gini lester

2012-01-17T11:35:00.000-06:00

A Transition to ecological sustainability will come because of survival needs. As peak oil and climate change deepen there will be more unrest due to economics and disasters.

Transportation costs, natural disasters, crime and wars will cause increased food, fuel and utility prices. There will be a general ill health of United States citizens because of deepening pollution. There will be increased crime and terrorist action within the borders of the United States. This is inevitable. There is no power to stop this natural evolution. Most humans have proven to be unable to recognize these natural consequences. There is not enough numbers of those who do recognize it to halt or slow the trend.

There are pockets of cities, towns and communities that have started the move toward resilience, a few have a goal of transitioning to full sustainability. Sustainability as a definition will have to include protection from criminals, terrorists and corporate-government.

The solutions that could be put in place are dependent upon recognition of the possibilities. Unless those of us with recognition of consequences put means into place to assure our communities' freedom from corporate-government dominance we are sure to be the "unwashed masses", the slaves of the dominant group.

Corporations already recognize that there are finite resources and the actions that they have been taking over that past 50 years bears witness to this fact. There is already corporate national government take-over in the United States.

The occupy movement will have to grow. I suggest a marriage of the occupy and transition communities. Food production, garment making, local materials for housing and sun/wind electricity supply can be the focus of transition to support the occupy movements in their non-violent systems disruption.

2012-01-02T14:31:00.002-06:00

Starting a new journey. You may be part of it if you choose.

2011-11-19T12:10:00.000-06:00

And poof! — the whole thing becomes subjective.

Dear Culture,

So, you know I’m a fan of you. Really and truly; I think we should always be friends. But lately, we’ve been falling into this pattern. And it just isn’t working for me. So I thought maybe we could put it on the table and come up with something better. Because we’re cool like that.

So here’s the pattern: Somebody — a person, a company, an organization — does something. They create an advertisement, maybe, or they write a blog. They tell a joke or they release a product. Suffice it to say that somebody out there puts something out into the world. Something that is racist or sexist or sizeist or ableist or otherwise oppressive. Then, a second somebody — a person, a company, an organization — responds. Maybe the second somebody spearheads a petition. Maybe they start an international protest movement. Maybe they form their own Twitter hashtag and just repeatedly tweet WTF, WTF, WTF until someone starts paying attention. The point is, there’s this first group that missteps, and this second group that’s all, “social justice, you’re doing it wrong.” Ok? With me so far?

Read the rest of this essay at Miss Mary Max

2011-11-10T22:52:00.000-06:00

The thread "#Men call me things" round-up by feminist blogger Sady Doyle at Tigerbeatdown.
bottom line?
And they’re not doing it because we’re “weak” or “hypersensitive.” They hope to Christ that we’re weak and sensitive, because then harassment would shut us up, but they know that we’re really not. They go so incredibly hard against us — send the death threats, the rape threats, the over-the-top “you’re just a cum receptacle” — in the hopes that something, anything, will be enough to stop us. They know they have to push that hard. Because they know that we’re strong. They know that we’ve got thick skins. And they know that we won’t put up with bullshit. Which makes us scary, which makes us threatening, which makes us “aggressive” and “vicious” and “vindictive” bitches who might shut them down.

They don’t do this because women, and people who speak out against sexism online, are delicate, fragile flowers. They do this because we’re tougher than they can imagine, tougher than they’ll ever have to be, and tougher than they can personally handle. They need to shut us down, to scare us, because if we keep going we just might win. We just might end sexism. They’ll do anything to stop us from getting that done.

And that’s how I know it’s sexist when #MenCallMeThings. Just in case you wondered.

2011-10-31T13:23:00.002-05:00

CONSENSUS (Direct Democracy @ Occupy Wall Street) from meerkatmedia on Vimeo.

2011-10-26T17:48:00.002-05:00

2011-10-17T08:43:00.000-05:00

globalrevolution on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

NYC General Assembly So what is being done can be documented.

Declaration of Occupation So you can know what the bottom line is.

Money Channel So that you can watch and read online.

2011-10-04T10:42:00.000-05:00

I follow the blog global gorillas. I think Robb has it right about the occupy wall street movement. Nothing is agreed on except that making changes by going through government is not going to fix anything.
At the end of his post Robb says he thinks it would be cool to see the overthrow of a bank or US president in a manner similar to occupy wall street.
I had to think on this. At one point this kind of statement would be considered treasonous. I realized that it's not a treason in the 21st century. The government is owned by wall street, people are loyal only to their corporate brand.

2011-10-03T11:07:00.004-05:00

This is an article from the early 2Ks but it's no less true. The reason I put this here is because of this ad by Edward Norton.
I don't trust corporate propaganda. I also know how the perfect storm can form when a small organization utilizes a relatively inexpensive internet tool. This is how the suburban Seattle group Put THIS on the Map was able to produce an excellent video and go on a national tour (including a gig at the youth drop-in center at C.A.A.N. in Joliet, IL). PTotM used Kickstarter.

The Water For People group is using Crowdwise for their fundraising. The WFP group is a off shoot of American Water Works Association. Among the many other things they do they maintain the Drink Tap website.

Water. The oil of the 21st century. Protect it. Your life depends upon it.

2011-09-21T05:46:00.001-05:00

More about the Asch experiments.

2011-08-23T07:41:00.000-05:00

This is a link to a comprehensive article about GMOs.

GMOs are another subject to which all that I can do is say "ain't it a shame?" Much like climate change and pollution.

2011-07-23T07:07:00.000-05:00

"the man — described as "tall, blond and Nordic-looking" and speaking Norwegian — wore a police uniform and summoned youth campers to gather around him before he "just executed them.""

Terrorist. White man.

2011-07-07T10:35:00.002-05:00

This is a pretty good article. Nuclear power : Dangerous, Dirty and Expensive- 20 Key Facts.

But here's the thing. Nothing's going to change. Society's still gonna keep going down the same road, whether blindly or whether with our eyes open. We're still gonna go down the road.
Insanity.

Adbusters Magazine, Douglas Haddow 29 Jul 2008
"An amalgamation of its own history, the youth of the West are left with consuming cool rather that creating it. The cultural zeitgeists of the past have always been sparked by furious indignation and are reactionary movements. But the hipster's self-involved and isolated maintenance does nothing to feed cultural evolution. Western civilization's well has run dry. The only way to avoid hitting the colossus of societal failure that looms over the horizon is for the kids to abandon this vain existence and start over."

Ain't gonna happen. The vain existence will not be abandoned. Their parents didn't do it. Their grandparents didn't do it. They're not gonna do it.

Some people here and there will indeed abandon vain existence. We're laughed at, ridiculed. If people like us we're talked about in hushed tones reserved for friendly outcasts. We look different, act different and think different.

If you can live through the anxiety and fear when you abandon all that has been taught you then you have a chance. It won't be pretty or cool but you'll start to wake up and realize that you are indeed born for a reason. You get to decide what to keep and what to discard of what's been taught.

You were not born to consume things like advertisers have socialized you (and your parents, and their parents) into believing since you were born. You were not born to sign the next petition or join an organized pseudo movement. You were not born to bring others to church. You were not born to organize a resistence to the insanity of nuclear power. It's too late for that.

Wake up to the fact that the true calling of life is to live. Wake up to the animal you are and evolve. Or go with the rest -- if that's the kind of animal you are. There is no harm in it.

You know where to find me.

2011-06-17T21:42:00.000-05:00

Good interview.

2011-04-26T17:23:00.000-05:00

Carolyn Baker wrote in "Sacred Demise" " Thus, my experience with letting the full force of collapse into my body and mind has ultimately been one of expansive empowerment."

I hope to evolve into such an emotional realization. What recognition of collapse has done for me is set me on a journey without a map. I have found a few outposts in this journey, people who give tips and who understand the emotional turmoil one goes through when "reality bites".

With Spring comes cleaning. I'm cleaning out emotional baggage that serves no purpose but as energy drain. What goes out first? Numbers. Thinking that there will be a lot of people who recognize collapse and will help to transition communities for resilience.
What goes out next? Food. Thinking that if only there could be enough locally produced food, clean water and shelter that it can be worked out. What happened at Fukushima Prefecture enabled me to realize the fallacy in this thinking. And finally, control. Thinking that I can plan what to do next.

