Quote of the Day

Cindy Sheehan May, 2007

“The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing. His precious lifeblood drained out in a country far away from his family who loves him, killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think. I have tried every since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful. Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives. It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most….

Good-bye America …you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you be that country unless you want it.”

Emphasis mine. What struck me is how I identified with Sheehan's pain for having bought into this imperial system for so many years. Schools are still teaching myths without a bit of discomfort from millions and millions of educators and parents. It is heartbreaking to me.


See Cyrano's Journal for current interview wit Cindy Sheehan. Who else do we hear speaking out against the empire's occupations around the world? *crickets*

Good to keep handy

Hat tip to Mahablog

The 00's brought innovations that could save us

 January 18th update at end.

I'm going to cite Sarah Van Gelder's article from Common Dreams.  It is a listicle (n. an article consisting primarily of a list) from Yes magazine.  I would like to copy it word for word, but I'll follow fair use and just give the high points.

1. People fell in love with local foods. 
2. A home-grown U.S. pro-democracy movement brought greater integrity to the elections process.  (My note: Acorn and the 50-state strategy both figure strongly here.)
3. Happiness got redefined. As people discovered that debt and overconsumption cause stress to families, the planet, and each of us, many turned instead to friends, family, good works, spirituality, and personal growth as the keys to a good life.
4. Media became radically decentralized and inclusive, with anyone able to report on events and to post video, tweets, photos, and commentary. Governments found secrecy much harder to come by. Fact checking became a participatory activity.
5. Prison overcrowding, budget shortfalls, and powerful advocacy turned the public against draconian prison terms and the drug war in favor of limited prison time for nonviolent offenses and alternatives like treatment and community service.
6. People went local to rebuild the economy. Instead of competing to get corporations to locate in their communities, they began building economies based on local strengths and local needs, striving to be green and to offer living wages and dignity to employees.
7. Populist resistance grew to corporate power and big government.
8. The stage was set for nuclear abolition: A global consensus grew around the need to abolish nuclear weapons.
9. Indigenous people's rights were recognized in an official United Nations declaration. Indigenous peoples began using their new-found clout to protect their ways of life and the biosphere, stewarding sources of invaluable cultural and biological diversity.
10. The United States elected an African-American president.  But, as has been painfully clear, it does not guarantee progressive policies will come out of the White House.
11. A new guiding philosophy emerged based on respect for all people and all life.  Earth Charter, formally launched in 2000, received endorsements of thousands of organizations representing millions of people during the ‘00s, revealing the potential for a new worldview to take hold based in environmental sustainability and social justice.
12. A "Survival" Movement swept the world; millions took action to confront the climate crisis, making changes at home and at work, greening cities, resisting coal and deforestation.  Look to this movement to grow rapidly, post-Copenhagen.

I remember the beginning of this last decade, New Year 2000.  Nothing on this list was a part of my life.  In fact, I would have been baffled with many.  It took me a long painful process to come to these realities for myself.  Although I am convinced that as 2010 begins, most of the above twelve are aspirational rather than reality for the majority of the USofA consumers. Yes, I say consumers because I believe the broken empire sees us all as consumers rather than people - yet alone citizens or fellow human beings.  Corporate bodies are above it all.

Speaking of 'above it all' . . .  I am launching another blog this year called 10:10 Above It All to chronicle 10 projects I am planning for 2010.  Above it all has a whole series of meanings. One of the meanings is an emotional one. I want to rise above the anger, shame and frustration I feel as an American and as an older woman in a patriarchal culture of youth.   I could easily dive into despair or perpetual rage.  For my health and well being I need to avoid getting caught up in the stink of it all.  I took most of this last year off writing my blog, so I might take awhile to get back into a groove with writing.

Jan. 18th Update: I have followed an instinct that struck me - and hung around for a week - to abandon the 10:10 Above it All project. All I know is the time isn't right. The concept is still brilliant, if I do say so myself. I am just not ready it seems. 

Art by Chris Kenny

Y355: Yesterday's Women

Carol Chomsky died and I followed links. I read a comment by another who captured my immediate stirrings about Roslyn Zinn. Paraphrased . . . I feel an ache in my heart for Carol and Carolyn Goodman and Roslyn Zinn. These deaths are all deep losses for their partners, children, friends and for our country. It is comforting to imagine a coming together of these stimulating lives after they have gone. I like to magine a celebration of dancing and rejoicing that their work is done.

Mostly, these women were invisible to the patriarchal culture. Carol Chomsky and Roslyn Zinn partnered giant intellects who have kept progressive thought alive in the last decades of conservative dumbing down of the national dialog. (Dialong, schmialog . . . more like a right wing monologue of divisive, intolerant, fear mongering and torture justification.) Goodman is a mother of a slain civil rights worker who kept her activism, her dedication alive for the rest of her life, to seek justice.

How little we learn in school or in current news about what women in 20th century brought us. This is a simple tribute to these unsung women who died in 2008. There is no clear selection model I used beyond working chronilogically from the most recent deaths back to the first of this year. I just picked somewhat randomly the lives that made me want to read more, learn more. They all made a difference, made a mark in the world. Each is a life worthy of study and reflection. How wonderful if 21st century little girls would be taught about these women's lives and strengths. If you have little girls around you, keep a list of your own handy.

