...otherwise entitled "Robbyn's Rules of Commenting." ;-)
A day or so ago, I posted a question trying to verify if an email I'd received was correct. It stated that Manna Storehouse, located in a private home, had been raided and their inventory and computers, etc, confiscated while the family was held at gunpoint. The reason I was particularly interested in this story is because the family business/buying co-op is the sort that helps others buy grassfed meats and organic foods at affordable prices. I was wanting to separate the fact from the fiction.
I am waiting for an official press release, which will come soon. When it does, I'll post it.
I have concerns for our constitutional rights and freedoms and that there may be some blatant injustices in small farmers, etc, being targeted in differing ways. I found it very difficult to believe that a dispute over licensing details could have actually resulted in a family's home being searched in the way it seems (by the accounts I've read) to have been. I'm still waiting for details.
An online friend of mine posted her concerns that this particular news story be correctly verified, and expressed her personal perspective as the wife of a law enforcement officer who each day is often required enforce the law while at the same time protecting himself. It is the reality of every family member of loved ones in law enforcement that their job requires the risk of their own lives. Her comments spoke to this and to the fact that often police are following orders. She also stated that she has a concern that farmers and homesteaders are being unfairly targeted more and more. She made her comments respectfully. They reflected her opinions, and the last time I looked, this is what our Constitution protects the right to express. Therefore, I thank her. I am thankful for our Constitution.
As a rule, I seldom edit or refuse to publish comments based on whether I agree or not with them. This will be one of those exceptions. Here is why--
I came home from work to an In Box with several more comments, all of which I appreciated reading. The part I had a problem with was that rather than address the content of my post, which was to get to the bottom of what really happened at Manna Storehouse, it began to be a dialogue among the commenters. Whatever has really happened, it has touched a nerve and involves very important issues. These issues include the role of law enforcement, Constitutional rights, the targeting of small groups (even families) without grounds or due process, potential abuses of privacy and other rights in the name of "security" or "compliance," and the ethical conundrum of those involved (law enforcement, etc) when the choice must be made to participate (or not) if it's obvious an injustice is being perpetrated under the guise of law.
These are tremendously important concerns!
Though I had no idea this would bring about such important discussion, I welcome it...within the confines of respect. That's the rule here... you can say hard things and I don't have to agree with you, nor do any commenters have to agree with each other. BUT. It has to be expressed respectfully.
I know...if you're the friends of the family who just got held at gunpoint, you're entitled to rant. Please do! But let's put things on the table without attacking others. That's my requirement.
I did not post the following comments in full, not because I wish to edit the convictions behind them, but because they became personal to one of the commentors, going beyond the realm of this blog in its ability to adequately foster dialogue. I thought they were borderline hostile, though it was probably wasn't meant personally. But to me, it did sound a bit too personal to other commenter's thoughts...an attack is different than dialoguing.
Here are some of the concerns I can post, excerpted from some of the comments in my In Box. I did not include whatever other valid parts of their comments that were directed to prior commentors. The discussion is out on the table for all, not to target an individual. My thanks to those who took the time to express your concerns:
#1 I wonder to what extremes tactical teams will just do their jobs... At some point, individuals have to be responsible for their actions which further tyranny, "just following orders" is no excuse.
#2 (sic throughout) I'm baffeled at the posted dialog. What have we come to? Yes, it's true. This family, who is providing a healthy source of organic FOOD, YES FOOD, NOT DRUGS or any kind of illegal product, was stormed upon by a SWAT team, in full riot gear, and had fully automatic guns pointed at them, including the children. No phone call, no explenation. Private property was taken, including a signifcant amount of food, valued at possibly $10,000.00. Yes, IT'S TRUE. This is a perfect example of the tyranny we can expect from our goverment in the days to come. THEY WERE GROWING HEATHLY FOOD. And every civil right we claim to cherish in this country was violated. What about those children? Did they deserve that experience? What did that teach them about thier country, thier leaders, thier goverment, thier law enforcment?
#3 At some point, even the ordinary swat team guy must take responsibility for what he does.
The point of some of the edited-out portions pointed to historical injustices (in particular the holocaust) and raised the issue of individual responsibility vs. following commands. Several folks stated this in various ways. I edited another part that used a religious rebuke in an insulting way. If you want to direct it to me, I'm fine with that...I initiated the topic. But leave heavyhanded personal remarks to other commentors out of it. I defend your own right to comment on my blog without being insulted as well.
These are important issues, and often emotional ones.
My heartfelt thanks to all who feel protective of our rights and our freedoms and who are hopping mad at injustice. We have every right to be.
I am thankful for our Constitution, for the law enforcement in this country who enforce it, and the freedom we have to appeal within that system to right any injustices or corruptions both within and without. There is much that needs to change.
I'd like to get the facts before going any further with this.
Thank you, Dina, for your link. :) I did see it. I'm awaiting the press release from the actual family, when they have made it official.
And right now, like Forrest Gump, that's all I have to say about that.
Showing posts with label OH-pinions Mine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OH-pinions Mine. Show all posts
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Transgenics: The Economics of Putting Mouse in Pig
Another email digest from the OCA in my In Box, and I just have to share...
Ugh. It gets more and more chilling.
Let me back up a second. Tonight we went out shortly before dark to run some errands. There on the side of the highway was a fairly large wild boar, snacking on seedheads or other finds just at the edge of (what's left of) the woods...a big but not fat black boar with a long narrow snout, rooting around for nature's leavings.
I'm not a huge pig fan because pigs don't figure in largely into my sphere. We don't eat them, don't plan to raise them, and I just smile and wish them well when I see them elsewhere. They're not much on my radar. I'm actually ambivalent to them, pretty much, but even so, I would not take one and mess around with its DNA and decide that Pig is better when mixed with Mouse because of some perceived convenience or monetary benefit I might receive. Is this doing new things by breeding for certain characteristics? that's not new...selective breeding animals has been done for millenia. Have at it...breed for a straight tail rather than a crooked, cross-eyed pigs or pigs with spots or with a bigger carcass or pigs that fit in the palm of your hand or have no bristles or that oink at strangers...whatever. But they're still pigs, with their DNA intact.
Not so with the "progress" of the bio-tecchies. Ugh. Why are our governments playing with this stuff, so so cozy with the huge producers and corporations?
Now they are trying to get around the Big Ag dilemmas rather than solving them, by fiddling with DNA. Case in point, putting mouse DNA into hog DNA in order to (now get this, how to say delicately?) to have more environmentally-friendly poop...to create an "Enviropig." The FDA will be trying to bring it to you really soon. I kid you not. Here's a quote:
These are Enviropigs, developed by researchers at the University of Guelph to poop out more environmentally friendly waste. The trademarked pigs are just one of dozens of genetically engineered animals at research institutions around the world whose genes have been altered for human benefit. (<-----Robbyn's interjection: What the heck???)And, due to a recent move in the U.S., the Enviropig may be the first to arrive on your dinner plate.
And of course there's no consumer labeling, so we don't get to decide whether we especially WANT mouse DNA in pig meat.
For me, this is hardly a dilemma, since I'm Jewish and eat neither pig nor mouse. But it's a moral dilemma because in my faith, the Bible is very specific that in both the plant and the animal worlds, living things are delineated into things "of their own type." That does not forbid hybridization but it does forbid what creation itself cannot achieve without human forcefulness and mad science, the forcible mixing of unlike things. You just won't see a lion mating with a hyena, or a giraffe with a water buffalo in nature.
I believe there's a good reason for that.
And what business do we have fiddling with ANY living thing so that it fulfills the propaganda of being crafted and edited "for human benefit"??? This is not the same thing as deciding between a pony and a draft horse depending on its best use. It's not the same thing as breeding a dog to hunt or to herd or to retrieve. This is putting part of other animal and plant DNA INSIDE existing DNA from another species altogether to freaking "play God" and it's the ultimate insult to the universe.
(That's my decidedly objective opinion...) ;-)
Aside from what I believe on those scores, I believe what drives this bio-tech frankenscience is the not-so-almighty dollar/yen/euro.
Here's a quote from the article where you can find the detailed report:
Despite ethical concerns, Ronald Stotish, the CEO and president of Aqua Bounty Technologies, based in Waltham, Mass., is confident genetically engineered animals will make the leap from the lab to the farm - and soon.
"It's the way of the future," he says. "This technology has the capability of making beneficial changes in production agriculture."
Let's demystify this quote.
It's like a house For Sale in the classifieds listed as a "cozy handyman special..." there are more to those words than you might bargain for.
"Production agriculture" is Big Ag, and Big Ag is no friend of the consumer, nor even of your mainstream farmers. Big Ag does whatever it takes to force more into less for fewer dollars into the shortest amount of time for the biggest projected return. It's controlled by large corporations whose interest in money overrides concerns about truthful labeling, plant and animal health, humaneness, consumer health and protections, and other consumer interests. Now they're playing nastier by changing the living things themselves...not by hybridizing, which is how their propaganda would suggest nature does things anyway, but rather by forcing different TYPES of living things into creations that cannot even be created by mating...rather the DNA has to be forced into the DNA of something else...by man.
What arrogance. What foolishness and shortsightedness!
Please read the article by Megan Ogilvie of the Toronto Star, and you'll see what I mean.
Genetically modified and engineered animals and plants MUST be labeled, as there has been no adequate long-term testing on humans.
It must be labeled, so that consumers have a choice.
It must be truthfully spoken about...the misinformation campaign on the part of the big corporations is staggering. Things done in the name of "health" and "environmentally-friendly" are NOT being truthful with their advertising campaigns...changing animal DNA to FURTHER industrial large-scale production has NOTHING to do with REAL CHANGE needed to heal the disconnect and bring production back to smaller local producers, which is more environmentally-concious AND healthy.
Do NOT believe that the FDA is the Benevolent Big Daddy who will handle "all those confusing concerns" for a trusting public...no way. Choice and responsibility lie FIRST with the CONSUMER (that's us) and WE should decide what we eat...and should have the benefit of labels not intended to deceive us in that decision-making process.
I INSIST this MUST be OUR choice...no one else's.
Here is their contact link if you'd like to add your two cents to others voicing their concerns:
In Canada, please write to Health Canada to voice your strong opposition to the approval of this and other genetically engineered animals. They can be reached at novelfood_alimentnouveau@hc-sc.gc.ca
In the US, let the FDA know how you feel via their contact page http://www.fda.gov/comments.html or by writing toFood and Drug Administration 5600 Fishers Lane Rockville, Maryland 20857
Ugh. It gets more and more chilling.
Let me back up a second. Tonight we went out shortly before dark to run some errands. There on the side of the highway was a fairly large wild boar, snacking on seedheads or other finds just at the edge of (what's left of) the woods...a big but not fat black boar with a long narrow snout, rooting around for nature's leavings.
I'm not a huge pig fan because pigs don't figure in largely into my sphere. We don't eat them, don't plan to raise them, and I just smile and wish them well when I see them elsewhere. They're not much on my radar. I'm actually ambivalent to them, pretty much, but even so, I would not take one and mess around with its DNA and decide that Pig is better when mixed with Mouse because of some perceived convenience or monetary benefit I might receive. Is this doing new things by breeding for certain characteristics? that's not new...selective breeding animals has been done for millenia. Have at it...breed for a straight tail rather than a crooked, cross-eyed pigs or pigs with spots or with a bigger carcass or pigs that fit in the palm of your hand or have no bristles or that oink at strangers...whatever. But they're still pigs, with their DNA intact.
Not so with the "progress" of the bio-tecchies. Ugh. Why are our governments playing with this stuff, so so cozy with the huge producers and corporations?
Now they are trying to get around the Big Ag dilemmas rather than solving them, by fiddling with DNA. Case in point, putting mouse DNA into hog DNA in order to (now get this, how to say delicately?) to have more environmentally-friendly poop...to create an "Enviropig." The FDA will be trying to bring it to you really soon. I kid you not. Here's a quote:
These are Enviropigs, developed by researchers at the University of Guelph to poop out more environmentally friendly waste. The trademarked pigs are just one of dozens of genetically engineered animals at research institutions around the world whose genes have been altered for human benefit. (<-----Robbyn's interjection: What the heck???)And, due to a recent move in the U.S., the Enviropig may be the first to arrive on your dinner plate.
And of course there's no consumer labeling, so we don't get to decide whether we especially WANT mouse DNA in pig meat.