I have 2 friends with jobs who are at the point that their paychecks are not covering monthly expenses. I know it will get worse. I want them to recognize it and start plan B rather than scrapping by while thinking it will get better. They tell me "I can't think that way, if I do it's too overwhelming." I understand that anxiety.

I wonder what happened to survival and realize that the anxiety is not a reflection of a survival instinct. It's not in our human experience to have a survival instinct unless it is flight or fright -- the immediate body response to a threat. What is happening to my two friends is more akin to desensitization. It's not about survival, it's about creature comfort.

What is happening to me is recognition of need of civil defense. For whatever reason I am just like that.

2011-02-12T08:48:00.000-06:00

2011-01-13T11:55:00.000-06:00

I'm not mainstream anything. One who lives in the moment cannot be because in living in the moment one must be guided by the spirit of love in the moment. It means that one cannot really depend on her attitudes, beliefs or traditions. It has been an interesting life, to say the least.
Why write this? My childhood classmates have found me. I did not have a happy childhood. A queer in Mississippi . . . need I say more? I'm having a jolt of ptsd with simply the thought.
This is to those children who venture to this blog from facebook.

Hello.

Nope. Not married. Ya'll don't let folks like me get married. Well . . . except in a few states. And it won't count in other states, and surely doesn't help come federal tax time.
Nope. No kids. I knew I was queer a loooooooonnnnngggggg time ago. Yep. When you knew me, even in elementary school. Queer.
Got a job. I'm a nurse in an intensive care unit. I do that one on one, deep intimacy that is required to help a person heal themselves. And, by the way, it doesn't matter to me how they pay for their hospitalization or the color of their skin, or their sexual orientation nor even how they gender identify. Don't care. It's about love.
Nope. Not christian. Not enough love in your organized christian churches for me. Some christians are beginning to come around but even they still have these rules that the spirit of love doesn't recognize.

Now you can decide if you want to friend me on facebook.

2011-01-03T10:01:00.001-06:00

Oh Great! I am allergic to aspartame, and I can't protect myself from it because of the essentially non-existent labeling laws.

Just another sitting duck.

2010-11-29T09:25:00.001-06:00

Reteaching Gender and Sexuality from PUT THIS ON THE MAP on Vimeo.

I am so tired of the belief that we must be just like everyone else. I don't think everyone else has it oh so together anyway.
Is life really about buying the next hair product and watching dancing with the stars in order to have something safe to talk about at an underpaid corporate job? Is life really about producing kids for corporations to socialize via television to buy more product? Is life really about going to a religious institution each week to reinforce there is an US (right) and THEM (wrong) creating a false sense of belonging?

2010-11-15T09:39:00.001-06:00

I was on my way to work, in a rush and without having eaten breakfast. The roads were light so I had a few extra minutes and there it was . . . a drive in. Coffee. Donut. 1 minute. And that is only one reason why we (society) won't transition. There are many other reasons.

I know I can survive. I can build shelter and grow/preserve food & medicine/herb. But for some damn reason I am driven to gather those of like mind with me in this process. I just don't know yet how it will manifest.

http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/a-resilient-community/crash-course-in-resilience

A cooperative. 60 people -- 1000.00 bucks each. Purchase a restaurant type building. Each home will grow food, and what is not used is given to the central building where it will be preserved and cooked, Monday through Friday, lunch and supper for you to "drive by" and pick up on the way home from work. You will have to provide your own protein portion at home. You will also exchange your (non-plastic) serving ware when you pick up the food. It will be a zero waste process.

Slow Food in a Fast Way.

To be considered is what to do with the left over food. Given away in a soup kitchen (where the recipients must help in a community garden and/or clean up the central building? Or some other type of community service for the cooperative (will work for food.)

As an aside but yet kinda related, Martine writes (trust me it will be a song one day) http://networkedblogs.com/axnJU

2010-10-12T09:06:00.000-05:00

I will use this definition of sustainability.
Done.

2010-09-02T13:50:00.000-05:00

Napping with the devils.

What is it about my willingness to become a messenger of sorts for the manipulations of various entities, like Sierra Club? Why am I willing to be a messenger with eyes open?

I see active messaging about the climate change becoming more mainstream every day. People are beginning to see that global warming is not a myth. This is because of evidence as presented by media advertising and as felt on the skin in summer and winter. We feel the need to "do something."

I see an active tug of war between Coal, Nuclear and Wind energy companies. I see the nuclear industry tweaking politicians while some people are opposing coal (for very good reasons) and supporting alternative energy sources (at least those alternative energy sources as deemed good by Sierra Club).

Here is your current President at one time a relative unknown from IL; A state that has more nuclear power plants than any other state in the nation. A President who is pro-nuclear. A President who appointed Steven Chu as Secretary of Energy. Here comes nuclear to save the day. Too bad about that pesky nuclear waste issue but there is the reprocessing option. And of course nuclear is so . . . safe?

Connect the dots.

Remember the GNEP meeting held in Joliet December, 2009? And that moratorium on building new nuclear plants in IL?

Yet I still haven't explained why I'm willing to nap with the devils. How about that.

2010-08-24T10:44:00.000-05:00

USA as currently organized is about money. That's the bottom line, the reality and is what motivates the owners of the debtors who are the bulk of her citizens. Money is the false god that underlie activities of many USA worker bees.

What does it mean for people like me. Those of us who've awakened somewhat and are actively transitioning to a saner way of living. What do we do about Money?

2010-07-30T09:27:00.000-05:00

Global warming and desert deaths.

2010-07-21T10:43:00.000-05:00

I saw a review for this book Local money today. It has me thinking.

Time is money. You have no money but have plenty of time and skills.
I have no money and need your skills for a project.
What would be a fair trade?

2010-06-04T09:38:00.004-05:00

Point to over there.
Let's boycott BP.
Rage if a raise in gas prices!

There is nothing to say because there is yet to drift into the collective psyche of we who live in the United States the reality of our (MY) part in this tragic accident. This Black Swan. This collection of measures to influence the bottom line on the accountants' books, and mistakes.

Ain't it awful.

Collapse. And even More Collapse.

What will I do? Well . . . I've heard the noun for people like me. I'm a prepper.

2010-05-18T17:29:00.001-05:00

This is an e-mail exchange I had today. Lxxxx sent an article about food and what's in food. Cxxxxx replied. So did I.

Thanks for this article, Lxxxx. As logical as it is, I still don't want to be a farmer. Cxxxxx
---
Exactly Cxxxxx! Most people don't. The simple numbers attest to that.
There are those of us who don't necessarily want to be farmers but who do want to foster a transition to a society where we can trust our food. Where we are not at risk of the collapse of our food supply system. Where our food is not the cause of our disease.
The biggest problem in trying to create a healthy community is that our lifestyles are dependent upon the easy availability of food. Fast food and processed food and microwave food. Easy feeding. I do not find it necessary to indict this lifestyle. It is the reason why I have time to do the things I do, like take a permaculture course, work full-time and grow a garden.
What I want to do is make a way for our community to have locally available, organic food, cooked and sustainably transported to your home.
By jove it's a green job! Does anyone want to give me money to make this happen?
Gini
----------------------------------
Well no one is offering money but what I did get by way of offering is the use of a spot of land behind a house. It's a beginning.

Can you imagine going shopping for food outside your back door? I know. I didn't either. Nor did I imagine cooking my own food, or learning how to preserve it and store it for winter, nor any other mundane (survival) thing like that.

So how's this? I can create a food forest and a kitchen garden for a client. I will maintain it, harvest it, preserve the bounty and recommend storage.

And I will cook it and bring it for supper. It's 21st century fast food! Well okay this idea involves all kinds of things like licensing and public health and all that stuff . . . and I still don't cook. But I can partner with one who does.

We can open a fast fresh food restaurant and using a portion of food from clients' gardens have food prepared and ready and all they have to do is come by with their own non-disposable plates, pick out what they want and take it home. This can't be a new concept. I'm sure it's done somewhere.

2010-04-27T08:10:00.002-05:00

It is so much scarier than a shortage of gasoline for cars.

I had some hope before Obama, people were mobilized. They had purpose, passion. They knew what they wanted and risked arrest to bring attention to their cause.

Obama, Inc. seduced so many, it continues to do so. So many are held in sway by Hopium. "Give him time". "Be patient". "You can't expect it to happen all at once." They seem to be in some kind of denial. They're unable to see the writing on the wall.