• Kathleen Baskin-Ball, 50, American United Methodist pastor, cancer. [167]
• Elizabeth Warnock Fernea, 81, American writer, filmmaker and scholar. [169]
• Margarita Karapanou, 62, Greek author, respiratory problems. [170]
• Odetta, 77, American folk singer and human rights activist, heart disease. [174]
• Miriam Makeba, 76, South African singer, heart attack. [174]
• Mae Mercer, 76, American blues singer. [18]
• Edith Evans Asbury, 98, American journalist (The New York Times), after long illness. [6]
• Bonnie Bluh, 82, American feminist writer, aortic dissection. [257].
• Nancy Hicks Maynard, 66, American journalist, advocate for diversity in journalism, organ failure. [87]
• Anna Langford, 90, American politician, first African American woman to serve on the Chicago City Council, lung cancer. [126]
• Charlotte Kohler, 99, first US editor to publish South African writer Nadine Gordimer, heart failure. [140]
• Alice Van-Springsteen, 90, American stuntwoman, pneumonia. [159]
• Pauline Baynes, 85, British illustrator (Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings). [244]
• Edie Huggins, 72, American journalist and reporter (WCAU-TV), lung cancer. [15]
• Estelle Getty, 84, American actress (The Golden Girls), Lewy body dementia. [76]
• Paula Gunn Allen, 68, Native American poet, novelist, and activist, lung cancer. [18]
• Alma Hogan Snell, 85, American Crow tribal nation historian, herbalist, granddaughter of Pretty Shield. [227]
• Mildred Loving, 68, American civil rights pioneer, challenged Virginia interracial marriage law (Loving v. Virginia). [252]
• Diana Barnato Walker, 90, British aviator, first British woman to break the sound barrier. [20]
• Martha Kostuch, 58, Canadian environmentalist, multiple system atrophy. [55]
• Su-Lin Young, 96, American explorer. [106]
• Maryam Farman Farmaian, 94, Iranian feminist activist. [68]
• Ann Baumgartner, 89, American aviator. [93]
• Mary Meader, 91, American aerial photographer. [130]
• Barbara Seaman, 72, American writer, journalist and activist against hormone replacement, lung cancer. [27]
• Sunny Lowry, 97, first British woman to swim the English Channel. [76]
• Phyllis Barnhart, 85, American animator and cel painter (The Secret of NIMH). [224]
• Rose Hacker, 101, British activist. [241]
• Marie Smith Jones, 89, American last known native speaker of the Eyak language, natural causes. [102]
• Mildred Noble, 86, American writer and Native American activist, complications from liver cancer. [121]
• Patricia Verdugo, 61, Chilean writer, journalist and human rights violations investigator, cancer.
• Isobel_Bennett" title="Isobel Bennett">Isobel Bennett, 98, Australian marine scientist. [191]
• Sara Misquez, 62, American president of the Mescalero Apache of New Mexico (1999–2003), car accident. [235]

And though death is a natural part of our lives, something has be lost forever in their passing.

"Women Dancing" Artwork by Alma Schofield, Wales

Wings, unknown

X352: Xenophile

Xenophile n.

A person attracted to that which is foreign, especially to foreign peoples, manners, or cultures.

These days, the more I learn about the truth behind Myths America, the more I become a xenophile. Most of all I look outside this country for voices not hypnotized by the self-aggrandizing myths or the blind tautology, a term used by Noam Chomsky below. (We own the world, therefore anything we do is right and usefu.l)

But, it isn’t just a blind rejection of my country. It is based on my excitement with what is happening around the world while America’s tiny percentage of people runs the oligarchy. This imperialist country focused on wealth and power is adamantly opposed and obstructing the great sustainability, social justice strides being taken around the world. Yes, that includes Obama. (In fact today I am seething along with millions of others at his choice of Rick Warren, a bigot, to give the invocation at the inaugaration. ) There are great experiments in democracy and our country and its leaders are on the wrong side of them.

Noam Chomsky spoke of this at Boston University and it has informed my thought about hope lying in the leaders in the south. He details this historic stance of the US expansion and the purpose of the cold war being about invading and controlling the third world and its rich resources. It continues though the narrative has changed. Now the pretext is drug trafficking and human rights violations. Vile, staggering facts in this two hour condensed lesson . . .

My daily news source is Democracy Now and some programs featuring these leaders in the south elected in democratic elections like Hugo Chavez, Fernando Lugo, Rafael Correa and Evo Morales are listed here.

Barack Obama’s Senior Foreign Policy Adviser Samantha Power on Obama’s Call to Increase the Pentagon’s Budget, Hugo Chavez, Funding the Iraq Occupation and Attacking Pakistan
Note: This interview last winter made it clear to me that Obama is not the change agent advertised, at least in Central and South America. Ms. Powers is back on his team and advising the transition State Department Office. This concerns me.

“The Bishop of the Poor”: Paraguay’s New President Fernando Lugo Ends 62 Years of Conservative Rule

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa on the Lawsuit Against Chevron, Eradicating Foreign Debt and Why He Says “Ecuador is No Longer for Sale”

An Hour with Bolivian President Evo Morales: “Neoliberalism Is No Solution for Humankind”

This week I am excited about the list Bolivia’s President Evo Morales presents titled, 20 Ways To Save Mother Earth and Prevent Environmental Disaster.

