know absolutely nothing about. In place of a fourth estate, the media and news outlets, who are wholly owned subsidiaries of the oligarchy continue to hold out the Two Minutes of Hate first mentioned by George Orwell in his futuristic novel, 1984.

Our educators are deemed "responsible" when students, calloused by abuse and neglect are unable to learn. Bullies are allowed to buy their way into seats of power, exerting more and more control over the daily lives of "free" citizens and there are never shortages of people to blame. Just pick any of the victims and lay the blame on them. We blame old people, young mothers, unions, anyone who works for the rest of us. The people who actually produce the least are even labeled "makers" while they call the rest of us "takers". Pay no attention to the fact that the elderly gave their lives to keep our way of life viable, ignore the fact that without young mothers, there would be no generation of young people willing to be abused by their bosses and while you are at it, brand those who put in an honest day of labor so that billionaires can hide fortunes in foreign banks. In addition to sowing seeds of hate throughout our society, Fascists continue to claim the immigrants are the problem, even though only a tiny fraction of us can trace our ancestry to native people. Even the fact that the world-wide recession (I still say it is a depression) has done more to curb immigration across our Southern border than anything that policing and/or militarism has accomplished.

The media giants have the power to point their cameras in any direction they choose, yet from the looks of what gets "reported", we are becoming less and less tolerant, under more and more threats and they also love to show us images of people who have lost their humanity in favor of their isolated existence, hiding in the glow of their telescreens.

Fossil carbon is almost never mentioned in popular media, nor is the solution to the build up of carbon in both the atmosphere and the world oceans. The fossil energy resources we are reaping today are like a giant solar charged battery, that took hundreds of millions of years to put by natural gas, oil and coal. We have been burning through that million year old carbon like drunken sailors since we first found it. some say that world coal reserves could last another four hundred years at the rate we are burning it, but it took millions of years to form. This is like writing checks for many thousands of dollars, every couple hours, while only adding a dollar per day to our accounts. The organic matter that took that carbon out of the air and sequestered it millions of years ago seems to not even be on our radar, or part of our awareness. We seem to have collectively forgotten basic physics. Like the fox from the folk tale, carrying a mouthful of food, we are seeing our reflection in the  still pool, but we try to snatch the food reflected in the water, leading to not only the loss of our meal, but getting cold and wet as well.

Chasing the dream has only led to our estrangement.

It seems like the popular myth/reality of the witch hunt has come back in full force. Everyone is seeking to blame someone else so fervently, so intently, that their own actions have become invisible to them. This solstice, we could all be served by allowing a bit of awareness in to our lives. The vast, vast majority of the human race is compassionate, helpful and cooperative. We know from research and experience that the easiest way to change children from loving, caring individuals into hateful tyrants and sociopaths is to abuse and neglect them, so why are we taking a path that leads to less and less good parenting and more and more stress for families? Well, our fictional belief in the "golden rule of business", screw the other guy before hew gets a chance to screw you, has become the mantra of the well to do. Since the rest of us are getting used to thinking that we are just temporarily inconvenienced billionaires,  we also think that by following the same route they did to amass their wealth, we will "make it" someday. The more desperate we become, the more we seem to cling to the lies that we have been told by those who abuse and neglect us.

In the novel 1984, the proles were told, WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. The book was written as a warning, not an instruction manual. The truth is that no peace ever grew out of the end of a gun, nor can it be created by the elimination of the results of human effort, investment and capital, with its inherent mantra that it be done for the good of others, and for ages to come. The "work" that the death and fear merchants are summed up pretty well as Ozzie Osbourne testified in 1970, with Black Sabbath with the tune WAR PIGS! War can never be anything but mayhem and destruction. The concept of buying money on time has virtually created a race of slaves. Ask yourself, are you more free today than you would be without "interest" being paid to guys in suits who create nothing but false demand for a future that never comes. In case anyone forgets. Slavery will forever be inhumane, even if the slaveholders were to be proven benevolent. Those who keep over ninety percent of the rest of us as their pets are the ones who need to be put down, not the old ladies whose "benefits" are cut, or the child made to drink sugar water while her mom is away at her job. I am in the class that has lost the war, but continues to pick winnable battles in a corrupt and failing system. Recognizing your own wage slavery and understanding that the class war has been won for decades. I continue to write these words to help others hear/see/smell/feel/ taste/grasp  the truth.  The most ignorant thing we can do is not recognize that every single person you meet knows things you will never know. If you have not yet done so, read 1984. When the spookiness starts to become apparent, realize that we now do not need wires to be "hooked up" any more. Nor can we disappear anymore into darkness.

The only way is up and out into the light. I have resolved in this year to become more pro active, discuss what can be done to affect positive change across the planet and don't want to leave folks with a truth bomb so devastating that they know not where to go, so here I will leave a nugget of bliss that can be reproduced and shared amongst your friends, family and co-workers, even if they be unpersons (sorry for the one last 1984 reference). To lighten the mood as "Where do you find a turtle with no arms or legs?" wait a moment and answer..."Right where you left him!" May all your days reflect the honest twists and turns of phrases, the condensed meaning of a thought expressively contained in the tiniest of vessels of words. Take these brief collections of words to heart: Love is Peace, Freedom a Birthright, Awareness is Everything. It only costs our attention to invest in making the world substantially better. All we have is our brief time on the planet...how many of us have lost loved ones this year?...We know the results of tearing things and people down. Perhaps this year, we could try the opposite approach.

A Friend of Mine Was Murdered

A friend of mine was murdered.
Her husband planned it out.
Not her husband really, it was only her ex.
He planned it so that friends of his,
would be the first to respond.
He sat there over her body.
And smoked a cigarette.
Waiting for his friends to come.
So he could surrender to them.
Hand them the gun.
He had planned it all for months.
Making sure of every detail.
Parking a few blocks away.
Hiding in her garage.
He thought the claim, "Crime of Passion"
would let him fly free for his deeds.
Instead he is sentenced to life in prison,
but it won't bring her smile back to me.

At first, I sat in stunned silence, not wanting it to be true.
Then I grew restless, knew just what I had to do.
I would tell the world of her light,
cut down in it's prime.
I would fight the urge to hurl.
I would create a petition and get everyone to sign.
One to demand that those we trust, to serve the public good,
Are scrutinized with a microscope,
found to be free from hate and incapable of lies.

Then I found my way into the dark heart of her mate,
I hated myself for his rage, disgusted by our inhumanity.
I felt compassion for this weak and deranged creature,
who shot the object of his desire. Unable to see her truly.
Unable to fathom her depths, ignorant of her true worth.

I waxed and waned between wanting him tortured, killed,
and forgiving his senseless act.
No punishment can change the horrible loss of love that's felt
by all who know her name.
There remains an emptiness inside of me that "life in prison" cannot fill.
I only hope that in good time, her killer will regain, the part of himself that
went away when he stopped seeing someone there, behind the image that he made,
Upon which he leveled his cold dark stare.

It would be odd I guess, if I didn't tell the rest.
It's not the only love I've lost to husbands that were deranged.
Not the one I loved the most, I loved her just the same.
For all the ladies killed by men,
I pray and beg and boast,
that some good men are out here still.
So don't give up the ghost.

Ladies, you deserve respect.
Don't tangle with those boys,
who treat you like an object,
like one of their little toys,
and don't you let them tell you things
that put questions in your mind.
Boys will always be a waste of time.
Search until you find a man, who will stand up to the boys
and take you in his loving arms and feel and share your joys.