Naturally the "other side" is now emboldened to action, like the tea party movement. But in corporate controlled America the only winners are the corporations. It is illusion that you and I are on any side of win/lose. The only game being played is controllers and the controlled. Even Unions no longer work for the working class. They're in the pocket of corporations.

This is when I gave up. The Citizens United v FEC ruling pretty much put the nail on the coffin for me.

On Facebook my co-worker wrote:

"Not sure what to do. Sell my house or not? A little scared. Not sure..with hubby not working it is really overwhelming to me... not sure if I am crumbling I just feel like I can't hang on anymore...ugh...hell I don't know maybe I just need to get drunk and calm down...:-)"

Her friends' replies:

eek!! an go where? --

i hear ya -it does suck- it is a lot for one person to handle- HANG IN THERE --
you have alot of pressure on you. I will be saying a prayer for you tonight. --
Hang in there...its a tough decision but you have to do what is best for you and your family. --

Sweetie I am sorry that you're going through this...all I can say is do what's best for you...if you have equity in your home you might be able to remortgage to help pay up things..its a scary time for a lot of people...Will pray that you are able to keep your home... --

Hugs to you! I am here if you need an ear or a shoulder. --

Hang in there ... we will all pray for you. --

thinking of you. --
-------------------------
The message I sent to her:

Despite the prayers and the hopes and the getting drunks, something may or may not break.
The economy will not get better.
File for bankruptcy. Do not worry about having good credit. It is not a reflection on you or your family. It is not that you are good or bad. These things are lies that keep you paying bills with money that should be used for your own survival. This is a false god.
Get to basic survival mode. You and your family need air, water, food and you'll need shelter. Sell the house, move into an apartment that has a place where you can grow your own food.
Be prepared to give others this advice.
--------------------------------------------
We need to transition so much faster but I so don't know how to do that. Do I shout "the sky is falling?" or do I just take care of me and mine?

2010-04-22T09:25:00.000-05:00

Rich Whitney Green Party Candidate for Governor of Illinois. "Thoughts on the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day."

2010-04-09T11:35:00.000-05:00

Can you imagine today designing something that will still feed your grandchildren's children in 20 years?

urban-permaculture

Food forest gardening

This is my vision.

gini

2010-04-03T09:27:00.002-05:00

A Warm Embrace - The Great Bell Chant from R Smittenaar on Vimeo.

2010-03-22T08:03:00.001-05:00

Just another news source of articles of interest to me. Today there's this one on third party politics and this one on peak oil and energy.

2010-03-21T00:05:00.000-05:00

Acceptance.
I think I will feel much better after I give up hope. I don't believe it means to give up activities.

2010-03-16T09:17:00.001-05:00

Another head hangs lowly,
Child is slowly taken.
And the violence caused such silence,
Who are we mistaken?
But you see, it's not me, it's not my family.
In your head, in your head they are fighting,
With their tanks and their bombs,
And their bombs and their guns.
In your head, in your head, they are crying
In your head, in your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie,
Hey, hey, hey. What's in your head,
In your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, oh, dou, dou, dou, dou, dou
Another mother's breakin',
Heart is taking over.
When the vi'lence causes silence,
We must be mistaken.
It's the same old theme since nineteen-sixteen.
In your head, in your head they're still fighting,
With their tanks and their bombs,
And their bombs and their guns.
In your head, in your head, they are dying
In your head, in your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie,
Hey, hey, hey. What's in your head,
In your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, oh, oh, oh,
Oh, oh, oh, oh, hey, oh, ya, ya-a
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Can we change our heads? I say yes! Habits are hard to break but break them we can.
What are you thinking for?

2010-03-06T10:43:00.001-06:00

2010-03-06T08:23:00.002-06:00

2010-03-02T08:29:00.001-06:00

Cool Joliet is a grassroots, citizen and group coalition for environmental advocacy in Joliet and the surrounding area. I am very proud to be a member of Cool Joliet!

I followed Carolyn Baker's news list for a while (and still would if I had the time). It was through her listserve that my eyes opened. I felt compelled to do something even if it's a losing battle. The spontaneous formation of Cool Joliet was a natural occurrence from the awakening . . . and you know things do not happen in solitary. (We're quantum-like, actually if you're paying attention). My ego would like to claim some credit for Cool Joliet's creation. Me, Jan Gehrig, Jeanne Phelan and Lorna Paisley. One or two of you may have even been at the first general meeting of Cool Joliet where I showed the 1st powerpoint. (A first for CJ and for me.)

Growth is slow and some don't have patience. We have no money yet still we've accomplished many things. The working goal for Cool Joliet was to get the city of Joliet to sign onto the U.S. Council of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. I am proud to announce that yesterday, March 1, 2010 Joliet became the 50th city in Illinois to sign the agreement! Joliet is a Cool City!

Celebrations to follow, especially on Earth Day April 22, 2010.

2010-02-17T09:27:00.000-06:00

This story summarizes it for me. But I don't see anything changing because of intelligent action on the part of federal government. I think there's a cluster fuck a-happening there. I hold on to some hope for certain localities though.

Here's hoping. Still doing what I can and not knowing day to day what that may be.

2010-01-24T13:34:00.007-06:00

One of the things that we could do in Joliet is a green inventory. The city and the sierra club have some type of measuring stick or standards definition but for the purposes of educating us the 10 points outlined in this blog is simple enough. I have not read the details, I've only looked at the outline. We're sure to point out needs, goals and progress in Joliet with these 10 points.

Below, I'm looking at these points in terms of what will lend itself to building resilience for Joliet neighborhoods. I write of resilience rather than of being sustainable. Resilience is obtainable in our lifetimes, sustainability is a goal for our nation and indeed, planet. Having a sustainable Joliet is achievable but probably not in our lifetime. What we may be sure of is that we will be putting the cornerstones in place for building sustainability.

Gini

Plentiful Parks
We have parks in Joliet. Some are great, some not so much. I think 2 fruit or nut trees in each park, where appropriate, will do much for carbon sink, respiration and food. Do you remember how happy you were as a kid to happen upon a pear tree to bite into one of those succulent "just exactly right" pears? Of course nuts will bring the squirrels but haven't you tasted squirrel stew? Yummy stuff.

Efficient Public Transportation
The bus companies are doing as much as they can given the price of oil and other economic factors. Understand that I'm coming from the peak oil school of thought (peaked). I don't see how the companies can do much more unless they have a new source of fuel. I do not think that bio-fuels are the way to go because of many factors; global negative effect on air, water, soil (food), not to mention it does NOT meet our (u.s.) current demands, nor will it ever.
There is green jobs opportunity in meeting the transportation needs of our community. Zipcar or Igocars come to mind, or even a new type of company to fill in, especially during the times when there is no bus service, for those who don't drive. Conversion of garbage to fuel is promising for Joliet. This would take care of several issues; landfill toxins and size, providing fuel for trucks to pick up compostable garbage with excess fuel sold to Jo-Cars :-).

Quality Public Space
I believe this is already in the planning by an outside developer though because of the economy it is on hold (if understanding is correct). A ped mall in downtown Joliet is the bomb! Awesome. Joliet is a hub for sure. But we need sub-hubs - Joliet is very large.

Bike Lanes
Bike lanes and secure bikes racks. Also share-a-bike -- another nice green job opportunity.

High-profile Green Buildings
This is already in the works with Centerpoint and other organizations (like Will County Forest Preserve, for example). I believe the green roof concept needs to be incorporated into flat top warehouses. These flat topped buildings impede rainwater instead of allowing all the rain to recharge water tables. I believe designing to mitigate this side effect of flat topped warehouses is a wonderful, proactive very high profile selling point for a green job opportunity. A young creative architect could become the Frank Lloyd Wright of green designed warehouses.

Comprehensive recycling and composting programs
Will County Land Use is already well ahead on recycling but a green job can be developed as the go-between of businesses/homes and services provided by WCLU. I touched on my hopes for composting above. There are 3 new food composting facilities planned to be built on the south side of chicago that will require yard wastes. I hope that Joliet is not too lured by the money that will be offered to take away our yard wastes. We can develop our own yard waste composting for our own community gardens. The data needs to be collected within the next 2 years for planning.
As a side note: Retrofit for diesel trucks in the Region (CMAP Region) is a must because of increased truck traffic due to the intermodal developments, composting facilities developments and the 355 route.