Please read the source article for references.

Sisters and brothers, today our Mother Earth is ill. From the beginning of the 21st century we have lived the hottest years of the last thousand years.
Global warming is generating abrupt changes in the weather: the retreat of glaciers and the decrease of the polar ice caps; the increase of the sea level and the flooding of coastal areas, where approximately 60% of the world population live; the increase in the processes of desertification and the decrease of fresh water sources; a higher frequency in natural disasters that the communities of the earth suffer; the extinction of animal and plant species; and the spread of diseases in areas that before were free from those diseases.

One of the most tragic consequences of the climate change is that some nations and territories are the condemned to disappear by the increase of the sea level.

Everything began with the industrial revolution in 1750, which gave birth to the capitalist system. In two and a half centuries, the so called “developed” countries have consumed a large part of the fossil fuels created over five million centuries.

Capitalism

Competition and the thirst for profit without limits of the capitalist system are destroying the planet. Under Capitalism we are not human beings but consumers. Under Capitalism Mother Earth does not exist, instead there are raw materials. Capitalism is the source of the asymmetries and imbalances in the world. It generates luxury, ostentation and waste for a few, while millions in the world die from hunger in the world. In the hands of capitalism everything becomes a commodity: the water, the soil, the human genome, the ancestral cultures, justice, ethics, death … and life itself. Everything, absolutely everything, can be bought and sold and under capitalism. And even “climate change” itself has become a business.

“Climate change” has placed all humankind before a great choice: to continue in the ways of capitalism and death, or to start down the path of harmony with nature and respect for life.

In the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the developed countries and economies in transition committed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 5% below the 1990 levels, through the implementation of different mechanisms among which market mechanisms predominate.

Until 2006, greenhouse effect gases, far from being reduced, have increased by 9.1% in relation to the 1990 levels, demonstrating also in this way the breach of commitments by the developed countries.

The market mechanisms applied in the developing countries have not accomplished a significant reduction of greenhouse effect gas emissions.

Just as well as the market is incapable of regulating global financial and productive system, the market is unable to regulate greenhouse effect gas emissions and will only generate a big business for financial agents and major corporations.

The Earth is much more important than the stock exchanges of Wall Street and the world

While the United States and the European Union allocate $4100 billion to save the bankers from a financial crisis that they themselves have caused, programs on climate change get 313 times less, that is to say, only $13 billion.

The resources for climate change are unfairly distributed. More resources are directed to reduce emissions (mitigation) and less to reduce the effects of climate change that all the countries suffer (adaptation). The vast majority of resources flow to those countries that have contaminated the most, and not to the countries where we have preserved the environment most. Around 80% of the Clean Development Mechanism projects are concentrated in four emerging countries.

Capitalist logic promotes a paradox in which the sectors that have contributed the most to deterioration of the environment are those that benefit the most from climate change programs.

At the same time, technology transfer and the financing for clean and sustainable development of the countries of the South have remained just speeches.

The next summit on climate change in Copenhagen must allow us to make a leap forward if we want to save Mother Earth and humanity. For that purpose the following proposals for the process from Poznan to Copenhagen:

Attack the structural causes of climate change

1) Debate the structural causes of climate change. As long as we do not change the capitalist system for a system based in complementarity, solidarity and harmony between the people and nature, the measures that we adopt will be palliatives that will limited and precarious in character. For us, what has failed is the model of “living better”, of unlimited development, industrialization without frontiers, of modernity that deprecates history, of increasing accumulation of goods at the expense of others and nature. For that reason we promote the idea of Living Well, in harmony with other human beings and with our Mother Earth.

2) Developed countries need to control their patterns of consumption -- of luxury and waste -- especially the excessive consumption of fossil fuels. Subsidies of fossil fuel, that reach $150-250 billion, must be progressively eliminated. It is fundamental to develop alternative forms of power, such as solar, geothermal, wind and hydroelectric both at small and medium scales.

3) Agrofuels are not an alternative, because they put the production of foodstuffs for transport before the production of food for human beings. Agrofuels expand the agricultural frontier destroying forests and biodiversity, generate monocropping, promote land concentration, deteriorate soils, exhaust water sources, contribute to rises in food prices and, in many cases, result in more consumption of more energy than is produced.

Substantial commitments to emissions reduction that are met

4) Strict fulfillment by 2012 of the commitments [5] of the developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least by 5% below the 1990 levels. It is unacceptable that the countries that polluted the planet throughout the course of history make statements about larger reductions in the future while not complying with their present commitments.

5) Establish new minimum commitments for the developed countries of greenhouse gas emission reduction of 40% by 2020 and 90% by for 2050, taking as a starting point 1990 emission levels. These minimum commitments must be met internally in developed countries and not through flexible market mechanisms that allow for the purchase of certified emissions reduction certificates to continue polluting in their own country. Likewise, monitoring mechanisms must be established for the measuring, reporting and verifying that are transparent and accessible to the public, to guarantee the compliance of commitments.

6) Developing countries not responsible for the historical pollution must preserve the necessary space to implement an alternative and sustainable form of development that does not repeat the mistakes of savage industrialization that has brought us to the current situation. To ensure this process, developing countries need, as a prerequisite, finance and technology transfer.