For me, this is hardly a dilemma, since I'm Jewish and eat neither pig nor mouse. But it's a moral dilemma because in my faith, the Bible is very specific that in both the plant and the animal worlds, living things are delineated into things "of their own type." That does not forbid hybridization but it does forbid what creation itself cannot achieve without human forcefulness and mad science, the forcible mixing of unlike things. You just won't see a lion mating with a hyena, or a giraffe with a water buffalo in nature.
I believe there's a good reason for that.
And what business do we have fiddling with ANY living thing so that it fulfills the propaganda of being crafted and edited "for human benefit"??? This is not the same thing as deciding between a pony and a draft horse depending on its best use. It's not the same thing as breeding a dog to hunt or to herd or to retrieve. This is putting part of other animal and plant DNA INSIDE existing DNA from another species altogether to freaking "play God" and it's the ultimate insult to the universe.
(That's my decidedly objective opinion...) ;-)
Aside from what I believe on those scores, I believe what drives this bio-tech frankenscience is the not-so-almighty dollar/yen/euro.
Here's a quote from the article where you can find the detailed report:
Despite ethical concerns, Ronald Stotish, the CEO and president of Aqua Bounty Technologies, based in Waltham, Mass., is confident genetically engineered animals will make the leap from the lab to the farm - and soon.
"It's the way of the future," he says. "This technology has the capability of making beneficial changes in production agriculture."
Let's demystify this quote.
It's like a house For Sale in the classifieds listed as a "cozy handyman special..." there are more to those words than you might bargain for.
"Production agriculture" is Big Ag, and Big Ag is no friend of the consumer, nor even of your mainstream farmers. Big Ag does whatever it takes to force more into less for fewer dollars into the shortest amount of time for the biggest projected return. It's controlled by large corporations whose interest in money overrides concerns about truthful labeling, plant and animal health, humaneness, consumer health and protections, and other consumer interests. Now they're playing nastier by changing the living things themselves...not by hybridizing, which is how their propaganda would suggest nature does things anyway, but rather by forcing different TYPES of living things into creations that cannot even be created by mating...rather the DNA has to be forced into the DNA of something else...by man.
What arrogance. What foolishness and shortsightedness!
Please read the article by Megan Ogilvie of the Toronto Star, and you'll see what I mean.
Genetically modified and engineered animals and plants MUST be labeled, as there has been no adequate long-term testing on humans.
It must be labeled, so that consumers have a choice.
It must be truthfully spoken about...the misinformation campaign on the part of the big corporations is staggering. Things done in the name of "health" and "environmentally-friendly" are NOT being truthful with their advertising campaigns...changing animal DNA to FURTHER industrial large-scale production has NOTHING to do with REAL CHANGE needed to heal the disconnect and bring production back to smaller local producers, which is more environmentally-concious AND healthy.
Do NOT believe that the FDA is the Benevolent Big Daddy who will handle "all those confusing concerns" for a trusting public...no way. Choice and responsibility lie FIRST with the CONSUMER (that's us) and WE should decide what we eat...and should have the benefit of labels not intended to deceive us in that decision-making process.
I INSIST this MUST be OUR choice...no one else's.
Here is their contact link if you'd like to add your two cents to others voicing their concerns:
In Canada, please write to Health Canada to voice your strong opposition to the approval of this and other genetically engineered animals. They can be reached at novelfood_alimentnouveau@hc-sc.gc.ca
In the US, let the FDA know how you feel via their contact page http://www.fda.gov/comments.html or by writing toFood and Drug Administration 5600 Fishers Lane Rockville, Maryland 20857
Sunday, September 28, 2008
We Can't Afford the Supermarket
And we can't afford to buy organic AT the supermarket. I wanted to buy a normal head of cabbage...at the supermarket.
It rang up at $8.50.
I'm sorry, I'm not paying $8.50 for ANY head of cabbage.
Buying local is not something that's easy here, and with the drive, paying more for long-distance "local" is not in our budget. That's what happened to the pet milk purchases, too...too much gas needed, prices too high.
Now they're too high in the store, too, and we're needing to change from questionable food to REAL food pronto. Learning that anything vegetable or animal out there now could be (and IS) genetically modified, ALL foods with only a few exceptions are permeated with pesticides and herbicides, and anything in a can or package usually has multiple preservatives all up in there ....all those things have tipped the scale for us. No longer do I live where a neighbor can gladly pawn off her excess zucchini or tomatoes (to my glee) on me. I don't have neighbors with dairy goats or cows. I have nothing seasonal growing in my backyard buckets, and have nothing stockpiled, except a modest collection of staples and dry goods.
We even have to buy water...even the water we cook with. For me, the girl from Tennessee, this seems like a budgetary travesty. Buy cooking water???
Simply stated, we can't afford to eat from the store anymore. I can remember when buying chicken thighs, or a whole chicken NOT cut up were the cheapest cuts of meat. Even these I can't afford. Even ground chuck I can't afford.
It literally would be cheaper to raise our own animals...even if not for any other reason than the cost alone. It would actually be cheaper for me to buy a live chicken and slaughter it than it would be to buy the cheapest chicken from the store. The times, they are a-changin'.
We're putting our heads together about what we need to grow to survive, from the bottom up. We will be identifying our own preferences and what our bodies need the most as far as nourishment and disease prevention, and those things will be planned for first.
First will be the staples that would see us through no matter what...what we could survive on even if we had nothing else.
Next will be the nutrition-dense secondary veggies and grains...all the seasonal crops that we could eat fresh and put away for the longer term. The basics to round out the staples.
Alongside these things will be the herbs for flavor, nutrition, and medicinals.
Lastly, the fruits, experimental crops, the veggies and fruits and various plants whose variety that would extend the basics into many different sorts of meals.
Does anyone have lists like this, starting from the Can't-Do-Withouts on up? If so, I'd be really interested in what's worked for you and your family, specifically which crops and plants you most rely on.
The old Victory garden concept has morphed into survival gardens for the long-term far beyond anything that's happening as a result of sending our boys overseas. Now we need because of battles in "progress" -- what's happening in test tubes and bio-tech labs, in China, and in the oil industry. Our "progress" is like the snake that tried to swallow its own tail.
We've just been "progressed" right out of being able to buy a week's worth of groceries at my own grocery store.
It's time to sow for our future, and take it into our own hands. There is now an urgency. Not a panic, but definately an urgency.
It rang up at $8.50.
I'm sorry, I'm not paying $8.50 for ANY head of cabbage.
Buying local is not something that's easy here, and with the drive, paying more for long-distance "local" is not in our budget. That's what happened to the pet milk purchases, too...too much gas needed, prices too high.
Now they're too high in the store, too, and we're needing to change from questionable food to REAL food pronto. Learning that anything vegetable or animal out there now could be (and IS) genetically modified, ALL foods with only a few exceptions are permeated with pesticides and herbicides, and anything in a can or package usually has multiple preservatives all up in there ....all those things have tipped the scale for us. No longer do I live where a neighbor can gladly pawn off her excess zucchini or tomatoes (to my glee) on me. I don't have neighbors with dairy goats or cows. I have nothing seasonal growing in my backyard buckets, and have nothing stockpiled, except a modest collection of staples and dry goods.
We even have to buy water...even the water we cook with. For me, the girl from Tennessee, this seems like a budgetary travesty. Buy cooking water???
Simply stated, we can't afford to eat from the store anymore. I can remember when buying chicken thighs, or a whole chicken NOT cut up were the cheapest cuts of meat. Even these I can't afford. Even ground chuck I can't afford.
It literally would be cheaper to raise our own animals...even if not for any other reason than the cost alone. It would actually be cheaper for me to buy a live chicken and slaughter it than it would be to buy the cheapest chicken from the store. The times, they are a-changin'.
We're putting our heads together about what we need to grow to survive, from the bottom up. We will be identifying our own preferences and what our bodies need the most as far as nourishment and disease prevention, and those things will be planned for first.
First will be the staples that would see us through no matter what...what we could survive on even if we had nothing else.
Next will be the nutrition-dense secondary veggies and grains...all the seasonal crops that we could eat fresh and put away for the longer term. The basics to round out the staples.
Alongside these things will be the herbs for flavor, nutrition, and medicinals.
Lastly, the fruits, experimental crops, the veggies and fruits and various plants whose variety that would extend the basics into many different sorts of meals.
Does anyone have lists like this, starting from the Can't-Do-Withouts on up? If so, I'd be really interested in what's worked for you and your family, specifically which crops and plants you most rely on.
The old Victory garden concept has morphed into survival gardens for the long-term far beyond anything that's happening as a result of sending our boys overseas. Now we need because of battles in "progress" -- what's happening in test tubes and bio-tech labs, in China, and in the oil industry. Our "progress" is like the snake that tried to swallow its own tail.
We've just been "progressed" right out of being able to buy a week's worth of groceries at my own grocery store.
It's time to sow for our future, and take it into our own hands. There is now an urgency. Not a panic, but definately an urgency.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Mixed Reviews on Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs
I was sent one of those Forwards in my email In box, and it sounded typically exaggerated. It was about the alleged dangers of energy-saving Compact Fluorescent light bulbs and the fact that they all contain mercury. The email supposedly quoted a woman who broke one of her CFL bulbs and was told by her local EPA that it would take a team to remove the contamination, to the tune of $2000.
I didn't pay much attention to the email at first because it seemed sensationalized.
I did want to look into the matter a bit more as time allowed...
First, it made me feel a bit slow that I never knew fluorescent bulbs of any description contain mercury.
Secondly, I became aware that there is a mass-marketing of these CFLs, and they are touted as a real green energy-saver for the average household. We have them ourselves, all throughout our house.
Thirdly, I noted the widespread, but largely unaddressed, concern about disposal of the bulbs once they've burned out. Mercury is a contaminant even in very small amounts, and once it hits groundwater, you're talking the most serious of birth defects or sterility issues, not to mention many other serious ailments.
Fourthly, I noticed the preponderance of "patting down the concerned"...something I'm beginning to become less and less happy about. I see this being done by the mainstream in so many other crucial health areas, I am now suspicious whenever the rhetoric runs to phrases such as "when handled correctly" or "health concerns are exaggerated" and so on. In any normal household, lightbulbs get broken, and many times by children or in areas that would be virtually impossible to guarantee spotless cleanup. It's not like these are stadium lights, up and out of the way of the normal Joe. Any normal boy with an overactive Nerf football could overturn a lamp, break the bulb, and try to hide the evidence...and that's just one such situation.
Fifthly, who are the "experts" who "assure" us that NO mercury can be leached, vaporized, or in any other way become a particle that pollutes our home if these bulbs are used regularly...or as in our household, used exclusively? I trust faceless experts and their statistics less and less these days. (If I didnt, I'd think Monsanto is the answer to world hunger and is staffed with boy scouts...)
If it sounds like I'm a skeptic, I want to be a healthy skeptic rather than a reactionary. But two things bother me about this. First, make a product that doesnt try to solve a problem by creating a solution with newer and graver problems. Mercury contamination is no laughing matter. Dont give me the hooey about one coal plant causes more mercury pollution than X number of CFBs. Don't sell me a problem by stating that it's a better problem than the old problem.
I happen to know those bulbs, likely many of them broken, are in our landfills right now.
And I'm frankly ticked off. I'm thinking of whether or not I've ever handled a broken CF bulb myself. I didn't know better...I wasn't the person buying them at the store and reading the label before installing. In fact, I rather hated them...I don't like fluorescent light at all anyway. The reason we changed was to be frugal and to save money.
I'm becoming more jaded about our "needs" for "improved" things. I'm the one who's perfectly happy with a candle, anyway. Or just a light bulb, and keeping all the other lights turned off. Or, radically...how about just letting it be light when the sun shines and dark when it goes down?
(lol...ok, you knew I was on the edge!) ;-)
Am I just getting old and crotchety?? I'm annoyed with just one more "dire warning" spam letter in my email, and even more annoyed to find that I'm unsettled after looking into it a bit more. The general consensus seems to be "oh, those CFLs are our best option, even though it comes with some conditions and probable exceptions."
I'm tired of one more product being so widely accepted and finding out it has to be disposed of in "a special way"...creating a demand for more mercury to be used in production but no real responsibility in keeping it from junking up our surroundings/environment/groundwater/soil/air with just one more "necessary" toxic contaminant.
It's official. I'm becoming one of those crotchety old kooks that just won't shut up...
Grass, water, sky, soil, babies with the correct number of limbs and digits. Those are the things I'm feeling awfully protective of these days.