Mixed-use and Infill Development
I believe that each neighborhood having within walking distance a food forest (including kitchen garden) and play area is the route to go. Conversion of existing Joliet parks perhaps? I'm sure there are many other ideas that people have.

Green Leadership
Create multi-party environmentally awake politicians by educating Jolieteans.

Smart Energy Policies
Development of hydropower and using flat-topped buildings to hold solar panels are two things that Joliet (and Will County) can easily consider developing. This is what will create not only a resilient but a sustainable Joliet. It is this that will show that Joliet is The City that Leads the Midwest into the 21st century.

Good Green Fun
Local food sold at the hub and sub-hub farmer's markets. Food Forests with swings and hammocks and poets and folksingers. Community gardens with tool lending sheds. Restaurants growing their own organic food and composting the food wastes. Herbs, edible flowers in planters on street corners. Statues and other public art for winter. Winter vegetable growing huts. Warming shelters for those who're walking/biking throughout winter. Games, exhibits, outdoor "walk to movies". A children's space outside where the air quality is no longer a factor for those with asthma.

And a measurable decrease in incidence of asthma, cancer, obesity, and stress as a result of our actions.

2010-01-14T10:33:00.002-06:00

The more I learn the more I am aware of what won't be happening. What goes up must come down. What brought the U.S. down? Corporate control. I do not see it changing because I don't see political reform happening fast enough for survival. What I have feared may be part of the solution. Tribal Communities. I don't know, but if I look at tribes without my fear and prejudice of associating them with KKK or other militia groups (both foreign and domestic) then I can see a tribal community working.

I don't see people in corporations as being bad people or even aware that they are as much of the problem as the victim. I know the nature of denial. I won't be engaging in much corporate bashing, it's a waste of my energy. Those who are able to expend energy to bring about a change in laws in the U.S. pertaining to corporate personhood have my support.

I've recently run across a site that has been a source of good information. I appreciate your willingness to put it out there Mr. Robb. This is why I think some form of healthy organizing is needed soon; 5 to 10 years or in case of a sudden event.
I also see potlach as something to be seriously looked at.

2009-12-14T11:42:00.000-06:00

An easy education. Nothing is as simple as this seems. But when it comes down to survival it really is.

Who owns water

2009-12-14T11:27:00.000-06:00

Who Owns Water. It is like people in government have lost all sense of survival. Where are their brains? Do they not even think?

Perhaps not. Perhaps with all the pollution in their bodies they cannot think anymore or they're deluded or they rationalize and somehow turning over control of water to a private company makes perfect sense and is the right thing.

The public however cannot continue to allow this to happen. It is a matter of our personal survival.

Perhaps with all the pollution in our bodies we cannot think anymore. Or we're deluded or we rationalize and somehow allowing government to continue unmonitored makes perfect sense and is the right thing.

2009-11-09T10:11:00.000-06:00

Absolutely awesome. One could grow food all year long! No agri-business GMO food at all.

2009-11-02T10:10:00.000-06:00

video link address
Today I became a FB fan of The Church of The United Pagan/Wiccan Alliance. My most fundamentalist christian FB "friend" probably un-friended me and another is in shock. It is that they think it has something to do wth their christian satan.

This is the kind of Buddhist Pagan I am. Scientific nature. When one really tunes into nature all kinds of magical things occur.

2009-10-08T15:24:00.000-05:00

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

This is fun. Sometimes I just have to give a listen just for fun.

2009-10-07T14:54:00.000-05:00

Follow the history It is after all the scary time. Halloween. Prepared to be nervous.

2009-10-07T14:00:00.000-05:00

I've been quite disturbed over the past few years about clouds that I've been seeing. Strange enough phenomenon that this 50+ year old sky watcher has videoed them, too. Now I'm seeing I'm not alone in this un-ease. The most recent sighting was a funnel cloud (called a cold cone) that stayed in one spot for over 45 minutes. The other clouds around it did what normal clouds do; Move and change shape. This funnel cloud didn't. It wasn't a tornado. I have video. I really don't know how long it stayed there because we arrived at our destination. We were traveling I80W in Iowa toward Iowa City 2 weekends ago.

Strange things are being done. We don't know what it is. It is not something new for the United States to do questionable things. History bears witness to what the U.S. Federal Government has done to its citizens. We are powerless over these things.

2009-09-18T18:14:00.000-05:00

I feel so much better now that I've given up all hope. What did I give up hoping on? Well, this country. It has fallen. I've known it for a quite a few years, but I'm a slow learner.

I'm a member of the Green Party and I'll continue to do what I can for the Green Party. At least I feel good when I vote.

I see I'm not the only one. I read this article today.

My solution? Continue to transition to self sustaining.

2009-09-10T15:52:00.000-05:00

Wow! Just plain cool. I'm thinking that in Will County with all those flat top warehouse the mirrors can be placed, rain gutters to catch and direct rainwater, and grass on the roofs!

2009-09-07T23:29:00.000-05:00

I am compelled to do what I can. I read this article today. It was after I put the finishing touches on this website.

I hope it makes a difference to some starfish..

2009-08-30T23:05:00.003-05:00

This is only a beginning.
Self sustaining it is not but I'm hoping to be well on the way by this time next year.

I am creating a new life. One will be able to see the cycles, the respirations, the seasons of this new life.

Right now the house is just a fledgling seed gathering its nutrients.

2009-08-30T21:50:00.001-05:00

Everyone has to begin somewhere.
This is the where.

2009-08-28T20:25:00.000-05:00

Today the books came in. Peterson's Fieldguides, 4 of them; Bugs, Trees/Shrubs, Wild Edibles, Medicinal Plants/Herbs. Then of course one must know how to preserve bounty and collect/store seeds. Now I've the books for that as well.
And if Fukuoaka writes a guide with clues for us, so too will I read his book.

Today I ate tomatos from the garden I planted on my lawn. Quite exciting for this girl of concrete.

I was given many sprigs of food plants that were that were to be compost. So I dug up a portion of my yard in a ridiculous shape (Babs calls South America) and put the plants in holes within. The leftover young sprigs I put in flower beds.

Onions and chard and cauliflower and basil and brussel sprouts and corn and squash and peas and beans and stuff I don't remember what.

I learned that the corn was preferred by rabbits. Basil goes to flower quickly and onions have to be planted a little deeper. Squash likes to climb, cantelope likes to crawl and watermelon leaves are pretty. In the beds chard is colorful and in my mouth it's delicious.

Brussel sprouts. Who knew?! They're tall and large and strong and still growing. I can only get a peek of the roses behind. Peas and Beans? well . . . maybe next year.

So I've been experimenting and gathering and casting. I've collected experience, necessary materials and very promising possibilities.

2009-07-29T09:13:00.000-05:00

Rob Sherman! Ain't nothing to do but to love a guy like this.

2009-07-26T23:30:00.002-05:00

Spirituality and Sustainabilty. These go hand in hand. This quest to be a nurse to humanity is bringing me even more to myself and is taking me more out of myself - both at once. There is no way I could undertake the next thing if it were about me alone. The only way to accomplish the mission of "I know not what it is", is by
getting out of my-self.

This is a continuation of a journey I began over 20 years ago.

I continue to seek God-Is-She-He-Us in all I do while embracing "to thine own self be true."

It happens, still one day at a time.

2009-07-11T11:49:00.000-05:00

2009-07-11T01:03:00.001-05:00

There is a phase of lamentation and sadness when one first becomes aware of the realities of what we've (humans) collectively created (from our ignorance). Seeing all that's wrong is a phase one goes through, and anger. Hopefully one then arrives at the place where it can be accepted as it is while working to make it better.

People are in whatever stage they are and that's okay. We need a place to articlulate everything we feel, and hope, so we can plan.
It won't be linear and pretty and in a neat box, but there will be people who will try to fit it all in a nice neat box - and that's okay. We need that too. Rules, Bylaws, whatever. There's room for us all.

We must change our culture. It must be unacceptable to allow graves to be dug up and the bones of the once living humans to be cast aside without regard. This incident is the perfect illustration of what the United States health insurance industry is doing. It is graphic demonstation of what the insurance companies do to humans who're sick and need their insurance benefits. They get services partially paid if they're lucky, until they lose their jobs, (not everyone gets well in 12 weeks) and how can a sick person C.O.B.R.A. insurance then?