Address ecological debt

7) Acknowledging the historical ecological debt that they owe to the planet, developed countries must create an Integral Financial Mechanism to support developing countries in: implementation of their plans and programs for adaptation to and mitigation of climate change; the innovation, development and transfer of technology; in the preservation and improvement of the sinks and reservoirs; response actions to the serious natural disasters caused by climate change; and the carrying out of sustainable and eco-friendly development plans.

8) This Integral Financial Mechanism, in order to be effective, must count on a contribution of at least 1% of the GDP in developed countries and other contributions from taxes on oil and gas, financial transactions, sea and air transport, and the profits of transnational companies.

9) Contributions from developed countries must be additional to Official Development Assistance (ODA), bilateral aid or aid channeled through organisms not part of the United Nations. Any finance outside the UNFCCC cannot be considered as the fulfillment of developed country’s commitments under the convention.

10) Finance has to be directed to the plans or national programs of the different states and not to projects that follow market logic.

11) Financing must not be concentrated just in some developed countries but has to give priority to the countries that have contributed less to greenhouse gas emissions, those that preserve nature and are suffering the impact of climate change.

12) The Integral Financial Mechanism must be under the coverage of the United Nations, not under the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and other intermediaries such as the World Bank and regional development banks; its management must be collective, transparent and non-bureaucratic. Its decisions must be made by all member countries, especially by developing countries, and not by the donors or bureaucratic administrators.

Technology transfer to developing countries

13) Innovation and technology related to climate changes must be within the public domain, not under any private monopolistic patent regime that obstructs and makes technology transfer more expensive to developing countries.

14) Products that are the fruit of public financing for technology innovation and development of have to be placed within the public domain and not under a private regime of patents [7], so that they can be freely accessed by developing countries.

15) Encourage and improve the system of voluntary and compulsory licenses so that all countries can access products already patented quickly and free of cost. Developed countries cannot treat patents and intellectual property rights as something “sacred” that has to be preserved at any cost. The regime of flexibilities available for the intellectual property rights in the cases of serious problems for public health has to be adapted and substantially enlarged to heal Mother Earth.

16) Recover and promote indigenous peoples' practices in harmony with nature which have proven to be sustainable through centuries.

Adaptation and mitigation with the participation of all the people

17) Promote mitigation actions, programs and plans with the participation of local communities and indigenous people in the framework of full respect for and implementation of the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The best mechanism to confront the challenge of climate change are not market mechanisms, but conscious, motivated and well organized human beings endowed with an identity of their own.

18) The reduction of the emissions from deforestation and forest degradation must be based on a mechanism of direct compensation from developed to developing countries, through a sovereign implementation that ensures broad participation of local communities, and a mechanism for monitoring, reporting and verifying that is transparent and public.

A UN for the environment and climate change

19) We need a World Environment and Climate Change Organization to which multilateral trade and financial organizations are subordinated, so as to promote a different model of development that environmentally friendly and resolves the profound problems of impoverishment. This organization must have effective follow-up, verification and sanctioning mechanisms to ensure that the present and future agreements are complied with.

20) It is fundamental to structurally transform the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the international economic system as a whole, in order to guarantee fair and complementary trade, as well as financing without conditions for sustainable development that avoids the waste of natural resources and fossil fuels in the production processes, trade and product transport.

In this negotiation process towards Copenhagen, it is fundamental to guarantee the participation of our people as active stakeholders at a national, regional and worldwide level, especially taking into account those sectors most affected, such as indigenous peoples who have always promoted the defense of Mother Earth.

Humankind is capable of saving the Earth if we recover the principles of solidarity, complementarily and harmony with nature in contraposition to the reign of competition, profits and rampant consumption of natural resources.

V341: Venture

The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something. The millions who are in want will not stand by silently forever while the things to satisfy their needs are within easy reach. ~ FDR

Sounds like Venture to me.

ven•ture
n.

1. An undertaking that is dangerous, daring, or of uncertain outcome.
2. A business enterprise involving some risk in expectation of gain.
3. Something, such as money or cargo, at hazard in a risky enterprise.

v. ven•tured, ven•tur•ing, ven•tures
v.tr.

1. To expose to danger or risk: ventured her entire fortune.
2. To brave the dangers of: ventured the high seas in a small boat.
3. To express at the risk of denial, criticism, or censure: "I would venture to guess that Anon., who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman" Virginia Woolf.

v.intr.

1. To take a risk; dare.
2. To proceed despite possible danger or risk: ventured into the wilderness.

As I have said before, the Brits are way ahead of us on this one. What’s more, all the workshops and the questioning – What’s working, What’s not working? – are shared via the viral world. I am so grateful to Transition Culture and grateful for the internet.

The Fool Tarot Card - Seeker

Q304: Quoteable Jones

Van Jones is a hero of mine. He belongs in Obama's cabinet.

Try this experiment. Go knock on someone’s door in West Oakland, Watts or Newark and say: ‘We gotta really big problem!’ They say: ‘We do? We do?’ ‘Yeah, we gotta save the polar bears! You may not make it out of this neighborhood alive, but we gotta save the polar bears!’