I'm considering ditching the CF bulbs completely. After I get fully suited up in my Hazmat suit, that is, and find some federally-approved disposal facility that will take them (she says, tongue-in-cheek....sort of...)
I'm about technologied out. I can tell I'm about at the end of it. That's where my grandparents were right about the time of the invention of VCRs...they'd had enough of Progress. Mine happened right about the Ipod and the MP3. I'm a throwback. I get more and more stubborn the more and more innovations are marketed as necessities.
Hmmmm.....
told ya...
old and crotchety!! :)
I didn't pay much attention to the email at first because it seemed sensationalized.
I did want to look into the matter a bit more as time allowed...
First, it made me feel a bit slow that I never knew fluorescent bulbs of any description contain mercury.
Secondly, I became aware that there is a mass-marketing of these CFLs, and they are touted as a real green energy-saver for the average household. We have them ourselves, all throughout our house.
Thirdly, I noted the widespread, but largely unaddressed, concern about disposal of the bulbs once they've burned out. Mercury is a contaminant even in very small amounts, and once it hits groundwater, you're talking the most serious of birth defects or sterility issues, not to mention many other serious ailments.
Fourthly, I noticed the preponderance of "patting down the concerned"...something I'm beginning to become less and less happy about. I see this being done by the mainstream in so many other crucial health areas, I am now suspicious whenever the rhetoric runs to phrases such as "when handled correctly" or "health concerns are exaggerated" and so on. In any normal household, lightbulbs get broken, and many times by children or in areas that would be virtually impossible to guarantee spotless cleanup. It's not like these are stadium lights, up and out of the way of the normal Joe. Any normal boy with an overactive Nerf football could overturn a lamp, break the bulb, and try to hide the evidence...and that's just one such situation.
Fifthly, who are the "experts" who "assure" us that NO mercury can be leached, vaporized, or in any other way become a particle that pollutes our home if these bulbs are used regularly...or as in our household, used exclusively? I trust faceless experts and their statistics less and less these days. (If I didnt, I'd think Monsanto is the answer to world hunger and is staffed with boy scouts...)
If it sounds like I'm a skeptic, I want to be a healthy skeptic rather than a reactionary. But two things bother me about this. First, make a product that doesnt try to solve a problem by creating a solution with newer and graver problems. Mercury contamination is no laughing matter. Dont give me the hooey about one coal plant causes more mercury pollution than X number of CFBs. Don't sell me a problem by stating that it's a better problem than the old problem.
I happen to know those bulbs, likely many of them broken, are in our landfills right now.
And I'm frankly ticked off. I'm thinking of whether or not I've ever handled a broken CF bulb myself. I didn't know better...I wasn't the person buying them at the store and reading the label before installing. In fact, I rather hated them...I don't like fluorescent light at all anyway. The reason we changed was to be frugal and to save money.
I'm becoming more jaded about our "needs" for "improved" things. I'm the one who's perfectly happy with a candle, anyway. Or just a light bulb, and keeping all the other lights turned off. Or, radically...how about just letting it be light when the sun shines and dark when it goes down?
(lol...ok, you knew I was on the edge!) ;-)
Am I just getting old and crotchety?? I'm annoyed with just one more "dire warning" spam letter in my email, and even more annoyed to find that I'm unsettled after looking into it a bit more. The general consensus seems to be "oh, those CFLs are our best option, even though it comes with some conditions and probable exceptions."
I'm tired of one more product being so widely accepted and finding out it has to be disposed of in "a special way"...creating a demand for more mercury to be used in production but no real responsibility in keeping it from junking up our surroundings/environment/groundwater/soil/air with just one more "necessary" toxic contaminant.
It's official. I'm becoming one of those crotchety old kooks that just won't shut up...
Grass, water, sky, soil, babies with the correct number of limbs and digits. Those are the things I'm feeling awfully protective of these days.
I'm considering ditching the CF bulbs completely. After I get fully suited up in my Hazmat suit, that is, and find some federally-approved disposal facility that will take them (she says, tongue-in-cheek....sort of...)
I'm about technologied out. I can tell I'm about at the end of it. That's where my grandparents were right about the time of the invention of VCRs...they'd had enough of Progress. Mine happened right about the Ipod and the MP3. I'm a throwback. I get more and more stubborn the more and more innovations are marketed as necessities.
Hmmmm.....
told ya...
old and crotchety!! :)
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Pure Salatin
I love reading and listening to Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms. He is an original, and a pioneer in the realm of local food systems and community-based agriculture, and a staunchly politically-incorrect advocate for reclaiming freedom for traditional food growing and purchasing choices.
I am rereading my copy of his book Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal. I love this book, and I'll be posting now and then some quotes found within its pages. Here is today's:
-------------------------------
Joel Salatin, Chapter 1, pp. 4, 5 Everything I Want to do is Illegal
I am rereading my copy of his book Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal. I love this book, and I'll be posting now and then some quotes found within its pages. Here is today's:
-------------------------------
Our whole culture suffers from an industrial food system which has made
every part disconnected from the rest. Smelly and dirty farms are supposed
to be in one place, away from people, who snuggle smugly in their cul-de-sacs
and have not a clue about the out-of-sight-out-of-mind atrocities being
committed to their dinner before it arrives in microwaveable four-color labeled
plastic packaging. Industrial abattoirs need to be located in a
not-in-my-backyard place to sequster noxious odors and sights. Finally,
the retail store must be ocated in a commercial district surrounded by lots of
pavement, handicapped access, public toilets and whatever else must be required
to get food to people.
The notion that animals can be raised, processed, packaged and sold in a
model that offends neither our eyes nor noses cannot even register on the
average bureaucrat's radar screen. Or, more importantly, on the radar of
the average consumer advocacy organization. Besides, all these single-use
megalithic structures are good for the gross domestic product. Anything
else is illegal.
Joel Salatin, Chapter 1, pp. 4, 5 Everything I Want to do is Illegal
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Debunking the Propaganda: Genetically-Modified Crops No Answer to World Food Crisis
To hear it as told by some folks, genetically-modified foods are the ultimate solution to the world food crisis.
As long as you turn your brains off.
Seriously. This is the best thing since sliced Frankenbread...right?? In fact, it might get so "improved" someday that all we'll have to do is pop open a tube of Engineered Foodpaste, and voila...no thought processes required whatsoever!
The hype is no accident...it takes marketing efforts of monumental proportions to pull off this sort of snow job. I'm sure it took some think tank a while to come up with "hey, I know! We can tout this as the solution to the world's hunger problem...that should help play down the whole GMOs-as-plague-and-pestilence angle, don'tcha think?"
Any worldwide "solution" should examine the power machines, special interests, and political fishhooks associated with anything with that big a marketing budget to back it up.
You just have to see this article at the Millions Against Monsanto site http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_13589.cfm
Genetically modified foods have been a hotly-debated subject of much controversy for some years now. Below are some of the claims widely used to manipulate the world markets towards full acceptance of GM crops -- but research is showing that the claims are quite a different story than reality--
The Propaganda states these things:
1. GM crops are becoming the norm.
However, the evidence is to the contrary.
2. GM crops produce increased yields.
Again, the evidence is to the contrary. In fact, there is proof they are decreased.
3. GM crops require the use of less pesticide.
Wrong. "Although there may have been some initial reductions, recent U.S. data suggest that herbicide use in GE crops is now significantly higher than it was prior to their introduction. Weeds that have developed resistance to the herbicide used with GE crops now infest several million acres, forcing greater herbicide use. Insect-resistant GE crops have reduced overall insecticide use somewhat, but on balance GE crops have not reduced our dependence on pesticides. "http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080618/news_lz1e18gurian.html
4. GM animal feed is more cost-effective/cheaper.
Nope. It's rocketing skyward.
5. It is futile to try to enforce a European "zero-tolerance" policy for non-approved GMOs.
Wrong. The GM conglomerates want that to be the assumption, but it is far from reality.
6. GM crops are more drought-resistant.
False. There is no alternative to good land management. Genetic modification has so far not produced a commercial drought tolerant variety in any type of crop.
The article cited (above) contains the links to the different points above.
Aside from the horrific and irresponsibly-dodged health issues at the heart of GM seeds and crops, has no one considered the absurdity of the argument for****complete reliance on a few GM mega-conglomerates as the controlling forces to world wide food supplies??****
Um...hello?
Makes a person realize just what they have at stake here and why the claims that lack supporting evidence are simply bypassed by the propaganda machines. The GM companies represent big money worldwide. There has been much invested, so they stand to have much to lose...if anyone dares touch them. So far, they have painted themselves as the Providers of the People, the Innovators of the Global Solutions, blah blah blah. Their marketing alone is its own machine.
It is not difficult to remember a lesson from history...that propaganda is not quite the same thing as advertising...it's far more exaggerated and unaccountable; propaganda utilizes (often politically) a selective manipulation (or manufacture) of information, rife with ommissions of full disclosure, typically casting a dictator in a benevolent light as being the author of a "solution for the masses." Look at history's dictators..the benevolent fathers of their people...Stalin, Lenin, Castro, H--ler, Chairman Mao.
Show me where these benevolent dictators have solved the problems they claimed to address historically (other than by wiping out the population so history could be rewritten by their own revisionists)...and maybe then I'll be more willing to trust "Good Father Monsanto"
Until then, I'll just continue thinking for myself and forgoing the communal Koolaid and the microchip implant.
As long as you turn your brains off.
Seriously. This is the best thing since sliced Frankenbread...right?? In fact, it might get so "improved" someday that all we'll have to do is pop open a tube of Engineered Foodpaste, and voila...no thought processes required whatsoever!
The hype is no accident...it takes marketing efforts of monumental proportions to pull off this sort of snow job. I'm sure it took some think tank a while to come up with "hey, I know! We can tout this as the solution to the world's hunger problem...that should help play down the whole GMOs-as-plague-and-pestilence angle, don'tcha think?"
Any worldwide "solution" should examine the power machines, special interests, and political fishhooks associated with anything with that big a marketing budget to back it up.
You just have to see this article at the Millions Against Monsanto site http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_13589.cfm
Genetically modified foods have been a hotly-debated subject of much controversy for some years now. Below are some of the claims widely used to manipulate the world markets towards full acceptance of GM crops -- but research is showing that the claims are quite a different story than reality--
The Propaganda states these things:
1. GM crops are becoming the norm.
However, the evidence is to the contrary.
2. GM crops produce increased yields.
Again, the evidence is to the contrary. In fact, there is proof they are decreased.
3. GM crops require the use of less pesticide.
Wrong. "Although there may have been some initial reductions, recent U.S. data suggest that herbicide use in GE crops is now significantly higher than it was prior to their introduction. Weeds that have developed resistance to the herbicide used with GE crops now infest several million acres, forcing greater herbicide use. Insect-resistant GE crops have reduced overall insecticide use somewhat, but on balance GE crops have not reduced our dependence on pesticides. "http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080618/news_lz1e18gurian.html
4. GM animal feed is more cost-effective/cheaper.
Nope. It's rocketing skyward.
5. It is futile to try to enforce a European "zero-tolerance" policy for non-approved GMOs.
Wrong. The GM conglomerates want that to be the assumption, but it is far from reality.
6. GM crops are more drought-resistant.
False. There is no alternative to good land management. Genetic modification has so far not produced a commercial drought tolerant variety in any type of crop.
The article cited (above) contains the links to the different points above.
Aside from the horrific and irresponsibly-dodged health issues at the heart of GM seeds and crops, has no one considered the absurdity of the argument for****complete reliance on a few GM mega-conglomerates as the controlling forces to world wide food supplies??****
Um...hello?
Makes a person realize just what they have at stake here and why the claims that lack supporting evidence are simply bypassed by the propaganda machines. The GM companies represent big money worldwide. There has been much invested, so they stand to have much to lose...if anyone dares touch them. So far, they have painted themselves as the Providers of the People, the Innovators of the Global Solutions, blah blah blah. Their marketing alone is its own machine.
It is not difficult to remember a lesson from history...that propaganda is not quite the same thing as advertising...it's far more exaggerated and unaccountable; propaganda utilizes (often politically) a selective manipulation (or manufacture) of information, rife with ommissions of full disclosure, typically casting a dictator in a benevolent light as being the author of a "solution for the masses." Look at history's dictators..the benevolent fathers of their people...Stalin, Lenin, Castro, H--ler, Chairman Mao.