And why're people sick? Because the coal ash is piled on the side of a river until "something" happens and then it's in the river, the drinking water. Smokestacks are belching coal's waste into the air . . . burning our eyes, our lungs. We must change our culture.
It must be unacceptable to allow this to continue! Make it unacceptable to propose nuclear as an option. NO! It's off the table! It was tried. It didn't fly or we wouldn't keep having the damn coal plants. Move on.

Change the laws . . . Make it unacceptable for a corporation to have rights of a human. The corporation has proven it is not human. The corporation has demonstrated it cares not for the bones in the graves. It just makes room for more to fill the vault, and pockets the money.

It's rubbing off on people. It shows in our society.

If we don't do it, who will?

It is the rise of humans. Not workers. Not environmentalists. Not reformers.

Power to Humanity. It is the Imperative.

Our country has fallen. The criminals are robbing the coffers. Several states are soon bankrupt.

If I don't start, who will?

Gini Lester

2009-07-10T21:56:00.004-05:00

I don't see blue skies ahead. As a matter of fact one can see the gray clouds around the cities when driving toward them. They're not rain clouds.

It will get worse. I don't see most people having the will to do the hard push on elected officials (at the federal level) and those who are doing the work locally just won't be able to make enough of a difference.

Then something like this comes along

2009-07-09T10:01:00.002-05:00

Wouldn't it be nice if it were just this easy?

But anyway, to work for a Cool Joliet.

2009-07-01T23:42:00.000-05:00

everything about prop 8 - the next steps.

2009-06-20T23:51:00.001-05:00

This? It's not so disturbing.

2009-06-20T23:12:00.001-05:00

This is disturbing, too.

2009-06-20T23:10:00.000-05:00

Very disturbing.

2009-06-20T09:22:00.001-05:00

The article
Here's the note McKinney to Obama: (6-19-2009)
"I understand that you sent a message to Israel about its blockade of Gaza. Thank you. It is reported that you specifically mentioned food, medical supplies, cement and building supplies in your note. This note is to inform you that I embark today on a trip to Gaza and we will have for the people of Gaza, exactly the materials that you mentioned.

2009-06-14T22:06:00.002-05:00

Just a little spot this year.
This was done only a few days after having heat exhaustion when making a garden on the lawn at my house.

2009-06-14T21:18:00.002-05:00

O.K.
Back to work.

2009-06-01T16:20:00.003-05:00

The decision out of CA on Prop 8 was not unexpected. The day when the CA judges heard arguments, a few hours afterwards I was able to listen in on a conference call with the lawyers who presented arguments. They suspected, from the questions the judges asked, that the judges were leaning to not overturning Prop 8 but would allow those same gender couples who were married to stay married.

This California case could be a springboard for other cases around the country. THAT's what was important about CA. THAT's why it mattered to any queer anywhere.

We'll see what happens while in the meantime pollution continues, more companies are folding, money is more scarce for everyday folks, the sick are getting sicker and single payer health care is not on the table.

2009-05-26T08:29:00.002-05:00

Coming today from California, the CA decision on Prop 8. Will it be riot or rejoice?

--------------------------------------
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Frank Rich is a regular columnist for The New York Times. He is the author of many books, including The Great Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina.
La Cage aux Democrats

By Frank Rich
The New York Times, May 24, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/opinion/24rich.html
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/24-1

THE most potent word in our new president’s lexicon — change — has been heard much less since his inspiring campaign gave way to the hard realities of governing. But on Tuesday night, the irresistible Obama brand made an unexpected and pointed cameo appearance on America’s most popular television show, “American Idol.” In the talent competition’s climactic faceoff, the song picked for one of the two finalists, Adam Lambert, was Sam Cooke’s soul classic, “A Change Is Gonna Come.”

Cooke recorded it in January 1964. Some four months earlier he had been arrested when trying to check into a whites-only motel in Shreveport, La. “It’s been a long, long time coming,” goes the lyric. “But I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will.” Cooke, who was killed later that same year in a shooting at another motel, in Los Angeles, didn’t live to see his song turn into a civil rights anthem. He could not have imagined how many changes were gonna come, including the election of an African-American president who ran on change some 44 years later.

Cooke might also have been baffled to see his song covered by Lambert, a 27-year-old white guy from San Diego, on Fox last week. But the producers of “American Idol” knew what they were doing. With his dyed black hair, eyeliner and black nail polish — and an Internet photographic trail of same-sex canoodling — Lambert was “widely assumed to be gay” (Entertainment Weekly), “seemingly gay” (The Times) and “flam-bam-boyantly queeny” (Rolling Stone). Another civil rights movement was in the house even if Lambert himself stopped just short of coming out (as of my deadline, anyway) in the ritualistic Ellen DeGeneres/Clay Aiken show-biz manner.

In the end, Lambert was runner-up to his friendly and blander opponent, Kris Allen, an evangelical Christian from Arkansas. That verdict, dominated by the votes of texting tween girls, was in all likelihood a referendum on musical and cultural habits, not red/blue politics or sexual orientation. As the pop critic Ann Powers wrote in The Los Angeles Times, the victorious Allen also has a gay fan base, much as Lambert has vocal Christian admirers.

This is increasingly the live-and-let-live society we inhabit — particularly younger America. In a Times/CBS News poll in April, 57 percent of those under 40 supported same-sex marriage. The approval figure for all ages (42 percent) has nearly doubled in just five years. On Tuesday the California Supreme Court will render its opinion on that state’s pox on gay marriage, Proposition 8. Since Prop 8 passed last fall, four states have legalized gay marriage and New Hampshire is about to. This rapid change has been greeted not by a backlash, but by a national shrug — just as a seemingly gay “American Idol” victory most likely would have been.

And yet the changes aren’t coming as fast as many gay Americans would like, and as our Bill of Rights would demand. Especially in Washington. Despite Barack Obama’s pledges as a candidate and president, there is no discernible movement on repealing the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy or the Defense of Marriage Act. Both seem more cruelly discriminatory by the day.

When yet another Arabic translator was thrown out of the Army this month for being gay, Jon Stewart nailed the self-destructive Catch-22 of “don’t ask”: We allow interrogators to waterboard detainees and then banish a soldier who can tell us what that detainee is saying. The equally egregious Defense of Marriage Act, a k a DOMA, punishes same-sex spouses by voiding their federal marital rights even in states that have legalized gay marriage. As The Wall Street Journal reported, the widower of America’s first openly gay congressman, Gerry Studds of Massachusetts, must mount a long-shot court battle to try to collect the survivor benefits from his federal pension and health insurance plans. (Studds died in 2006.) Nothing short of Congressional repeal of DOMA is likely to rectify that injustice.

The civil rights lawyer Evan Wolfson, who is executive director of the advocacy group Freedom to Marry, notes that the current stasis in Washington is a bit reminiscent of early 1963, when major triumphs in the black civil rights movement (Brown v. Board of Education, the Freedom Riders, the Montgomery bus boycott) had been followed by stalling, infighting and more violent setbacks. Victories were on their way but it took the march on Washington and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech to galvanize John Kennedy and ultimately Lyndon Johnson into action. Even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Johnson had to step up big time — and did — to prod Congressional passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (now under imminent threat from the Roberts Supreme Court).

It would be easy to blame the Beltway logjam in gay civil rights progress on the cultural warriors of the religious right and its political host, the Republican Party. But it would be inaccurate. The right has lost much of its clout in the capital and, as President Obama’s thoughtful performance at Notre Dame dramatized last weekend, its shrill anti-abortion-rights extremism now plays badly even in supposedly friendly confines.

Anyone with half a brain in the incredibly shrinking G.O.P. knows that gay bashing will further dim the party’s already remote chance of recruiting young voters to replenish its aging ranks, much as the right’s immigrant bashing drove away Hispanics. This is why Republican politicians now say they oppose only gay marriage, not gay people, even when it’s blatant that they’re dissembling. Naked homophobia — those campy, fear-mongering National Organization for Marriage ads, for instance — is increasingly unwelcome in a party fighting for survival. The wingnuts don’t even have Dick Cheney on their side on this issue.