We need a different on-ramp for people from disadvantaged communities The leaders of the climate establishment came in through one door and now they want to squeeze everyone through that same door. It’s not going to work. If we want to have a broad-based environmental movement, we need more entry points. ...

You can’t take a building you want to weatherize, put it on a ship to China and then have them do it and send it back. So we are going to have to put people to work in this country—weatherizing millions of buildings, putting up solar panels, constructing wind farms. Those green-collar jobs can provide a pathway out of poverty for someone who has not gone to college.

Remember, a big chunk of the African-American community is economically stranded. The blue-collar, stepping-stone, manufacturing jobs are leaving. And they’re not being replaced by anything. So you have this whole generation of young blacks who are basically in economic free fall.

If we can get these youth in on the ground floor of the solar industry now, where they can be installers today, they’ll become managers in five years and owners in 10. And then they become inventors. The green economy has the power to deliver new sources of work, wealth and health to low-income people—while honoring the Earth. If you can do that, you just wiped out a whole bunch of problems. We can make what is good for poor black kids good for the polar bears and good for the country."

—Van Jones, as told to Thomas Friedman in the Oct. 17, 2007 issue of The New York Times

This green movement and healthcare for all are top priorities for action. And on parallel track, stopping further raids on treasury, resources and other countries. Get the troops home from 700+ bases around the world (and occupied countries) and open farmland to veterans. (The prisons could be next). Stop the destruction, begin the healing.

Portrait by Robert Shetterly in his Americans Who Tell the Truth project.
Hat tip Treehugger

Update 11/2/08: Common Dreams article today by Van Jones is a great read.

Update 11/3/08 Well, it is clear I have no traffic or lurkers simply laugh at me and leave. The typo in the title is cringeworthy. Will fix now . . .

O288: Optimism Opportunity Dream

Last night I had a dream . . . I was crossing a busy urban street (like NYC) and I dropped 5 or 6 quarters on the pavement all around me. They flew everywhere and I was instantly distressed. Then others gathered around and bent down to retrieve the coins. Then there was this pile of coins. I distributed them amongst this little crowd of us huddled together. There were even silver dollars in this pile. And the dream morphed into a pile of unique objects in pottery and art. We were all passing around this treasure trove of discarded things of beauty.

I woke feeling so happy. I couldn’t have scripted awake such a wonderful example of what feels like loss turning into positive interactions, discovery, bounty and generosity. We can turn things into magic. We can seek opportunities.

(BTW, I found a beat up dime in my yard yesterday – the dream seed I think.)

This dream relates to a video by Al Gore I saw this year. It had this kind of bad news, good opportunity mix. It is a new slide show put together for the TED conference in Monterey. Despite the greater sense of urgency with accelerating climate change, Al Gore emphasizes the ‘generational mission’ presented to us. Stirring indeed.

Paraphrasing Gore . . .

Optimism is a belief, but behavior comes about from belief. But, as important as it is to change behavior in our lives, we often leave out the citizen part. We have to solve the democracy process. We need the political will.

Better than my paraphrase of this video, just watch it. It is again lifting me up with hope, if not joy. He makes smart and committed seem like something worthwhile again. It is rousing. (At the same time making it clear how empty the pResidential campaign is.)


TED is the Technology Entertainment and Design group that has been around since 1984. If there is anyone unfamiliar, their website is worth browsing.

Silver Dollars
Dime

K261: Kindness

Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind, and the third is to be kind”. ~ Henry James

A critique by a British author a couple of weeks ago stated, “So much of it, in the vast morass of ‘reality TV’, is about engineering situations where people will be rude to each other. “ And what seems to follow is that it becomes a habitual to view things from the vantage point of what is different, opposition, us and them, tit-for- tat , blame and disrespect.

Meanwhile, what’s universally shared gets ignored. All we have in common that is valued is overlooked. It’s like TV producers, political pundits, hate radio hosts and corporate marketers are constantly poking us (in our emotional bodies) to keep us at odds and rude. More importantly, it divides us. We are less resilient when we are fractured, alone.

Sometimes it is better to just act with civility even when we aren’t feeling it. Because being rude and cruel to each other doesn’t benefit us in any way. And this vulnerability to manipulation is creepy.

Of course openly dealing with issues up front and directly beats backbiting. Okay, sometimes we don’t get this right. *sigh*

Even so, we need each other more than in any time in generations, if we are to survive. It matters that we show each other respect. It is practical—besides being right.

This was the lead article in the community newsletter I just distributed in the park this week. I used the concept and opening sentence from Why Civility Matters [. . .] I am still in awe this early afternoon at what I witnessed last night in my neighbors' kindnesses.

First of all, we had a party to welcome back a neighbor who was in New York all summer and just got back. We were also celebrating the Autumnal Equinox. Last weekend I’d asked one woman, a really gregarious registered nurse, to collect money for food and she zoomed around and collected almost $200 in just a couple days. Astonishing.

Then we had three people shop, cook and set up most of yesterday. Very exhausting. And a bunch of us made things to bring (that will be another post) to the party. Now, this is all pretty standard for any group get together. There are several event planner types and the ball gets rolling.

What really touched me and impressed me last night was a remarkable atmosphere of good will. A couple of neighbors who have lived here 16 years, who had just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary came and we toasted them – because they are leaving. Their son wants them to live closer to his home, 22 miles from here. Very heartwarming. And, the woman who bought their place came to the party with a friend. They joined in and I was impressed with the way they were made to feel welcome.