Show me where these benevolent dictators have solved the problems they claimed to address historically (other than by wiping out the population so history could be rewritten by their own revisionists)...and maybe then I'll be more willing to trust "Good Father Monsanto"
Until then, I'll just continue thinking for myself and forgoing the communal Koolaid and the microchip implant.
Monday, June 16, 2008
My Green Ideal
...is to learn to do the best with what we have...naturally. The Dervaeses at Path To Freedom are my heros in this respect. They are my ideal of Being Green.
Remember this song?
No, it's not always easy being Green... :)
In my last post, I spoke of not labeling myself with particular labels. "Green" has come to mean many things in many different contexts. Our (my husband's and my) focus is to be gentle consumers within a natural framework, and to cut out the middle man between the ground and the table. We are lovers of nature. We feel a keen sense of responsibility in doing this sustainably, our ideal being that there would be no waste that's not converted back into a cycle of regeneration. Our goal is also simplicity.
We're spoiled to modern conveniences, but would rather innovate and find ways to retain some of those conveniences rather than do completely without, or do everything from scratch. This will allow us to focus on the things we most WANT to be hands-on with...because we can't be masters at every skill. We also see relying on others' skills in areas we're not gifted in, and doing the swapping of services, or bartering items for such.
Path to Freedom is one of the first sites I ever found when looking online for resources on sustainability, urban farming, and homesteading. They are still a daily read.
This recent post of theirs details many of the techniques they've been practicing and had success with for many years. For us, this family's success in using what they have and living gently...and abundantly...right where they live, is a high-water mark for us. Please check out the post, and their site, if you haven't already. It's always informative, as well as encouraging!
I didn't want to leave a false impression that my family is not concerned with being "green." It's a label that can be so broad, much like the term "health nut." If you hear someone is a health nut, it can mean anything from eating well, to being focused on running marathons, to fasting regularly, to going bra-less and living in a treehouse...heehee. There are some things perceived as being Green that I'm not on the same page as. I don't want to pay carbon taxes, ever. I don't want to give up any of my constitutional, or personal, freedoms because someone else determines they're don't serve a "green" agenda. I'm not ready to give up toilet paper. I love my ovaries and if they ever serve to grant my husband and myself other children, I do not feel irresponsible and like that is taxing the world population. I don't ride a horse to work, and can't afford to buy another vehicle that uses less gasoline. I eat meat...just less of it till the day when we can raise our own. I don't see cows as the bane of the world food balance...I see Big Ag as such. Grassfed animals are at the top of my preference list as far as agricultural systems, and I won't ascribe to the humble cow or sheep the crowding out of wildlife and the bane of overgrazing...I ascribe that to the people who mismanage them.
I could go on and on, but in some ways, I'm greener...or maybe could be called weirder...than most folks I know. Some of my green views come from sources other than back-to-the-earth movements. Our family follows the instructions in the Torah, and there are many instructions there that we're not used to embracing...but want to. There is a prohibition against mixing "types"...as in breeding a zebra with a camel. We find this an instruction of great import in a day in which pig DNA is being combined through genetic mutilation directly into broccoli or any other number of animal/plant combinations. That is a mixing of unlike types. How can we practice not eating those, if they're not labeled? We must grow our own pure DNA foods. This is ancient "green" principle that, for my family, is a command we must keep.
Another prohibition is against mixing types of clothing materials. Strands of unlike clothing materials are not supposed to be woven together and worn. A lot of synthetic materials are made from the fusing of unlike materials, such as plant based and petroleum based. That of necessity tends us towards using natural fiber materials. Since trying to rid my closet of the synthetic things, I've found I have mostly cotton and linen clothes now...which my body really appreciates! When I have to wear my work uniform, which is to a large degree polyester, my body feels like it's screaming...it's not natural. To some, this is a really weird thing, and does it fall under the category "green"? I have no idea, but to me, it is.
In being green, I don't subscribe to a mob mentality. There is a lot of integrity within the category "green," but there are also politics and specific agendas in different arenas. I can see some things being abused in the name of Green, and one of the ones that most concerns me is eugenics. Eugenics, or the "selecting out" of those things that are weaker or diseased for the supposed survival of the masses or the "greater good," is something of great concern to me. I've heard these sometimes grouped under "green" agendas. That troubles me. Limiting the freedoms of families to determine for themselves how many children they have is another of my concerns. I understand the arguments for and against these issues, which have often been lumped under the greater category "green" when discussing worldwide issues...but those are where I exit the label. When Green becomes a religion, buh-bye. My voice is just as important in the green movement, and my concern is the preservation of individuality within our fragile yet resilient world. It's a revolution that's about returning to basic freedoms, not promoting the loss of them.
I see true "greenness" as being the earning of privilege. It's a privilege to live on this earth...it's not a throw-away resource that can be gobbled like a can of Pringles and then tossed to the curb. The domino-effect on our health and society has been rapid since the rise of Big Ag as "the answer"...um, what was the question?? We believed the propaganda, and didn't remember that "Green" to Monsanto means greenbacks/dollars, not an Eden of plenty.
Watch out for "green" as a proganda trend for the mega-corporations. They are NOT driven by a heart change..they are driven to repackage those items from China in a more palatable-to-the-conscience way. It helps their bottom line to put just enough of these items in their stores to ease the conscience of the consumer who is still for the most part still unaware of exactly what their food contains and where it came from. Watch out for these corporations because they still are a law unto themselves. They still are under-the-table dealing with impunity. We need our justice systems to work for accountability beyond the walls of lawyers these big guys can afford. It is important to hold everyone to the same standards of justice...even the megalopolies and the Monsantos...so that Green can be something not fringe, but a fundamental element of our society and its relationship to the earth that sustains its populations. It needs to be a living community as diverse as the community we find here online, where we can agree or disagree, but still work to better our world and our own square of dirt or cement. At that point, many of us who're on the fringes of an out-of-control mainstream society will not be the outsiders, but the leaders and teachers.
Green, if it was not already, is becoming a necessity for many of us, now. Hopefully, it will be an individual expression as well as a thriving community. We're in that muddle where Green is still being defined, and there are growing pains and still a lot of Goliaths for shepherd boys to face down. So, we embrace being Green. But don't pass us any Koolaid ;-)
Remember this song?
No, it's not always easy being Green... :)
In my last post, I spoke of not labeling myself with particular labels. "Green" has come to mean many things in many different contexts. Our (my husband's and my) focus is to be gentle consumers within a natural framework, and to cut out the middle man between the ground and the table. We are lovers of nature. We feel a keen sense of responsibility in doing this sustainably, our ideal being that there would be no waste that's not converted back into a cycle of regeneration. Our goal is also simplicity.
We're spoiled to modern conveniences, but would rather innovate and find ways to retain some of those conveniences rather than do completely without, or do everything from scratch. This will allow us to focus on the things we most WANT to be hands-on with...because we can't be masters at every skill. We also see relying on others' skills in areas we're not gifted in, and doing the swapping of services, or bartering items for such.
Path to Freedom is one of the first sites I ever found when looking online for resources on sustainability, urban farming, and homesteading. They are still a daily read.
This recent post of theirs details many of the techniques they've been practicing and had success with for many years. For us, this family's success in using what they have and living gently...and abundantly...right where they live, is a high-water mark for us. Please check out the post, and their site, if you haven't already. It's always informative, as well as encouraging!
I didn't want to leave a false impression that my family is not concerned with being "green." It's a label that can be so broad, much like the term "health nut." If you hear someone is a health nut, it can mean anything from eating well, to being focused on running marathons, to fasting regularly, to going bra-less and living in a treehouse...heehee. There are some things perceived as being Green that I'm not on the same page as. I don't want to pay carbon taxes, ever. I don't want to give up any of my constitutional, or personal, freedoms because someone else determines they're don't serve a "green" agenda. I'm not ready to give up toilet paper. I love my ovaries and if they ever serve to grant my husband and myself other children, I do not feel irresponsible and like that is taxing the world population. I don't ride a horse to work, and can't afford to buy another vehicle that uses less gasoline. I eat meat...just less of it till the day when we can raise our own. I don't see cows as the bane of the world food balance...I see Big Ag as such. Grassfed animals are at the top of my preference list as far as agricultural systems, and I won't ascribe to the humble cow or sheep the crowding out of wildlife and the bane of overgrazing...I ascribe that to the people who mismanage them.
I could go on and on, but in some ways, I'm greener...or maybe could be called weirder...than most folks I know. Some of my green views come from sources other than back-to-the-earth movements. Our family follows the instructions in the Torah, and there are many instructions there that we're not used to embracing...but want to. There is a prohibition against mixing "types"...as in breeding a zebra with a camel. We find this an instruction of great import in a day in which pig DNA is being combined through genetic mutilation directly into broccoli or any other number of animal/plant combinations. That is a mixing of unlike types. How can we practice not eating those, if they're not labeled? We must grow our own pure DNA foods. This is ancient "green" principle that, for my family, is a command we must keep.
Another prohibition is against mixing types of clothing materials. Strands of unlike clothing materials are not supposed to be woven together and worn. A lot of synthetic materials are made from the fusing of unlike materials, such as plant based and petroleum based. That of necessity tends us towards using natural fiber materials. Since trying to rid my closet of the synthetic things, I've found I have mostly cotton and linen clothes now...which my body really appreciates! When I have to wear my work uniform, which is to a large degree polyester, my body feels like it's screaming...it's not natural. To some, this is a really weird thing, and does it fall under the category "green"? I have no idea, but to me, it is.
In being green, I don't subscribe to a mob mentality. There is a lot of integrity within the category "green," but there are also politics and specific agendas in different arenas. I can see some things being abused in the name of Green, and one of the ones that most concerns me is eugenics. Eugenics, or the "selecting out" of those things that are weaker or diseased for the supposed survival of the masses or the "greater good," is something of great concern to me. I've heard these sometimes grouped under "green" agendas. That troubles me. Limiting the freedoms of families to determine for themselves how many children they have is another of my concerns. I understand the arguments for and against these issues, which have often been lumped under the greater category "green" when discussing worldwide issues...but those are where I exit the label. When Green becomes a religion, buh-bye. My voice is just as important in the green movement, and my concern is the preservation of individuality within our fragile yet resilient world. It's a revolution that's about returning to basic freedoms, not promoting the loss of them.
I see true "greenness" as being the earning of privilege. It's a privilege to live on this earth...it's not a throw-away resource that can be gobbled like a can of Pringles and then tossed to the curb. The domino-effect on our health and society has been rapid since the rise of Big Ag as "the answer"...um, what was the question?? We believed the propaganda, and didn't remember that "Green" to Monsanto means greenbacks/dollars, not an Eden of plenty.
Watch out for "green" as a proganda trend for the mega-corporations. They are NOT driven by a heart change..they are driven to repackage those items from China in a more palatable-to-the-conscience way. It helps their bottom line to put just enough of these items in their stores to ease the conscience of the consumer who is still for the most part still unaware of exactly what their food contains and where it came from. Watch out for these corporations because they still are a law unto themselves. They still are under-the-table dealing with impunity. We need our justice systems to work for accountability beyond the walls of lawyers these big guys can afford. It is important to hold everyone to the same standards of justice...even the megalopolies and the Monsantos...so that Green can be something not fringe, but a fundamental element of our society and its relationship to the earth that sustains its populations. It needs to be a living community as diverse as the community we find here online, where we can agree or disagree, but still work to better our world and our own square of dirt or cement. At that point, many of us who're on the fringes of an out-of-control mainstream society will not be the outsiders, but the leaders and teachers.
Green, if it was not already, is becoming a necessity for many of us, now. Hopefully, it will be an individual expression as well as a thriving community. We're in that muddle where Green is still being defined, and there are growing pains and still a lot of Goliaths for shepherd boys to face down. So, we embrace being Green. But don't pass us any Koolaid ;-)
Thursday, April 17, 2008
No, Mr. President, You Are Wrong
"In a democracy, I realize you don't need to talk to the top leader to know how the country feels. When I go to a dictatorship, I only have to talk to one person and that's the dictator, because he speaks for all the people."
Jimmy Carter, to journalist when questioned about controversy about his meeting with Hamas
No, Mr. President,
This is what some Americans don't grasp.
Dictators DICTATE.
They did not acquire their power and position by logical reasoning and equitable representation. There is a path of dead bodies that represents their preference of power vs. public representation.
They produce change by external motivation, and their people do NOT have the right to free speech, gatherings, representation, or to defend themselves against an aggressor.