Most Congressional Republicans will still vote against gay civil rights. Some may take the politically risky path of demonizing same-sex marriage during the coming debate over the new Supreme Court nominee. Old prejudices and defense mechanisms die hard, after all: there are still many gay men in the party’s hierarchy hiding in fear from what remains of the old religious-right base. In “Outrage,” a new documentary addressing precisely this point, Kirk Fordham, who had been chief of staff to Mark Foley, the former Republican congressman, says, “If they tried to fire gay staff like they do booting people out of the military, the legislative process would screech to a halt.” A closet divided against itself cannot stand.

But when Congressional Republicans try to block gay civil rights — last week one cadre introduced a bill to void the recognition of same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia — they just don’t have the votes to get their way. The Democrats do have the votes to advance the gay civil rights legislation Obama has promised to sign. And they have a serious responsibility to do so. Let’s not forget that “don’t ask” and DOMA both happened on Bill Clinton’s watch and with his approval. Indeed, in the 2008 campaign, Obama’s promise to repeal DOMA outright was a position meant to outflank Hillary Clinton, who favored only a partial revision.

So what’s stopping the Democrats from rectifying that legacy now? As Wolfson said to me last week, they lack “a towering national figure to make the moral case” for full gay civil rights. There’s no one of that stature in Congress now that Ted Kennedy has been sidelined by illness, and the president shows no signs so far of following the example of L.B.J., who championed black civil rights even though he knew it would cost his own party the South. When Obama invoked same-sex marriage in an innocuous joke at the White House correspondents’ dinner two weeks ago — he and his political partner, David Axelrod, went to Iowa to “make it official” — it seemed all the odder that he hasn’t engaged the issue substantively.

“This is a civil rights moment,” Wolfson said, “and Obama has not yet risen to it.” Worse, Obama’s opposition to same-sex marriage is now giving cover to every hard-core opponent of gay rights, from the Miss USA contestant Carrie Prejean to the former Washington mayor Marion Barry, each of whom can claim with nominal justification to share the president’s views.

In reality, they don’t. Obama has long been, as he says, a fierce advocate for gay equality. The Windy City Times has reported that he initially endorsed legalizing same-sex marriage when running for the Illinois State Senate in 1996. The most common rationale for his current passivity is that his plate is too full. But the president has so far shown an impressive inclination both to multitask and to argue passionately for bedrock American principles when he wants to. Relegating fundamental constitutional rights to the bottom of the pile until some to-be-determined future seems like a shell game.

As Wolfson reminds us in his book “Why Marriage Matters,” Dr. King addressed such dawdling in 1963. “For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait,’ ” King wrote. “It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ ”

The gay civil rights movement has fewer obstacles in its path than did Dr. King’s Herculean mission to overthrow the singular legacy of slavery. That makes it all the more shameful that it has fewer courageous allies in Washington than King did. If “American Idol” can sing out for change on Fox in prime time, it ill becomes Obama, of all presidents, to remain mute in the White House.

2009-05-20T08:59:00.002-05:00

link to Gay Liberation Network articles about Thayer's experience at this year's (2009) Russian Pride.
----------------------------------------------------

Talking about this year's Gay Pride in Moscow, the police chief promised that "No one will dare to do it, such 'brave-heart' will be torn to shreds."

Well, we did do it. Not only did "brave-heart" Russian and Belorussian Gays and Lesbians bravely defy the macho bluster of the police chief, they also successfully skirted a series of pre-emptive arrest attempts by Moscow's "finest." Lesbians and Gays also proved that despite the authorities' vastly superior resources, the stupidity of their anti-gay bigotry was matched only by the incompetence of their pre-event repressive efforts.

Gay Pride in Moscow was an unadulterated success. As one of two Westerners who participated in it, I am proud and humbled to be associated with such brave and intelligent men and women.

By defying such intimidation, on May 16, 2009 Lesbian and Gay Russians and Belorussians made an incomparable contribution to our worldwide movement for LGBT freedom. Here is their story.

─ Andy Thayer

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

2009-05-13T10:22:00.002-05:00

Yeah. This should be read by a lot of people. It is written to a brother who had just written about PTSD after the Camp Liberty killing. Maybe the 2 people who read this journal will pass it on.

2009-05-12T12:16:00.004-05:00

A song to listen to as you read this.

In nursing there is the ABC's. Airway, Breathing and Circulation. A nurse evaluates in that order to determine what action to take first to save a person's life.

I used a similar formula in deciding how to expend my energy on environmental issues. Air, Water and Food, in that order. The basics. There is so much to do and so little time and resources to do it that for me I had to have some kind of decision tree.

In the macro I've learned it's not so much that one person has to take action in a particular order but as a species we do for human and even planetary survival. Too bad our communication as a species seems to have broken down over the eons. It seems humanity's collective self destructive ego trumps our survival instinct. I'm hoping and working for a miracle. Luckily there are others who are working with a collective survival instinct, too.

Air - I've been feeling powerless until I found this.
If you're called to it you can focus your work toward creating actions that are ultimately aimed at getting the CO2 levels back down to 350.

Water - GPUS Eco-Action Committee is in the process of creating "Water Watch." It will be a website collecting information and monitoring water issues around the country. This stems from a proposal passed by the Green Party National Committee in 2009. You may want to look at how to protect the watersheds in your area.

Food - A personal permaculture project. This is what I've decided to focus on. I'll have certification in August and hope to be able to use this new found information and skill for my friends, family and community.

It is only together that we can work for the survival of the planet and hopefully the survival of a human species. Demise of civilizations is nothing new but the consequences of our creations over that past few decades is globally destructive on many levels, including Air, Water and Food. Unless stopped most of humanity as we know it will die.

I expect there to be adaptive human species. The difficulties your grand children are having now may be witness to adaptive measures.

2009-05-06T10:23:00.001-05:00

article from spinner.
Copied here:
A singer-songwriter from Peshawar, Pakistan was allegedly murdered by her family, according to the Times Online. Ayman Udas' death, which her husband of only ten days is claiming was at the hand of her brothers, is being taken as a political statement in this conservative region that has seen a steady increase of Islamic fundamentalism.

Udas sang in her native tongue (Pashto), winning acclaim and appearances on the state-run television channel PTV. You can watch one of her music videos here. Her family disapproved of her career and of her TV appearances, believing them both to be sinful.

It is not uncommon for popular artists (or comedians) in the region to receive death threats, and many have fled to more accepting, safer areas of the country or of the world.

Udas was in her early 30's, and married with two children. It is believed that her brothers broke into her apartment when she was there alone and shot her three times in the chest.

2009-05-02T10:55:00.003-05:00

Planning ahead for Will County has been apparent. Evidence of that is in witnessing the growth of flat topped buildings and hearing of political wrangling about the Peotone airport that is positioning Will County as an inland cargo port. Will County soils that are yet to be farmed/developed are some of the richest soil in the world.
March 2009 the Illinois Local and Organic Food and Farm Task Force report to the Illinois General Assembly. You may read it here.
This is planning ahead.
Planning ahead for Will County needs to be updated for the realities of the 21st century. Let's show as much wisdom as the people of the island nation of Kiribati.

2009-04-30T17:14:00.001-05:00

This is a good reason why one may consider doing this.

2009-04-22T09:40:00.002-05:00

An explanation by Bill Talen (running for Mayor of New York) about creating the street theater called "Rev. Billy and the Church of Life After Shopping.

2009-04-15T13:18:00.002-05:00

I don't put much faith in great numbers of people having the will to make the necessary adjustments to prevent global climate change (and as a result the collapse of the U.S.). I think it is because as a collective we're so narcotized. When people wake up and realize the economy is not getting better and climate change is worsening they will simply get angrier and more violent or retreat into depression and suicide (slow or deliberate). Most will, as is already happening, slowly transition to a different way -- ways which for some are healthy and effective and for others - not so much.

Even my 97 year old grandmother who can barely see or hear knows what's coming. She has not been politically or greatly socially active in the past 15 years and she didn't get her information from me. I think she may represent the intuition of our collective unconcious awakening due to the crisis of survival because of the economy (at least in the U.S.).

I really don't care for the US and THEM that prevents progress for everyone regardless, but what seems to be happening is people are continuing to square off into tribes.