Another couple of times during the party I had two different neighbors suggest making a plate for people who didn’t make it to the party. One older Mexican couple was apparently embarrassed about having not donated. They were really surprised when their neighbor (who speaks Spanish) followed through with her own suggestion and took them food. BTW, she had injured her foot so she hobbled over with the help of a cane loaned by one kind guy and on the arm of another kind guy. It was contagious, this kindness. It feels like I am just being gratuitous, but I need to also add that this woman got another Spanish speaking neighbor to the party by persuasion.

The R.N. not only gathered money, set up tables, invited the new tenant and her guest – she ran home and brought paper plates. She knew I was the one pushing the neighbors to bring their own plate and fork, so I continued to harass her. She also made a plate and took it to my closest neighbor who had contributed to the party, but just wasn’t into the crowd scene. In fact this nurse and another neighbor checked twice at this home. Heartwarming. And yes, another spontaneous gesture very late in the evening was bumping into our Mexican family and convincing them to come, despite Mom being so shy. Her teenage son translates and it grows easier.

This Autumnal Equinox gathering brought out half of the community (a new record), a victory with the Spanish-speaking family (one of our main goals) coming, every single bite of food was eaten, courtesy and goodwill prevailed and the conversation was varied, lively and engaging (and in two languages). The weather was perfect and the firelight under the stars was magical.

Even so, the night took a frightening turn when one of the primary event planners, a man who'd shopped all day and cooked the chicken and grilled eggplant all evening had a fall. He had gone into his home adjacent to the picnic area and had a misstep that sent him flying into a door frame shoulder first. He laid there screaming out to us all. It took at least 10 minutes (he thinks) for someone to respond. But, then our true heroes stepped up. The RN was there immediately stopping the blood flow from his face cuts where he’d hit a glass pane and broken it with his head in the fall. Two men, one a former fire fighter / marine and another who is inarguably the most thoughtful guy in the whole park. Between these 3 they stabilized a broken shoulder, staunched the flow of blood and got this man to the VA hospital for further treatment.

I just got a call from him this morning and he sounds good despite a broken arm bone. He filled me in about his no-work, his canceled clients for his second job (catering meals) and the kinds of medication he was given. Apparently he'll need an operation this next week. He said the hero nurse returned this morning to wash all his dishes, to give him a sponge bath and to help him into clean clothes. She even fixed the butterfly bandage on his nose. He is so overwhelmed with the outpouring of everyone on his behalf.

This is what I envision as community. I am awed. Next to the generosity lavished by my neighbors, I feel I am dragging my feet. There is much to do. And as my last post stated in the Brian Eno quote,

. . . The dream becomes an invisible force which pulls us forward. By this process it begins to come true. The act of imagining somehow makes it real . . . And what is possible in art becomes thinkable in life”.

Consolation, Joe Rosenthal

Joe Rosenthal's art, the human figure is presented with impressive weight. The solid rounded shapes of Consolation display a substantial inner fortitude, what some critics have called "enduring universal toughness." The artist does not portray the human form as fragile or teetering on the edge of collapse. Instead, Rosenthal's heavy sculpture seems able to hold its own ground against the chaos of conflicting forces.

K260: Keyhole Garden

I am really captivated with this design for an urban garden. When I was at school we studied anthropometrics or the body measurement percentiles, in order to design for a wide range of body dimensions. This was followed up for the more universally known expression, ergonomics or the study of worker’s bodies in relation to tasks. The idea is to make objects, products and processes that function well with the human form.

Besides designing a garden to fit the human scale, human movements there is the second reason I love this garden and that is the environment. This garden presumes a hostile, poor and even toxic environment. It can be place on a hard surface, even concrete. It builds into the garden all of the components for the chemistry and biology, the engines of soil production. Layer by layer these simple components like tin cans, clay chards, manure, wood ash are added to the mix.

The next reason is the wise use of water and waste to keep vital nutrients to feed the soil at the very core of the garden. With the central well for composting, watering easily accessible it assures greater success at maintaining the garden. It is designed overall to make it easy to successfully grown one's own food.



More sources here and here.

I251: Impeach

Dennis Kucinich is a hero. Over 100,000 signatures on the impeachment petition!



Go Sign the Petition as Congress comes back in session next week.

H240: Happy Birthday

I had the most delicious meal at my neighbor’s birthday party. She provided a sumptuous little spread of homemade healthy goodies; a hearty lentil soup with vegetables, 2 breads, butter, her own version of tabuli (using corn), lettuce leaves, an eggplant dish, steamed summer squash with potatoes, avocado hummus, yogurt with cucumber / mint, ground flax, ground walnuts and another ground nut, olive oil, feta cheese and a delicious French pastry birthday cake. Even the birthday greeting on the cake was in French.

Recently I interviewed this neighbor for my newsletter. I have changed her name to protect her identity.

International fame on the dance floor was a reality in M’s life. She was a champion ballroom dancer from Czechoslovakia, called the heart of Europe. Fifteen years ago the country divided into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Years before this M was born in the middle of the Czech Republic and Slovenia—the heart of the heart so to speak.