Let's please get this straight once and for all...
Jimmy Carter, to journalist when questioned about controversy about his meeting with Hamas
No, Mr. President,
This is what some Americans don't grasp.
Dictators DICTATE.
They did not acquire their power and position by logical reasoning and equitable representation. There is a path of dead bodies that represents their preference of power vs. public representation.
They produce change by external motivation, and their people do NOT have the right to free speech, gatherings, representation, or to defend themselves against an aggressor.
Let's please get this straight once and for all...
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Raw Milk Restrictions, Raw Nerve
Here they are. Here are the villains at Organic Pastures Dairy. Remember, it's a crime to provide clean food straight from grass to cow to consumer any more. It's a crime to drink a glass of untampered milk.
Also remember that everyone else wants a piece of the pie, especially all interests "protected" by the FDA and to get that, well...you need to legislate the dickens out of any bovine operation focused more on knee-deep pastures than bureaucracy. Well, that, and the fact that for some reason, too many Americans have swallowed the brainwashing that everything, yea everything that gets consumed in our slickly-marketed and commercialized world HAS to be processed, or something is just...well...not normal, right?
...Ahem...
In 2007, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 1735 into law. This was a blow to consumer choice in his state, relating to raw milk.
See a video protesting that move (below)
Recently, it would appear the raw milk dairies are under a concentrated and stepped-up attack from government authorities who "milk" this opportunity for all it's worth to prey on the public's ignorance of the role of healthy bacteria and raw foods on human health -- and the endemic modern disconnect/ignorance of the progression of any of our basic foods from pasture to dinner plate.
We need to wake up and insist upon our own right to determine what goes on our plates and how it is raised. It's more than a red flag waving when government regulation insists on being the decision maker FOR us, and criminalizes we the public for exercising our own basic human right to choose and control our own foods.
We can NOT let this one go, folks. If we allow any bureaucracy to make these choices FOR US, it's no longer our government, but rather our Big Brother.
The raw milk issue is just one of many important issues. Yet it is fundamental. We must not allow the system to self-perpetuate a runaway algae bloom of legislation designed to feed the corporate interest machine, at the expense of losing our individualism and innovation (not to mention independence and Yank ingenuity).
Here is a good article from the Boston Globe about this issue. Anyone who has experienced the joy of unadulterated foods, including raw milk, knows that we must preserve our right to raise them, AND purchase them freely.
If you have a local dairy providing sumptuous pasture and producing a superior raw milk product, befriend them! They are likely good folks who are quietly and steadfastly swimming against the tide of mass agribusiness and its hydra clones.
Here's Greenwood Farms website, a Missouri farm page I ran across during a web search. They, like many other dairies, have responded to the consumer demand for raw milk. Those look like some really contented Jersey cows!
Mmmmm... now I'm craving a creamy glass of cold milk :)
Also remember that everyone else wants a piece of the pie, especially all interests "protected" by the FDA and to get that, well...you need to legislate the dickens out of any bovine operation focused more on knee-deep pastures than bureaucracy. Well, that, and the fact that for some reason, too many Americans have swallowed the brainwashing that everything, yea everything that gets consumed in our slickly-marketed and commercialized world HAS to be processed, or something is just...well...not normal, right?
...Ahem...
In 2007, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 1735 into law. This was a blow to consumer choice in his state, relating to raw milk.
See a video protesting that move (below)
Recently, it would appear the raw milk dairies are under a concentrated and stepped-up attack from government authorities who "milk" this opportunity for all it's worth to prey on the public's ignorance of the role of healthy bacteria and raw foods on human health -- and the endemic modern disconnect/ignorance of the progression of any of our basic foods from pasture to dinner plate.
We need to wake up and insist upon our own right to determine what goes on our plates and how it is raised. It's more than a red flag waving when government regulation insists on being the decision maker FOR us, and criminalizes we the public for exercising our own basic human right to choose and control our own foods.
We can NOT let this one go, folks. If we allow any bureaucracy to make these choices FOR US, it's no longer our government, but rather our Big Brother.
The raw milk issue is just one of many important issues. Yet it is fundamental. We must not allow the system to self-perpetuate a runaway algae bloom of legislation designed to feed the corporate interest machine, at the expense of losing our individualism and innovation (not to mention independence and Yank ingenuity).
Here is a good article from the Boston Globe about this issue. Anyone who has experienced the joy of unadulterated foods, including raw milk, knows that we must preserve our right to raise them, AND purchase them freely.
If you have a local dairy providing sumptuous pasture and producing a superior raw milk product, befriend them! They are likely good folks who are quietly and steadfastly swimming against the tide of mass agribusiness and its hydra clones.
Here's Greenwood Farms website, a Missouri farm page I ran across during a web search. They, like many other dairies, have responded to the consumer demand for raw milk. Those look like some really contented Jersey cows!
Mmmmm... now I'm craving a creamy glass of cold milk :)
Blog Content Theft
Interesting...
Will just left a comment on my recent Water Purification post alerting me that it had been stolen by a spam scraper site.
Thank you, Will, for the heads up! I enjoyed finding your blog, too, and I'll be back for a closer read :)
Spam scraper site? Still in the grip of my computer ignorance, I had to look up the term. I'm still not sure I really understand it, but I'm clear enough on the concept that someone reprinted my material in whole without permission.
That is one reason I haven't put any of my poetry here, or any of my published writings, not that there are that many of them (there aren't), but in any case I'm sticking to homesteading journaling here.
I formerly belonged to a writers' group, after having shopped several groups in my location at that time, and the one I ended up joining was necessarily kept very small for the sake of the very same thing...the tendency of some folks to be a bit too free and loose with OTHERS' material...and abscond with it. As it was, each of us in the group wrote in a distinctly different style (and often genre) from the others; and yet even so, over the course of time creative similarities showed up in our works, simply from familiarity.
Plagiarism is something I've insisted upon avoiding...with my daughter (in her years of schoolwork), with our family's correspondences, and in my own writing. I really appreciate others citing sources and providing links in some form to give credit where credit is due.
I'll try to contact someone at the spam site (if that's possible?) to ask that my article (though it was simply some ramblings about some water purification questions) be removed and not related to product links.
After a basic Google search, which was necessary since I don't even know what a spam scraper IS, I pulled up this article by Jonathan Bailey , a writer for Plagiarism Today, titled The 6 Steps to Stop Content Theft. It looks pretty helpful, except I'll probably need a Blogging For Dummies guide to get past the first few sentences. Even so, maybe it'll help someone else out here!
If you have any advice or experience with this, I welcome your input! Just make sure to use very small words...lol...and I'll try to wrap my brain around the unfamiliar :)
Will just left a comment on my recent Water Purification post alerting me that it had been stolen by a spam scraper site.
Thank you, Will, for the heads up! I enjoyed finding your blog, too, and I'll be back for a closer read :)
Spam scraper site? Still in the grip of my computer ignorance, I had to look up the term. I'm still not sure I really understand it, but I'm clear enough on the concept that someone reprinted my material in whole without permission.
That is one reason I haven't put any of my poetry here, or any of my published writings, not that there are that many of them (there aren't), but in any case I'm sticking to homesteading journaling here.
I formerly belonged to a writers' group, after having shopped several groups in my location at that time, and the one I ended up joining was necessarily kept very small for the sake of the very same thing...the tendency of some folks to be a bit too free and loose with OTHERS' material...and abscond with it. As it was, each of us in the group wrote in a distinctly different style (and often genre) from the others; and yet even so, over the course of time creative similarities showed up in our works, simply from familiarity.
Plagiarism is something I've insisted upon avoiding...with my daughter (in her years of schoolwork), with our family's correspondences, and in my own writing. I really appreciate others citing sources and providing links in some form to give credit where credit is due.
I'll try to contact someone at the spam site (if that's possible?) to ask that my article (though it was simply some ramblings about some water purification questions) be removed and not related to product links.
After a basic Google search, which was necessary since I don't even know what a spam scraper IS, I pulled up this article by Jonathan Bailey , a writer for Plagiarism Today, titled The 6 Steps to Stop Content Theft. It looks pretty helpful, except I'll probably need a Blogging For Dummies guide to get past the first few sentences. Even so, maybe it'll help someone else out here!
If you have any advice or experience with this, I welcome your input! Just make sure to use very small words...lol...and I'll try to wrap my brain around the unfamiliar :)
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Old Guys Suck
Apologies for the crude title. This was the slogan I recently saw in traffic on a bumper sticker.
The very same day, I had learned that a friend who had been battling terminal cancer had just been hospitalized and was not expected to live through the night. His wife and three sons were gathered at his bedside for what ended up being two more days, as they had final conversations (as possible), and stood vigil. One son is in high school and the other two are young college students. At 1 A.M. this morning, I received the call that my friend's life was over.
To a young person, my friend was probably an "old guy." To me, and likely anyone beyond the threshold of "adult," my friend died young. He should have had the pleasure of seeing his children settled in their lives, and been there for the ups and downs of their own households through the years. He should have grown old and gray with his wife until they automatically repeated remembered stories, bickered about the forgotten details, and comforted each other in loss. He should have lived to be "an old guy."
I will miss you, my friend. Your wry humor, your ability to emphathize but not pity. Your ability to admit failings. To argue but not hold grudges. To genuinely care about people.
I live in Florida, the state where 75 is the median age. Stop signs are sometimes run. Some retirees drive at a painful crawl, in any traffic lane, while others barrel onward, blind to pedestrians and changing lights. The older crowd has its definate opinions, and by age 75, those opinions are pretty set in stone, for the most part. I've had the pleasure of meeting many of our older citizens in the workplace, and their histories are fascinating...their experience vast and varied. Some of our elders mellow smoothly; others ripen sharply. Hairlines separate (or disappear), wrinkles and gray hairs march on, gravity becomes a force to be reckoned with, and the less glamorous physical complaints become routine. Some seniors can run a mean marathon and look smart in the latest styles, while others fight "rusting out" or have to opt for replacement "parts." Others are happy being unfashionable, wearing comfortable shoes, and relaxing the gut.
Our seniors are eligible for the best lunch counter specials; they'll often congregate around the local donut shop, keep to the golf course, greet you at the supermarket checkout, run charities, teach, volunteer, cook, care for other generations of family members, or defy all universal standards of Speedo propriety while chatting up women half their age at the beach. Some hone their professions, polish portfolios, amass assets. Some invent and develop cures. Some tour and make speeches. Some become President. Collectively, they pack political muscle. At any rate, our elders survived enough years to now be "old."
There is a collective memory, experience, and wisdom present in our senior community, and more often than not, too few of the younger generation who pause to listen and learn from them before they're silenced by the passing of time. We lose much, if that is the case. Our aging are deserving of dignity and respect, rather than cheap shot slogans.
Despite the snickers that may be generated by a passing bumpersticker (or not), I'm reflecting on the life of my friend, and how it seems to have been cut many years too short. It's not old guys that "suck"....but rather my friend's no longer having the option of ever being one.
Missing you, Gary. I thanked you in person for all you did for us in the hard times. I hope you are awarded eternal comforts beyond this life.
The very same day, I had learned that a friend who had been battling terminal cancer had just been hospitalized and was not expected to live through the night. His wife and three sons were gathered at his bedside for what ended up being two more days, as they had final conversations (as possible), and stood vigil. One son is in high school and the other two are young college students. At 1 A.M. this morning, I received the call that my friend's life was over.
To a young person, my friend was probably an "old guy." To me, and likely anyone beyond the threshold of "adult," my friend died young. He should have had the pleasure of seeing his children settled in their lives, and been there for the ups and downs of their own households through the years. He should have grown old and gray with his wife until they automatically repeated remembered stories, bickered about the forgotten details, and comforted each other in loss. He should have lived to be "an old guy."
I will miss you, my friend. Your wry humor, your ability to emphathize but not pity. Your ability to admit failings. To argue but not hold grudges. To genuinely care about people.
I live in Florida, the state where 75 is the median age. Stop signs are sometimes run. Some retirees drive at a painful crawl, in any traffic lane, while others barrel onward, blind to pedestrians and changing lights. The older crowd has its definate opinions, and by age 75, those opinions are pretty set in stone, for the most part. I've had the pleasure of meeting many of our older citizens in the workplace, and their histories are fascinating...their experience vast and varied. Some of our elders mellow smoothly; others ripen sharply. Hairlines separate (or disappear), wrinkles and gray hairs march on, gravity becomes a force to be reckoned with, and the less glamorous physical complaints become routine. Some seniors can run a mean marathon and look smart in the latest styles, while others fight "rusting out" or have to opt for replacement "parts." Others are happy being unfashionable, wearing comfortable shoes, and relaxing the gut.