I am currently studying permaculture. I hope to get some of that stimulus money too. Ya'll wanna start a business? I will have certification by the end of August. We can deliberately transition into ways that are healthy. There can be whole neighborhoods of transition, self-sufficient in energy, food and water.

2009-04-12T11:27:00.001-05:00

For others there is only the same old, stuff

Music video sunday

2009-04-05T11:30:00.003-05:00

Own your mind.

2009-03-28T22:40:00.001-05:00

2009-03-26T13:32:00.002-05:00

A frequent refrain Babs hears is, "the country fell a while ago, all that's left is the details." She doesn't think it's so. She and a lot of our friends are really ga ga about Obama. Time will tell. I'm still busy implementing plan B.

A new Rolling Stones magazine article. The last 3 paragraphs copied here. You may read the complete article by following the link.

The Big Takeover.
________________________

The most galling thing about this financial crisis is that so many Wall Street types think they actually deserve not only their huge bonuses and lavish lifestyles but the awesome political power their own mistakes have left them in possession of. When challenged, they talk about how hard they work, the 90-hour weeks, the stress, the failed marriages, the hemorrhoids and gallstones they all get before they hit 40.

"But wait a minute," you say to them. "No one ever asked you to stay up all night eight days a week trying to get filthy rich shorting what's left of the American auto industry or selling $600 billion in toxic, irredeemable mortgages to ex-strippers on work release and Taco Bell clerks. Actually, come to think of it, why are we even giving taxpayer money to you people? Why are we not throwing your ass in jail instead?"

But before you even finish saying that, they're rolling their eyes, because You Don't Get It. These people were never about anything except turning money into money, in order to get more money; valueswise they're on par with crack addicts, or obsessive sexual deviants who burgle homes to steal panties. Yet these are the people in whose hands our entire political future now rests.

Good luck with that, America. And enjoy tax season.

2009-03-22T10:39:00.000-05:00

They are. Why not the City of Joliet?

2009-03-20T23:54:00.002-05:00

Radical.

What if corporations put money into sustainable energy sources that had as little negative impact on the environment as possible. What would give corporaations incentive to invest in the right thing for the long haul rather than the sure thing for a short while. Worldwide.

2009-03-15T10:18:00.002-05:00

Guerilla gardening.
Seed bomb.

How does one start guerilla gardening without growing poisonous food because of the soil? Well stay tuned because I'm going to find out.

I don't think governments will have the money to feed increasing numbers of people who will be out of work, money and food. Food banks likely won't be able to keep us all fed. And I don't see corporations as having a heart so they won't be feeding the masses. We'll have to feed ourselves and not all of us have yards for gardens.

Guerilla gardening -- do it wisely.

2009-03-12T12:06:00.005-05:00

This is an article that shows clearly (to my mind) how water rights in each community needs to be carefully reviewed and considered.
Did you know that in the United States a corporation has the same rights as an individual human? There is one town in Maine that is changing that.

Links to articles from U.S.Water News, How Stuff Works and After Downing Street.

2009-03-10T12:53:00.001-05:00

John W. Delicath| February 10, 2009

To hear certain cable news figures tell it, the existence of winter weather raises doubts about the reality of global climate change. Can the Earth's climate really be getting warmer if it's still snowing, they ask. Such a simplistic non sequitur might be funny were it not for the melting polar ice caps and rising sea levels, and the misinformation imparted to viewers by those entrusted to inform them.

To read the story

2009-03-03T10:30:00.003-06:00

Do this. Take action before the light at the end of the tunnel goes out.

March 28, 2009, 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm Turn off the lights.

Earth Hour Chicago

permaculture

2009-02-15T12:14:00.003-06:00

This is what I'm talking about.

Save the date! June 20, 2009. A round table discussion in Will County on community gardening, permaculture, grow your own, or any type of method that can be used and is sustainable to feed people in Will County.

IT'S ABOUT THE LOVE

2009-02-14T11:38:00.001-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-13T15:45:00.002-06:00

This is written by my colleague Greg Gerritt at the blog Prosperity for Rhode Island. He pointed out the sobering fact for me that . . . in the past if the soils were no longer feeding Italy, farmers moved the the Americas. If the fish in the North Sea were diminished, the Grand Banks still had cod in abundance. When the forests in Maine disappeared Minnesota beckoned and Paul Bunyan moved along. And few people lived in the tropical forests. Now there is no place left to go.

What to do?

The quick version is start a massive program to heal ecosystems on the planet. Feed everyone while at the same time healing the ecosystems that feed us. Use less and share more.

What will you be doing during the fall of civilization?

2009-02-09T10:30:00.006-06:00

In the past to get a loan I've gone to the bank and talked to someone who knows about financial stuff. Knowing how much extra money I have each month I would ask for a loan based on that fact. I've always trusted the women and men I went to for loans. I see now that some were not worthy of my trust.

The future homeless will not be as noticeable as past homeless. They will still be in homes but without electricity and some without water.

We need to find a way to keep our local communities healthy. While our politicians are looking to bring in jobs! jobs! jobs! There are community minded citizens who also have solutions. We want our communities to grow our own food. The solutions some families may need is to find a source for their own water.

When you know of a family homeless in their own home you can remind them how to survive.

2009-02-03T08:45:00.021-06:00

It took no time for the progaganda to start. The trash from celebrations about change has barely hit landfills. Scientists with audacity of hope anticipating change from a science phobic admininstration to one more science friendly will discover even this so-called science friendly administration will have a strange quirk of failure of common sense.

We will be lead around like dogs following a doggie treat. Some of us won't even be aware of how we are subliminally influenced. I would suggest to those who are able to, to follow the money. Some politicians are lead around just as easily as dogs.

The January 17, 2009 edition of "Science News"magazine, on the inside back cover is an advertising. One can buy posters showing the how and why of global warming (climate change), options for alternative renewable energy and another poster called green alternatives. Included among fact-based renewable energy solutions with low greenhouse gas emissions is nuclear energy as an alternative. As if the nuclear waste issue already had a solution. As if the moratorium on building nuclear plants in Illinois had already been lifted.

Yeah. I know. Jobs! They're gonna sell you using the jobs angle. Luckily, There is some money for development of green jobs. Too bad that something so dangerous for you, your family and your pets is listed as green.

Scientific facts, even common sense ones, are not as black and white as all that. In Illinois we have some stark realities to face about nuclear energy. We have aging nuclear power plants supplying 45% percent of power in Illinois, and nuclear waste is still piling up. What can be done with it?

This is a link to a group on Diigo, a Social Information Network (SIN). Full Disclosure: At this date, I am not a member of this group nor Diigo, but I found some interesting pictures and information on it.

What kind of warm blooded animal are you? Will you be lead around too?

2009-02-01T10:19:00.005-06:00

lorna salzman
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BLACK AND WHITE

Some weeks back I attended a workshop sponsored by the NYC Apollo
Alliance. These past two days I attended a two day conference on
Climate Justice sponsored by We Act (West Harlem Environmental
Action). Night and Day. Black and White. Literally and Figuratively.

In a sense I had waited thirty years for the climate justice
conference. When I began my full-time professional involvement in
environmental issues under Dave Brower in Friends of the Earth (FOE), I was green but in the original sense of being unripe and uninformed. I learned on the job, not least because of Brower's inspiring and uncompromising leadership on so many crucial issues. I wasn't alone. Thousands of other people, inside Friends of the Earth and outside, warmed up to his message and got involved in their communities and in national issues.

The first two issues that confronted the country were the supersonic airplane, the Concorde, and the proposal to build the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline from the Arctic Sea down to the USA. In response, all the Washington-based organizations that existed at that time, including groups like NRDC and EDF who are so much in the news today, created a unified front opposing the SST and the pipeline. They conducted national campaigns with ads, mailings,and a strong lobbying presence in congress. We lost the pipeline battle but we succeeded in keeping the SST off American soil and eventually it disappeared entirely from the rest of the world, helped by a tragic crash that killed all the aircraft's occupants.

During the dozen years or so that I worked at FOE I came across quite a few attacks on environmentalism from minority leaders and
organizations, in which "the movement" was accused of racism, elitism and indifference to the "important" problems of poverty and racism. I responded to many of these, trying to explain that fights to ban threats to human health and communities, such as toxics and nuclear power, superhighways, pesticides, etc., as well as fights to preserve natural resources, wildlife habitat and wilderness, were in fact fights for everyone, not just wealthy whites, and that the impact of all of these issues would be felt directly and indirectly, and over time by everyone.