She has danced since she was a child. She married twice, both times to champion ballroom dancers therefore dance partners too. The 1st was a fellow Czech, the 2nd Canadian.

Hard work has been a consistent part of her life regardless of country. One 8-year stretch M danced with her French Canadian husband as cruise line entertainers. She has started from scratch in several different countries and built businesses (Canadian Bed and Breakfast) and schools with and without a partner’s assistance. I found that she even got her training as a registered nurse in Europe. This is a multi-faceted jewel of a woman.

She came to this trailer park 7 yrs ago, again starting over after her divorce. She has worked throughout that time to improve her home, making it a sound little grotto inside and out.

M teaches the tango, practices yoga and writes for the Tango newsletter. You may see this Tango newsletter in the laundry room.

The new bulletin board outside the laundry room was christened by M with articles from the Czech Republic for us to see money and art as subjects worldwide.

Her son, a Canadian citizen, has a family so M is now a grandmother. A grandmother who speaks Czech, French, German and English; has held citizenship in Czechoslovakia, Canada and now recently the US.

But, beyond her international acclaim, she is famous in our Park as the tourists come to see her incredibly intricate jewel of a home.

Her home is as these photographs show, a veritable grotto, a shrine that is an homage to her life. She has created her life story in stones and pictures and precious momentos glued to every available surface inside and outside.

Oh, and an added bonus for me at this Happy Birthday party was meeting M’s friends. I so enjoyed the conversation. Both M and I gave these guests a tour of the park and my home too. They were very interested in sustainable living.

This was a unique and happy food experience this week. It brought the world to my doorstep.

G236: Graphic Peace

In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace.

Do read what Colin Bevan has to say about nonviolence.

I am moved by the graphics. They take me back to that time. I am transported while I am yet again revived by John Lennon’s philosophy.

The young man is delightful. He is far superior as a journalist, asking real questions than our robotic nimrods in corporate media.

E212: Equality by Erudite Portly Dyke

It is an honor to present such exceptional writing by this Guest Blogger.

Because You Have a Belly-Button
cross posted at Shakesville by PortlyDyke | Sunday, August 03, 2008
Or: How Contemplating Your Navel May Lead You to An Understanding of Why Feminism is Fundamental

I observed the primary season of early 2008 with a fair degree of dismay. I saw what I believe was an intentional effort by the media and the powers-that-be to pit various oppressed populations against one another through the use of racist, sexist, homophobic, classist, and xenophobic dog-whistles.

I’ve since heard countless reports of people who have either abandoned or been “chased out of” blog-communities where they used to feel at least somewhat safe and allied, of rifts between meat-world friends who now no longer speak, and references to the “Oppression Olympics” which seem to have become a main event in many comment threads and dialogues.

I believe that it’s impossible to say whether this group or that group is “most oppressed” by our current system, because, in the end, the actual experience of being a member of an oppressed class is, at once, both recognizably shared and uniquely individual.

In addition, these forms of oppression have become so intimately interconnected that disentangling them is virtually impossible (especially for those who, by virtue of their race, gender, orientation, body-size, physical ability, and/or class, might get double-whammied, triple/quadruple/quintuple/sextuple-etc.-whammied by intersecting oppressions).

However, if I were pressed to make such an impossible judgment-call, I’d say that a fat, born-poor/raised-poor homeless trans-intersexual quadriplegic schizophrenic lesbian illegal immigrant of color over the age of 60 would probably take the Gold at the Oppression Olympics.

And you know what? It’s a fair certainty that such a person actually exists -- but there's a very good chance that she doesn’t have an internet connection, doesn’t know she’s entered the competition, and probably will not be showing up anytime soon to collect her medals. Because -- you know . . . . . she’s probably busy -- trying to fucking find something to eat and keeping fucknecks from beating her to a pulp on a daily basis.

See, the problem with figuring out who is really at the bottom of the Perilous Pyramid of Privilege[tm] is that it changes nothing about the Pyramid itself.

And even if you could win the Oppression Olympics?

All the prizes suck.

However, just because I don’t consider myself qualified to sit on the judges panel for Ms./Mr. Most-Oppressed of 2008 doesn’t mean that I haven’t been thinking about this question:

If one single oppressed population had to be chosen to “go first” and attain absolute Revolution, which would I choose?

My answer is: Women.

(Proceeding in bold text for emphasis.)

I believe that a totally successful Feminist/Womanist* Revolution resulting in the complete eradication of inequality between the sexes would change the world more profoundly right now than the eradication of racism, classism, homo/trans-phobia, able-ism, xenophobia, or any other single "ism" that I can think of at this moment.

Brash words, you say?

Let me be clear about this – I am not saying that the oppression of sexism is worse than any other form of oppression.

I’m saying that I believe that liberation from that oppression would have the largest immediate impact on how the world goes.

Here’s why: You have a belly-button.

I’m going to let you sit with that while I talk about some other shit. Later, I’ll get really, really obvious about this whole contemplate-your-navel thing – but if you haven’t figured out where I’m going with this yet, then follow instructions and think about your mid-section a bit as I wax on.

For years, I’ve been aware that sexism seems a very, very tough nut to crack.