Our seniors are eligible for the best lunch counter specials; they'll often congregate around the local donut shop, keep to the golf course, greet you at the supermarket checkout, run charities, teach, volunteer, cook, care for other generations of family members, or defy all universal standards of Speedo propriety while chatting up women half their age at the beach. Some hone their professions, polish portfolios, amass assets. Some invent and develop cures. Some tour and make speeches. Some become President. Collectively, they pack political muscle. At any rate, our elders survived enough years to now be "old."
There is a collective memory, experience, and wisdom present in our senior community, and more often than not, too few of the younger generation who pause to listen and learn from them before they're silenced by the passing of time. We lose much, if that is the case. Our aging are deserving of dignity and respect, rather than cheap shot slogans.
Despite the snickers that may be generated by a passing bumpersticker (or not), I'm reflecting on the life of my friend, and how it seems to have been cut many years too short. It's not old guys that "suck"....but rather my friend's no longer having the option of ever being one.
Missing you, Gary. I thanked you in person for all you did for us in the hard times. I hope you are awarded eternal comforts beyond this life.
Monday, April 23, 2007
News Buzz: Pollinators Making Headlines
Colony Collapse Disorder. On my way home from errands, I flicked on the radio talkshow AM station, and what to my wondering ears did I hear but a discussion about our disappearing pollinators, and the honeybee crisis now being dubbed "Colony Collapse Disorder."
On and on went the grim statistics, in a very informative and enlightening fashion, for about ten minutes, which is pretty good news coverage on any day for the humble bee. A Reuters article was read, etc., and people were bid to call in with any suggestions as to the mystery culprit (the exact killer of the honeybees has yet to be identified). And.....THEN...whatever-the-boneheaded- co-anchor's-name-was chimes in with his own "statistics," stating something along the lines of "keep in mind this crisis is not going to affect nearly the numbers of crops suggested. In fact, most of our crops are pollinated in other ways, or are hybridized and do not require pollinators at all. The honeybee is simply not relied upon at all today as a pollinator, and the main function of the honeybee now is simply a cash honey crop." He gave no supporting data.
(And if you buy that un-informed opinion, perhaps you'll love your waterfront view from the Brooklyn Bridge you've just been sold...)
Here are a few of the headlines related to our current and proven pollinator crisis. I have some theories as to some of the contributing factors in this pollinator disappearance we've been experiencing. I'm sure it will manifest in a rant in an upcoming post. But first, here's the news and the conjecture weighing in through news reports around the world.
If you have any newer news info on this, or your own surmises, please chime in! This is a critical issue. Our government is about to dish out a few more million dollars of our money to address this. Perhaps we can add our ideas at a much more sustainable price...
Vanishing honeybees mystify scientists
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN1930946620070422?feedType=RSS
Honeybees in jeopardy
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/BUSINESS/704220309
BEES FOR HIRE
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070423/NEWS/704230347
What's killing the bees?
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/business/content/business/epaper/2007/04/22/a1f_bees_0422.html
Mobile phones massacring honeybees?
http://tech.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1293113.php/Mobile_phones_massacring_honeybees_
Honey bees are dying off
http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MDYmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTcxMTkyMjUmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXky
Investigating Colony Collapse Disorder
http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/509
On and on went the grim statistics, in a very informative and enlightening fashion, for about ten minutes, which is pretty good news coverage on any day for the humble bee. A Reuters article was read, etc., and people were bid to call in with any suggestions as to the mystery culprit (the exact killer of the honeybees has yet to be identified). And.....THEN...whatever-the-boneheaded- co-anchor's-name-was chimes in with his own "statistics," stating something along the lines of "keep in mind this crisis is not going to affect nearly the numbers of crops suggested. In fact, most of our crops are pollinated in other ways, or are hybridized and do not require pollinators at all. The honeybee is simply not relied upon at all today as a pollinator, and the main function of the honeybee now is simply a cash honey crop." He gave no supporting data.
(And if you buy that un-informed opinion, perhaps you'll love your waterfront view from the Brooklyn Bridge you've just been sold...)
Here are a few of the headlines related to our current and proven pollinator crisis. I have some theories as to some of the contributing factors in this pollinator disappearance we've been experiencing. I'm sure it will manifest in a rant in an upcoming post. But first, here's the news and the conjecture weighing in through news reports around the world.
If you have any newer news info on this, or your own surmises, please chime in! This is a critical issue. Our government is about to dish out a few more million dollars of our money to address this. Perhaps we can add our ideas at a much more sustainable price...
Vanishing honeybees mystify scientists
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN1930946620070422?feedType=RSS
Honeybees in jeopardy
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/BUSINESS/704220309
BEES FOR HIRE
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070423/NEWS/704230347
What's killing the bees?
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/business/content/business/epaper/2007/04/22/a1f_bees_0422.html
Mobile phones massacring honeybees?
http://tech.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1293113.php/Mobile_phones_massacring_honeybees_
Honey bees are dying off
http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MDYmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTcxMTkyMjUmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXky
Investigating Colony Collapse Disorder
http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/509
Thursday, March 29, 2007
An Untapped and Very-Available Resource
OK, here is something I've been wondering about for a longggg time.
The use of public grass areas along roadways.
Part of my childhood was spent in Mississippi, and where we lived required driving if you wanted to get anywhere else. At that time, there were long stretches of highway split by long broad grassy areas. At some point, probably in the sweltering summer heat, I remember actually noticing those areas because they were a beautiful, softly undulating carpet of crimson clover. This imprinted indelibly on my impressionable mind. With few billboards as competition, and with long stretches of Nothing Much between populated areas, it was simply a beautiful sight.
Thankfully, and through some foresight on the parts of beautification committees in different areas of the country, the practice of planting attractive and useful ground covers or wildflowers has caught on. You'll know it if you are fortunate enough to live in one of these areas. Were it not for the probability of body-slamming insects with stingers, you'd just want to run out into one of those idyllic fields of blooms and extend your arms and fall backwards right into them. (I tried that in a farmer's wildflower patch once as a kid, though, and discovered the concept of Chiggers. I think they thought I was a free buffet.)
I absolutely love crimson clover and I also love long stretches of roadway planted in wildflowers.
I've been paying more attention to all the work that seems to go into maintaining these roadways, probably because of the little fine print on our yearly tax bill that makes me gape at its cost. I see the great equipment (state-of-the art!) they're using to keep those areas of grasses and weeds mowed, too. While stuck in nose-to-bumper rush hour traffic, those guys on the upgraded mowing machines are doing circle eights and having way too much fun zipping down the green stuff. Free suntan, too.
That led me to wonder why all that land goes to waste...literally. The old wrappers and cans that somehow drift to the road's edge despite the Litter Fee warning signs, also have to be picked up. Unless there's an "adopt-a-highway" group actively volunteering this on rotation, that cost goes into the tax burden, too.
And if you love grazing animals, especially domesticated livestock, AND if you've ever priced the cost of that good grazing land, you begin to see all that green green overgrown grass that extends on roadsides and median fields with a verrrrryyyyyyyyy different eye. (A somewhat Green eye??)
It was news to me that there are already areas, usually with difficult-to-maintain issues, where grazing animal herds are utilized for keeping the grasses and weeds down. There are herders who specialize in doing just that. Fascinating! It would seem that the cost of "rent-a-sheep" comes in well below the cost of humans doing it by hand or machine in those areas. Maybe it's being utililzed on a larger scale than I'm aware, but it's not being utilized along those hundreds of miles of highways in my area.
Why can't those areas be used for profitable and "green"-friendly purposes, since there is SO much of them? Here are some of the types of things I've thought of to use those areas for...I know there would be specific challenges to overcome with each, but with land as such a precious commodity, couldn't these things REALLY benefit our community, or at least be used to bring DOWN our taxes by adding to our cities' coffers?
Ideas for those long stretches of grass areas bordering/in the median of roadways:
1. Wildflowers, YES! already being done? Why not harvest the seeds for sale or re-sowing? Why not put honeybees in a fenced area here and there (for safety), or allow beekeepers to, and have loads of honey from it? Maybe not in the most congested and polluted roadways, but think of all those stretches of road that go through less-traveled areas.
2. Trees, trees, trees. Think of how this would offset the effects of pollution and emissions. I don't have statistics, but someone could come up with them.
3. Along that line of thinking further, what about income-producing trees?
Maples, for maple sugar.
Nut orchards.
Fruit orchards, where possible.
Woodlot trees for harvesting on a rotational basis every-so-many years for sale, lumber, pulpwood, etc.
Large stands of native trees for wildlife preservation.
A tree farm...raising starters-to saplings for reforestation elsewhere. Or saplings of species that take a long time to grow.
Ornamentals, preferably a good mix...for beauty and also their pollution-offset potential. This is being done somewhat in urban areas, such as the use of crape myrtles, etc, but I'm talking thick stands of them. Maintenance a worry? Let some sheep graze there with moveable fencing?
4. Moveable fencing and small livestock. WHY isnt all that grass being EATEN??
5. Easy crops. There's the land, folks. If you have to drive off the road because Dude-in-the-Semi is barreling down on you too fast, how about a great buffer of cornfield, or beanfield, or miles and miles of blueberry bushes?? What if people could feel free to pick-your-own in certain areas? What about growing flowers for cutting, or bulbs for sale, or niche crops like ginseng or ginger or echinacea or elderberry?
6. Grains. Like I said, this is prime cropland. Make it sustainable and use organic sense, but grains could be grown. How about non-altered grains? How about harvesting them...it can't cost more than what's spent on those mowers and machines that mow grass with NO profit as a result. They could be sold as feed for humans or animals, or at the very least, hay.
7. Hay. Its own category. This seems to me to be the easiest one yet, for the less-adventurous. That should really cut down on all those hay shortages.
8. Here's a big one. Crops for alternative fuel manufacture. That's a lot of land out there for the politicians who are of the Can't-Do mindset. I don't know HOW any of these ideas would be implemented, but surely if we can put a man on the moon and clone things, someone can figure out how to do this.
9. In certain areas, make it a wind farm. No, I'm not meaning cramming turbines-on-towers across America's picturesque heartland, but here and there, why not do it for supplementing or replacing existing power sources?
10. Butterfly plants, grown in a naturalized way. Think of the peaceful and healing experience this would be in areas where there is not quite so heavy traffic.
11. OK, I know nothing about this subject, but surely along hilly or incline areas there could be man-made streams whose downhill force could move baffles and power small energy collectors. (Sorry, don't know the official word for those)
12. Harvesting the sun. I'd only want this if it could be done aesthetically, because we don't need one more nasty piece of stark technology to stare at. But if moveable solar panels or some such thing could be used, think of the very large areas that could harvest the sun.
13. Sunflowers. For so many reasons. But mainly because I think they're beautiful! (ha) They raise sunflowers in many parts of the world en masse. I saw them in Eastern Europe growing hundreds of acres at a stretch. They're useful for oil, fodder, so many things. And So beautiful. And therefore deserving of their own category ;-)
14. Coppicing. Growing large stands of trees such as hazelnuts or willow whose branches can be harvested at a certain growth stage for many uses, and then the plant regrows new ones in a recurrent cycle of harvest and regrowth.
15. The Hedgerow concept. Fast-growth and mixed plantings that will grow very tall, providing much needed shade, pollution off-set, wildlife habitat, and privacy, as well as being very good for the soil in that it reduces the wind's tendency to make certain areas a dustbowl or too arid for many things to grow. These would form dense "walls" of green and also would be a safety measure for cars that run astray.
16. Non-profit organizations "adopting" certain areas (by a drawing? permit?) for use in doing any of the above.
17. Depending upon the access conditions, community gardens.
Ok, there are so many more, and I know this sounds like my fairy-tale world, except it's not really because in my fairy-tale world there would be no long commutes and everyone would have land for their own mini-farms.
Lah-luh-lah-luh-laaaaahhhh....(happy little mind dance)...well, guess what? All the great solutions in the world had to start SOMEWHERE. :)
Many of these are probably being done in different places, but I'm just not aware of it.
What ideas do you have for how these areas could be used?