As a rational human, it is actually incredible to me -- incredible (in the true sense of the word) --that I’m still having arguments with people about whether a nine-year-old girl could possibly be responsible for her own rape, that equal pay for equal work is something that is still being debated, and I am regularly astounded at the absolute terror some people seem to have when asked to take a look at the reality of inequality between men and women in this and other societies.

I think I understand why this level of terror exists -- because eradicating sexism would mean changing nearly everything.

One of the many reasons that I think that attainment of absolute equality between men and women would wreak the most profound level of change in humanity is this: It’s the revolution that would have to take place everywhere – it’s the revolution that would strike at the heart, hearth, and home of human society, regardless of geography, culture, race, religion, or creed -

- because you have a belly-button.

It’s common for oppressed populations to gather together – often because they literally can’t (as in, "are not allowed to") live in certain places, but also often to simply experience a sense of increased solidarity, community, and safety -- however illusory.

I have chosen, at various times of my life, to reside in “gay districts” (Vaseline Flats, The Swish Alps, etc.) – I even lived in a wimmin-only community at one point.

I have friends who are Hispanic/Latina/o who would never consider living outside the barrio, friends who are Black who could afford a house in a “better” neighborhood but who choose to remain in the ‘hood, friends who choose to commute long distances because they want to reside in a community that resonates a part of themselves that various systems of oppression ask them to hide, suppress, or otherwise make “acceptable” to the status quo.

This gathering-together/sequestering of oppressed populations -- often a vital life-line for those of us who deal with oppression on a day-to-day basis -- also has the unfortunate effect of reducing the "Regular Folks’" contact with the "Unregular Folks" in the most intimate part of their lives -- their home life -- which, I believe, often serves to accentuate the sense of “otherness” that facilitates oppression.

(Special Note for the Privilege-Awareness-Impaired: In this case “Regular” Folks=white, middle-to-upper class, able, straight, etc., and “Unregular Folks”=people of color, poor people, queers, differently-abled/minded, etc.. If you want to argue with me about that, you have five million other posts to read before I'll even consider talking to you about it. Start by reading this.)

While I embrace the fact that my years living as a queer-among-queers was an absolute necessity for me in terms of surviving my coming-out process and establishing my identity as a self-respecting queer, I also recognize that homogenizing my life (pun intended) probably resulted in me losing some opportunities to interface with “straight” people in ways which might have been eye-opening and consciousness-raising for them (and for me).

But see – that’s why I think that a successful Feminist/Womanist Revolution would be so powerful – why I believe that it could serve as an irresistible wedge in helping to bring down the entire Perilous Pyramid of Privilege – because you have a belly-button.

Unlike other oppressed populations, it’s not really possible for all, or even most, women to simply move into their own neighborhoods and create self-contained communities -- and have the human race continue.

The issue of whether human beings born or transitioned into female bodies are equal to those born or transitioned into male bodies runs through every culture, race, and nation.

The issue of whether anything can truly be classified or characterized as innately “male” or innately “female” has never been definitively answered, even though Patriarchal structures throughout human history have either just made up answers to this question, or hoped desperately that science would provide something that would help them justify the abuse and subjugation of women (and those perceived to be “like” women).

The issues that arise from institutional and personal sexism cook on every stove, and eat at every table. They sleep in every bedroom, resonate in every lullaby sung in every nursery, and issue forth from every television set in every living room. They linger around every campfire, and dangle under every roof.

I think that this is why contemplating and shifting inequality between men and women is so threatening to those who are invested in maintaining the status quo -- because it's so personal, and so present.

It isn't on the other side of the tracks, or the other side of the world -- it's here, and everywhere you could possibly go -- and coming to real cognizance of all the nooks and crannies that it infests, all the relationships that it has tainted and spoiled, and all the corners of your own consciousness that it inhabits requires a monumental amount of awareness.

In some ways, I believe that every woman who partners with a man in our society is essentially in a "mixed marriage" -- and faces all the dilemmas that those who are part of an oppressed class face when they marry or couple or parent or partner with someone who possesses greater privilege by virtue of being a part (happily or not) of the oppressing class.

And since each of us owes our very existence to such a coupling -- an egg from a woman and a sperm from a man -- it means that attaining true equality of the sexes affects each of us -- that the cultural and societal problems arising from the oppression called sexism reside smack dab in the middle of every home in the world.

Yes, even in the home of two gay men who have only male friends and work in an all-male business -- because one of the primary reasons gay men are harassed is because they are "like" women, and without institutionalized sexism, that really wouldn't be a problem, now, would it?

Yes, even in an all-male Catholic monastery -- because the primary reason that such institutions were created was because of this whole pesky egg/sperm thing, and those bad, bad women who brought sin upon the world.

And, obviously and especially – yes, in the mosque where women are not allowed to enter, and the golf-course where women are not allowed to tee off.

It's everywhere because every human being has (or once had) a belly-button.

Every single human being on this planet has a billboard on their abdomen that says this:

“I was once so connected with a female human body that we shared the same blood, the same oxygen, the same food. If it weren’t for that woman, I would not exist. Look – here is the evidence.”

So, if you think Feminism is not your issue:

Contemplate your fucking navel.

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(*Blog Note re: Feminism/Womanism -- I really don’t care which term you use, as long as you mean this: Male and Female humans have equal rights, equal protection, and equal respect in all aspects of life.)
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Teh Portly Dyke