How about one lonnnnggggggg open-air local farmer's market?? :)
Uh oh. I hear wind chimes ringing briskly. I'm guessing the raccoon is doing gymnastics to get to the bird feeder (see prior post...feeder and wind chimes are attached to same shepherd's-crook plant post). I better see what's up before he decides my newly planted flats are open for exploration, too...
The use of public grass areas along roadways.
Part of my childhood was spent in Mississippi, and where we lived required driving if you wanted to get anywhere else. At that time, there were long stretches of highway split by long broad grassy areas. At some point, probably in the sweltering summer heat, I remember actually noticing those areas because they were a beautiful, softly undulating carpet of crimson clover. This imprinted indelibly on my impressionable mind. With few billboards as competition, and with long stretches of Nothing Much between populated areas, it was simply a beautiful sight.
Thankfully, and through some foresight on the parts of beautification committees in different areas of the country, the practice of planting attractive and useful ground covers or wildflowers has caught on. You'll know it if you are fortunate enough to live in one of these areas. Were it not for the probability of body-slamming insects with stingers, you'd just want to run out into one of those idyllic fields of blooms and extend your arms and fall backwards right into them. (I tried that in a farmer's wildflower patch once as a kid, though, and discovered the concept of Chiggers. I think they thought I was a free buffet.)
I absolutely love crimson clover and I also love long stretches of roadway planted in wildflowers.
I've been paying more attention to all the work that seems to go into maintaining these roadways, probably because of the little fine print on our yearly tax bill that makes me gape at its cost. I see the great equipment (state-of-the art!) they're using to keep those areas of grasses and weeds mowed, too. While stuck in nose-to-bumper rush hour traffic, those guys on the upgraded mowing machines are doing circle eights and having way too much fun zipping down the green stuff. Free suntan, too.
That led me to wonder why all that land goes to waste...literally. The old wrappers and cans that somehow drift to the road's edge despite the Litter Fee warning signs, also have to be picked up. Unless there's an "adopt-a-highway" group actively volunteering this on rotation, that cost goes into the tax burden, too.
And if you love grazing animals, especially domesticated livestock, AND if you've ever priced the cost of that good grazing land, you begin to see all that green green overgrown grass that extends on roadsides and median fields with a verrrrryyyyyyyyy different eye. (A somewhat Green eye??)
It was news to me that there are already areas, usually with difficult-to-maintain issues, where grazing animal herds are utilized for keeping the grasses and weeds down. There are herders who specialize in doing just that. Fascinating! It would seem that the cost of "rent-a-sheep" comes in well below the cost of humans doing it by hand or machine in those areas. Maybe it's being utililzed on a larger scale than I'm aware, but it's not being utilized along those hundreds of miles of highways in my area.
Why can't those areas be used for profitable and "green"-friendly purposes, since there is SO much of them? Here are some of the types of things I've thought of to use those areas for...I know there would be specific challenges to overcome with each, but with land as such a precious commodity, couldn't these things REALLY benefit our community, or at least be used to bring DOWN our taxes by adding to our cities' coffers?
Ideas for those long stretches of grass areas bordering/in the median of roadways:
1. Wildflowers, YES! already being done? Why not harvest the seeds for sale or re-sowing? Why not put honeybees in a fenced area here and there (for safety), or allow beekeepers to, and have loads of honey from it? Maybe not in the most congested and polluted roadways, but think of all those stretches of road that go through less-traveled areas.
2. Trees, trees, trees. Think of how this would offset the effects of pollution and emissions. I don't have statistics, but someone could come up with them.
3. Along that line of thinking further, what about income-producing trees?
Maples, for maple sugar.
Nut orchards.
Fruit orchards, where possible.
Woodlot trees for harvesting on a rotational basis every-so-many years for sale, lumber, pulpwood, etc.
Large stands of native trees for wildlife preservation.
A tree farm...raising starters-to saplings for reforestation elsewhere. Or saplings of species that take a long time to grow.
Ornamentals, preferably a good mix...for beauty and also their pollution-offset potential. This is being done somewhat in urban areas, such as the use of crape myrtles, etc, but I'm talking thick stands of them. Maintenance a worry? Let some sheep graze there with moveable fencing?
4. Moveable fencing and small livestock. WHY isnt all that grass being EATEN??
5. Easy crops. There's the land, folks. If you have to drive off the road because Dude-in-the-Semi is barreling down on you too fast, how about a great buffer of cornfield, or beanfield, or miles and miles of blueberry bushes?? What if people could feel free to pick-your-own in certain areas? What about growing flowers for cutting, or bulbs for sale, or niche crops like ginseng or ginger or echinacea or elderberry?
6. Grains. Like I said, this is prime cropland. Make it sustainable and use organic sense, but grains could be grown. How about non-altered grains? How about harvesting them...it can't cost more than what's spent on those mowers and machines that mow grass with NO profit as a result. They could be sold as feed for humans or animals, or at the very least, hay.
7. Hay. Its own category. This seems to me to be the easiest one yet, for the less-adventurous. That should really cut down on all those hay shortages.
8. Here's a big one. Crops for alternative fuel manufacture. That's a lot of land out there for the politicians who are of the Can't-Do mindset. I don't know HOW any of these ideas would be implemented, but surely if we can put a man on the moon and clone things, someone can figure out how to do this.
9. In certain areas, make it a wind farm. No, I'm not meaning cramming turbines-on-towers across America's picturesque heartland, but here and there, why not do it for supplementing or replacing existing power sources?
10. Butterfly plants, grown in a naturalized way. Think of the peaceful and healing experience this would be in areas where there is not quite so heavy traffic.
11. OK, I know nothing about this subject, but surely along hilly or incline areas there could be man-made streams whose downhill force could move baffles and power small energy collectors. (Sorry, don't know the official word for those)
12. Harvesting the sun. I'd only want this if it could be done aesthetically, because we don't need one more nasty piece of stark technology to stare at. But if moveable solar panels or some such thing could be used, think of the very large areas that could harvest the sun.
13. Sunflowers. For so many reasons. But mainly because I think they're beautiful! (ha) They raise sunflowers in many parts of the world en masse. I saw them in Eastern Europe growing hundreds of acres at a stretch. They're useful for oil, fodder, so many things. And So beautiful. And therefore deserving of their own category ;-)
14. Coppicing. Growing large stands of trees such as hazelnuts or willow whose branches can be harvested at a certain growth stage for many uses, and then the plant regrows new ones in a recurrent cycle of harvest and regrowth.
15. The Hedgerow concept. Fast-growth and mixed plantings that will grow very tall, providing much needed shade, pollution off-set, wildlife habitat, and privacy, as well as being very good for the soil in that it reduces the wind's tendency to make certain areas a dustbowl or too arid for many things to grow. These would form dense "walls" of green and also would be a safety measure for cars that run astray.
16. Non-profit organizations "adopting" certain areas (by a drawing? permit?) for use in doing any of the above.
17. Depending upon the access conditions, community gardens.
18. Additional pasture rental to existing farmers. I'm thinking about those large areas near bridges and overpasses, requiring a big big triangle of land in between. Any areas that are large enough to be fenced but are never pedestrian areas or close to the side of the road. All that wasted pasture...
Ok, there are so many more, and I know this sounds like my fairy-tale world, except it's not really because in my fairy-tale world there would be no long commutes and everyone would have land for their own mini-farms.
Lah-luh-lah-luh-laaaaahhhh....(happy little mind dance)...well, guess what? All the great solutions in the world had to start SOMEWHERE. :)
Many of these are probably being done in different places, but I'm just not aware of it.
What ideas do you have for how these areas could be used?
How about one lonnnnggggggg open-air local farmer's market?? :)
Uh oh. I hear wind chimes ringing briskly. I'm guessing the raccoon is doing gymnastics to get to the bird feeder (see prior post...feeder and wind chimes are attached to same shepherd's-crook plant post). I better see what's up before he decides my newly planted flats are open for exploration, too...
Monday, March 26, 2007
WalMartians...Little "Green" Men?
I have a weird sense of humor, so please don't take half of what I write seriously, or personally. I find irony and incongruence to be chuckle fodder. Even when things irk me or strike me as inane.
In my rooting around for a job within a decent driving distance, to help further our goals to GTHOOD (get the heck out of Dodge), I was summoned to Wallyworld's employment wonderland. A few months ago, I sent legions of online applications zipping into the ethersphere -- a smorgasborg of every conceivable local business possible having openings either full or parttime. After all, most places around here won't even take paper applications. This area has FEW if ANY real mom-and-pop businesses, and those that are here employ, well, Mom and Pop. I had to approach some of the Takeover Conglomerates if I hope to have any sort of gainful employment.
The wait has been nerve-wracking, and of course in the meantime has been the unfolding progression of interviews for The Job I Really Want. I'm down to two more left for that one before I know for sure. Drumrollll.....
But since there's NO guarantee of ANYthing, and since we reallllyyyyyy need the benefit of some shekels in the coffers, I'm interviewing at any and all available places.
Some of the folks I applied with months ago are now beginning to call me for interviews. Some are overlapping. I felt I needed to say this before mentioning that today I ventured into the vast monstrosity of mega-retail commonly referred to as WalM*rt. Yup. I feel like a traitor every time I go in there.
It's not that I don't like to buy on the cheap, or that I'm a purist to the degree that I'll decry any store with a paved parking lot. Yes, I've bought there. But I either have a twinge or an outright kick in the stomach to some degree doing so.
I've never cozied up to the salesman's soul. It all smacks of snake oil, slick willies, screaming advertisements, corporate sprawl, and meganopoly. There is nothing lovely, to me, about this sort of "progress." Especially when it equates into the buying up of rural America and the forcing out of regional tradesmen and distinctives.
Yes, we've all heard this rant before.
Cutting to the chase. I arrived early, in interview clothes. (Defined by me as Clothing Requiring Pantyhose)
A woman I'd never have pegged as a managerial sort came loping through, nabbed me, hustled me through The Secret Bowels of WalMartdom, and plopped me at a plastic table. She plucked a Ms. Doe from her floor station long enough to have her interview me from questions on a sheet of paper she'd never looked at before, and the said Ms. Doe circled her responses to my answers as I gave them. Just the general What Would You Do If sorts of interview queries.
As this process unfolded, there were stages of waiting. There were other people cycling through the room, and just overhead, from a TV suspended from the ceiling at an angle, was the constant drone of motivational speaking. A man, likely someone I should have recognized as An Important WalMartian (lol!), was trying to whip up enthusiasm with the typical hype. He was nearly at Old Tent Revival pitch, and I recognized the predictable Whip-It-Up charisma watch-the-birdie stay-with-me-folks manipulative business-speak. RAH, WalM*rt!! (I expected bunting and banners any minute) I did an instant tune-out, at least as much as possible with it being piped in from overhead.
During the first interview, I heard in another room what must have been a very large group of people, listening to a real speaker. There were no discernable words, and I'd not have known they were in an adjacent room but for the intermittent whoops and applause, all in concert...a little too much in concert? On cue? (Skeptic I am) Unless someone were running for office, this was a bit overly enthusiastic applause for the pre-caffiene hours of the day. Was someone internally on the campaign trail?
Then, from the overhead TV's nonstop preaching came the word that drew my attention back to the TV screen. "Sustainability!!!"
The Walpreacher was saying something along the lines of "Sometimes, from complaints and seemingly bad feedback we can learn something. You might have a whole lot of bad feedback, (blah blah blah) from people who seem to have nothing good to say about anything, but there are times we can hear that one that has some truth to it (blahblahblah)...such as SUSTAINABILITY!!"
He had my attention now.
And then he began the WalM*rtSaviorOfTheWorld has embraced Sustainability (and so on and so on) with a whole slick sell on the virtues of WalM*rt's leading the Saving of the World through its SUSTAINABILITY efforts blah blah blah.
It went on and on but I was filling out forms. I blanked after a couple of paragraphs from TV Man, but it had been enough to convince me that for some reason WMart is now using sustainability as it new cover slogan.
Does anyone remember the late 80s and early 90s when there was such an emphasis in the press about Made In the USA? WalM*rt was one of the biggest mouthpieces. I always look. I've never seen more Made in Chinas, Taiwans, Koreas, The Phillippines, etc in any one place. In fact you have to LOOK HARD for a Made in the US.
The word Sustainability rolled off me like an oiled slicker. It had the simple ring of Opportunistic Sales Approach written all over it.
I was sent back to a seating area in the store to await the availability of a manager for the second interview. I was joined by 4 other people. The Meeting should be over soon...all the managers were in it.
An hour went by. Sat, we did. And sat. And sat. Every once in a while, someone would appear to apologize for our having to wait so long. Inside, the managers, their meeting now exceeding two hours and going into the third, were still rapt and occasionally erupting on cue into little blurs of noise.
The young man seated beside me, also waiting for his interview, wondered aloud when the Sealed Room Meeting Participants would be done. ("After all, THEY were the one who had scheduled OUR interviews for precisely this time..." he said under his breath. How much longer would it be?)
After they've passed the Koolaid? I wondered... ;-)
(chuckling again...)
Non-managerial employees trailed faithfully in and out of the back rooms like soldier ants. Finally, we were summoned.
The rest went fine, but there was a tone to it all of having signed up with an evangelistic group. I get this feeling about some companies when seeing their intial line-up of cheerleaders. You have to kind of spray yourself down to not get caught up in the foreign language of it all. It's a mighty special Club, after all. I wondered if I would hear B movie zombie music at some point?
Heehee
I dutifully drove to the lab to offer my recycled beverage for drug screening.
I exited the Fort Knox of bathrooms and was dismissed by the lab tech.
It's good for them to be thorough. You do not want to assist part-time in KitchenWares under the influence.
Hahahahaha!
In my rooting around for a job within a decent driving distance, to help further our goals to GTHOOD (get the heck out of Dodge), I was summoned to Wallyworld's employment wonderland. A few months ago, I sent legions of online applications zipping into the ethersphere -- a smorgasborg of every conceivable local business possible having openings either full or parttime. After all, most places around here won't even take paper applications. This area has FEW if ANY real mom-and-pop businesses, and those that are here employ, well, Mom and Pop. I had to approach some of the Takeover Conglomerates if I hope to have any sort of gainful employment.
The wait has been nerve-wracking, and of course in the meantime has been the unfolding progression of interviews for The Job I Really Want. I'm down to two more left for that one before I know for sure. Drumrollll.....
But since there's NO guarantee of ANYthing, and since we reallllyyyyyy need the benefit of some shekels in the coffers, I'm interviewing at any and all available places.
Some of the folks I applied with months ago are now beginning to call me for interviews. Some are overlapping. I felt I needed to say this before mentioning that today I ventured into the vast monstrosity of mega-retail commonly referred to as WalM*rt. Yup. I feel like a traitor every time I go in there.
It's not that I don't like to buy on the cheap, or that I'm a purist to the degree that I'll decry any store with a paved parking lot. Yes, I've bought there. But I either have a twinge or an outright kick in the stomach to some degree doing so.
I've never cozied up to the salesman's soul. It all smacks of snake oil, slick willies, screaming advertisements, corporate sprawl, and meganopoly. There is nothing lovely, to me, about this sort of "progress." Especially when it equates into the buying up of rural America and the forcing out of regional tradesmen and distinctives.
Yes, we've all heard this rant before.
Cutting to the chase. I arrived early, in interview clothes. (Defined by me as Clothing Requiring Pantyhose)
A woman I'd never have pegged as a managerial sort came loping through, nabbed me, hustled me through The Secret Bowels of WalMartdom, and plopped me at a plastic table. She plucked a Ms. Doe from her floor station long enough to have her interview me from questions on a sheet of paper she'd never looked at before, and the said Ms. Doe circled her responses to my answers as I gave them. Just the general What Would You Do If sorts of interview queries.
As this process unfolded, there were stages of waiting. There were other people cycling through the room, and just overhead, from a TV suspended from the ceiling at an angle, was the constant drone of motivational speaking. A man, likely someone I should have recognized as An Important WalMartian (lol!), was trying to whip up enthusiasm with the typical hype. He was nearly at Old Tent Revival pitch, and I recognized the predictable Whip-It-Up charisma watch-the-birdie stay-with-me-folks manipulative business-speak. RAH, WalM*rt!! (I expected bunting and banners any minute) I did an instant tune-out, at least as much as possible with it being piped in from overhead.
During the first interview, I heard in another room what must have been a very large group of people, listening to a real speaker. There were no discernable words, and I'd not have known they were in an adjacent room but for the intermittent whoops and applause, all in concert...a little too much in concert? On cue? (Skeptic I am) Unless someone were running for office, this was a bit overly enthusiastic applause for the pre-caffiene hours of the day. Was someone internally on the campaign trail?
Then, from the overhead TV's nonstop preaching came the word that drew my attention back to the TV screen. "Sustainability!!!"
The Walpreacher was saying something along the lines of "Sometimes, from complaints and seemingly bad feedback we can learn something. You might have a whole lot of bad feedback, (blah blah blah) from people who seem to have nothing good to say about anything, but there are times we can hear that one that has some truth to it (blahblahblah)...such as SUSTAINABILITY!!"
He had my attention now.
And then he began the WalM*rtSaviorOfTheWorld has embraced Sustainability (and so on and so on) with a whole slick sell on the virtues of WalM*rt's leading the Saving of the World through its SUSTAINABILITY efforts blah blah blah.
It went on and on but I was filling out forms. I blanked after a couple of paragraphs from TV Man, but it had been enough to convince me that for some reason WMart is now using sustainability as it new cover slogan.
Does anyone remember the late 80s and early 90s when there was such an emphasis in the press about Made In the USA? WalM*rt was one of the biggest mouthpieces. I always look. I've never seen more Made in Chinas, Taiwans, Koreas, The Phillippines, etc in any one place. In fact you have to LOOK HARD for a Made in the US.
The word Sustainability rolled off me like an oiled slicker. It had the simple ring of Opportunistic Sales Approach written all over it.
I was sent back to a seating area in the store to await the availability of a manager for the second interview. I was joined by 4 other people. The Meeting should be over soon...all the managers were in it.
An hour went by. Sat, we did. And sat. And sat. Every once in a while, someone would appear to apologize for our having to wait so long. Inside, the managers, their meeting now exceeding two hours and going into the third, were still rapt and occasionally erupting on cue into little blurs of noise.
The young man seated beside me, also waiting for his interview, wondered aloud when the Sealed Room Meeting Participants would be done. ("After all, THEY were the one who had scheduled OUR interviews for precisely this time..." he said under his breath. How much longer would it be?)
After they've passed the Koolaid? I wondered... ;-)
(chuckling again...)
Non-managerial employees trailed faithfully in and out of the back rooms like soldier ants. Finally, we were summoned.
The rest went fine, but there was a tone to it all of having signed up with an evangelistic group. I get this feeling about some companies when seeing their intial line-up of cheerleaders. You have to kind of spray yourself down to not get caught up in the foreign language of it all. It's a mighty special Club, after all. I wondered if I would hear B movie zombie music at some point?
Heehee
I dutifully drove to the lab to offer my recycled beverage for drug screening.
I exited the Fort Knox of bathrooms and was dismissed by the lab tech.
It's good for them to be thorough. You do not want to assist part-time in KitchenWares under the influence.
Hahahahaha!
Sunday, March 4, 2007
A Note About Diversity, and 2 More Noteworthy Blogs
I'd like to mention two more noteworthy blogs. It just so happens their authors were the very first folks to encourage my chronicling here.
The first is Mylene's Citizen Earth Watch http://citizenearthwatch.blogspot.com/, who also has several other blogs going strong,
and the second is PALocalvore's Plants and Animals blog at http://palocalvore.blogspot.com/
I was looking over my growing list of favorites today, and marveling over the wonderful diversity among the authors. Everyone has a unique lifestyle, specific ways they've found to do the things they enjoy and believe in, and a different point of orientation, or perhaps motivation, for the Why and How they do them.
I want to say that I don't do blanket endorsements for everyone else's Why and How, and that's why you'll see my Greats List includes plenty of folks who'd likely have lively discussions on certain points of difference if all seated in the same room. There are the Gore objectors and the Gore idealizers and those who remain reticent of any particular political mention of anyone. There are different takes on the existence of or the scepticism about Global warming. There is a very wide spectrum of orientations of conscience and religion. There are different motivations and degrees of emphasis on the particulars of organics, vegetarianism vs. meat-eating, locally-grown fare, self-sufficiency, environmental responsibility, utilization of certain practices such as tilling/non-disturbance of soil/biodiversity/permaculture/sustainability and recycling/suburban space utilization vs. large acreage production...and so on and so on.
But this is not your standard disclaimer of "the opinions you see expressed in these links are not necessarily the opinions of this author's blog."
And it's also not a high-five for relativism, since some of the folks I enjoy the most are the most opinionated (OK, I mean passionate!) about their particular convictions.
But it's a congratulations that there are so many out there...and I didn't know this before...who are, indeed, forging ahead in their way and their spaces to create a better place on some level, and to BE CAPABLE THINKERS and DO-ERS rather than sitting on their philosophical haunches and complaining about the world, yet doing nothing.
In the end, we do what we love to do. The other reasons of doing things, though plentiful and worthy, are important, too. Thus continue the debates that make this life rich in learning to think and compare notes and improve. And the debates can get hot, that's for sure! But I'd rather be in the midst of Folks Who Aren't Lemmings and the melee that ensues from the stirring up of such collective wisdom and creativity than subscribe to a passive subsistance on modern bureaucratic rhetoric that most of the population never can see beyond. Being informed is not only a privilege, but a right we need to exercise. And exercising the freedom to explore our INDIVIDUALITY freely preserves our right to the ongoing dialogue, a return to health, and the ability to be the steward of our own little square of earth...be it an apartment window or several hundred acres.
THESE are the best sort of neighbors we can have. I love the web "neighborhood" that brings us all together. You're bringing out my best, and challenging me on many levels. My conclusions won't line up down the line completely with anyone else's, and I'm glad!
It takes a village. A very diverse, opinionated, talented, hard-working, intelligent, and VITAL village.
And we're the better for the conversation and connection!
The first is Mylene's Citizen Earth Watch http://citizenearthwatch.blogspot.com/, who also has several other blogs going strong,
and the second is PALocalvore's Plants and Animals blog at http://palocalvore.blogspot.com/
I was looking over my growing list of favorites today, and marveling over the wonderful diversity among the authors. Everyone has a unique lifestyle, specific ways they've found to do the things they enjoy and believe in, and a different point of orientation, or perhaps motivation, for the Why and How they do them.
I want to say that I don't do blanket endorsements for everyone else's Why and How, and that's why you'll see my Greats List includes plenty of folks who'd likely have lively discussions on certain points of difference if all seated in the same room. There are the Gore objectors and the Gore idealizers and those who remain reticent of any particular political mention of anyone. There are different takes on the existence of or the scepticism about Global warming. There is a very wide spectrum of orientations of conscience and religion. There are different motivations and degrees of emphasis on the particulars of organics, vegetarianism vs. meat-eating, locally-grown fare, self-sufficiency, environmental responsibility, utilization of certain practices such as tilling/non-disturbance of soil/biodiversity/permaculture/sustainability and recycling/suburban space utilization vs. large acreage production...and so on and so on.
But this is not your standard disclaimer of "the opinions you see expressed in these links are not necessarily the opinions of this author's blog."
And it's also not a high-five for relativism, since some of the folks I enjoy the most are the most opinionated (OK, I mean passionate!) about their particular convictions.
But it's a congratulations that there are so many out there...and I didn't know this before...who are, indeed, forging ahead in their way and their spaces to create a better place on some level, and to BE CAPABLE THINKERS and DO-ERS rather than sitting on their philosophical haunches and complaining about the world, yet doing nothing.
In the end, we do what we love to do. The other reasons of doing things, though plentiful and worthy, are important, too. Thus continue the debates that make this life rich in learning to think and compare notes and improve. And the debates can get hot, that's for sure! But I'd rather be in the midst of Folks Who Aren't Lemmings and the melee that ensues from the stirring up of such collective wisdom and creativity than subscribe to a passive subsistance on modern bureaucratic rhetoric that most of the population never can see beyond. Being informed is not only a privilege, but a right we need to exercise. And exercising the freedom to explore our INDIVIDUALITY freely preserves our right to the ongoing dialogue, a return to health, and the ability to be the steward of our own little square of earth...be it an apartment window or several hundred acres.
THESE are the best sort of neighbors we can have. I love the web "neighborhood" that brings us all together. You're bringing out my best, and challenging me on many levels. My conclusions won't line up down the line completely with anyone else's, and I'm glad!
It takes a village. A very diverse, opinionated, talented, hard-working, intelligent, and VITAL village.
And we're the better for the conversation and connection!
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