It was a difficult struggle to get these people to understand that
environmental battles were in fact social justice struggles that
challenged illegitimate and exploitive corporations and power
structures such as government regulatory agencies. Minority leaders
were not yet ready to identify the whole industrial capitalist
corporate=dominated system; they were still seeking a place at the
table where they could become as affluent and powerful as those they thought were benefitting from environmental struggles.

Two days ago at the We Act conference, the talk was of not only
sitting at the table but EATING. One person quoted Winona La Duke, a leading indigenous peoples' activist, as saying: If you're not at the table, you're on the menu. The vast majority of panelists and audience frequently shouted out: No carbon trading, no coal, we want carbon taxes, showing a degree of sophistication on energy policy that most white liberals still lack. What has changed in the past 30 years that has put the minority community in the intellectual forefront of environmentalism?

Yes, the movement has smart, informed leadership. But it always did
with regard to its own issues. Two things are responsible for the
change: first, global warming itself; second, the movement's
redefining environmental issues not as purely black issues but as
broad SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES, affecting all the disempowered and
disenfranchised of the world regardless of skin color and ethnicity
and geographic origin.

The global warming/climate change issue has infiltrated itself into
each and every aspect of politics and economic policy. The
realization -underscored by growing evidence that the poor peoples
and nations of the world will bear the heaviest burden of climate
change - that climate change's ULTIMATE causes arise from EXACTLY the same institutions and policies that have caused poverty and
discrimination has led to the creation of a powerful transnational
social movement that finally, after years of intellectual fumbling,
has accurately identified the root causes of both poverty and the
degradation of the planet.

For me personally, this was a celebration and a small source of
gratification. Many are the arguments that I have had with black
leaders about environmentalism, during which I struggled in vain to
show that defense of the earth and its systems and species was no
different from defending humans from oppression. But in retrospect I realized that each person needs to find her own path to enlightenment.

The climate change issue has been the galvanizing factor in the
realization that it has been the very institutions and policies of
the industrial capitalist society, based on economic growth models
that by NECESSITY reinforced wealth and power of a few on the top at the expense of the vast majority at the bottom, whether black or
white. The word "capitalism" was not even mentioned at the
conference but its presence nonetheless wafted in the air as topics
like Wall St., NAFTA, WTO, were floated and then blasted to
smithereens. And after I pointed out in a workshop that the concepts of Sustainability and Economic Growth were in complete contradiction, no one seemed surprised.

Now, I want to rewind the tape back to the Apollo Alliance workshop I attended a month or so back. There were no black faces there but
since I don't live by a quota system, I didn't think this was
especially relevant; I considered the content and topics of the
workshop to be the most important things. But what unfolded was
disturbing and made me more and more agitated.

First, there may have been a use of the term "global warming" or
"climate change" at some point, but if there was, it certainly wasn't very loud and it wasn't repeated. The best panelist was the one from Con Ed! The rest were cheerleaders for nuclear, power, union leaders speaking of nothing but jobs...and jobs only for their members, not for the non-unionized workers or the unemployed or the underemployed or the unskilled, which make up the largest number of workers in NYC I might venture to say.

The whole workshop was one big Smiley Face, in anticipation of the
"green jobs" that renewable energy and related development would
bring to union workers in NYC, and in anticipation that the federal
stimulus package would reward their efforts. There was no mention of the needs of anyone else except unionized workers, and no mention whatsoever of the dire and imminent threat of global warming that is likely to inundate our coast, our infrastructure, our drinking water and our transportation system unless we made immediate deep cuts in energy use.

In contrast to the solidarity shown by the We Act panelists and
attendees with the Appalachian communities being destroyed by
mountaintop removal of coal and mining and with the native American
communities being exploited for coal and uranium, and with the small farmers trying to survive the large corn-based ethanol movement that is responsible for higher food prices, the Apollo Alliance continues to support the oxymoron of "clean coal", the Big Detroit auto makers, the giant nuclear utilities, the high-paid privileged white union workers, and worst of all the cap and trade system that is giving ownership of the sky to the fossil fuel utilities and to the Wall St. brokers, traders, lawyers and accountants so they can make billions off the rest of us.

Reprehensibly, the Beltway biggies like Natural Resources Defense
Council and the nauseating group called the Environmental Defense
Fund, are all promoting the same objectives as the Apollo Alliance,
in a coalition called U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) which
consists primarily of dozens of the largest and most exploitive
corporations in this country. As a result, they have severely damaged the reputation of the local grassroots and regional environmental groups whose objectives are completely in sync with those of We Act and others in the climate justice movement. This split between the biggies based in DC needs to be acknowledged. EDF and NRDC have the ear of congress and the media, and it is important that we tell the public that they do NOT speak for the environmental community but for the corporate sector, and that the rest of us do not share their views or objectives.

The new day of a broad environmental justice movement hasn't quite
yet dawned, but enough light is showing above the horizon to give the message that environmentalists and social justice activists are
talking, meeting and finding common ground that can turn things
around under an administration that has exhilarated and encouraged
the black community into a new muscular activism. This new sense of hope prompted many at the We Act conference to refer often to the need for a "new model" of development in place of the exploitive neo-liberal globalized model being forced down our throats. This old model, with luck, may hang itself with its own rope, and out of it may come a model that we may with luck one day call Ecological Justice.

Lorna Salzman

2009-01-26T11:18:00.008-06:00

I was sent this article today in an e-mail. It was in the "Economist". This is not new to me but what I'm referring to is the comments.

A few points were brought up. One has to do with the exploding population. I fear that this is a no brainer as a source of problems but "the solution" is not possible for this. Extermination? Governmental regulation of birth control? No. This problem will take care of itself over time. Nature has a way. You realize of course nature is not limited to planet earth. There is no reason for Nature to favor Earth. Only Mother Earth favors earth.

Another comment has to do with nuclear power as a solution for energy needs. Someone refers to a "luddite aversion" to nuclear power. I don't think my aversion to nuclear power is of a luddite nature and I will confess that I am in a "hmm" phase in whether or not to embrace a nuclear solution. I mean, the new generation nuclear power plants (you know, the ones that theoretically could work) could be an answer to supplying energy needs, providing hydrogen for hydrogen powered cars so we can still get around like we always do, and not contribute to climate change. And since they're so many people what matters about the people who live near nuclear power plants that will have cancer and birth defects. I mean, in the greater scheme of things it's not that many people. Hmm? How many nuclear power plants do we have in Illinois?

Okay. Do you see my satire here?

Really. Talk about infrastructure. We really need to rebuild the nuclear power plants in use now, and we really need to get rid of the waste. In the best of worlds I'd say patch up existing nuclear power plants as best as possible while converting to renewables with the goal to get rid of nuclear. But this is not the best of worlds and people are not in control of government. Corporations are. Corporations are not human. So what to do?

My solution? 6 mile communities. Self-supporting, Self-sustaining communities. Not much can be done about the air, (quit that damn leaf burning. Your kids already have asthma! Make a compost pile!) Make a community food garden and dig a well.

We have townships in Illinois. 36 mile plotted townships with government already up and running.

Erin's Take

2009-01-16T16:02:00.003-06:00

Do you remember Erin Brockovich? She's still around trying to save lives. This was on Huffington Post

2009-01-08T11:25:00.005-06:00

I threw away a battery last Saturday. Big deal. The 2 people who occasionally read this blog know I'm concerned about mother earth. I'm so concerned that I've bothered to not only become involved with understanding the issues but to become involved with organizations that are working on the issues. I'm a nurse. I save life and ease death. Or at least I try.

So I threw away a battery. A lithium, dime sized, dead, battery. I thought about the environmental impact and didn't know what it was. I threw it away in the regular trash anyway. Luckily I found out today it was okay.

Battery disposal courtesy of Duracell.

Are you feeling my hopelessness here? If I can just throw it away, aware the potential impact and not saving it for a time to find out, what of those who are concerned but don't know what to do? Or those who don't care? I didn't live up to my own "trying to be green" standards that day.

I remember when I was a kid hearing about how in a long ago culture people would throw trash on the floor in their homes and when it became too much would simply lay a new floor on top of the trash.

Here we are. We haven't changed in all those years.

Picture courtesy of Pravda

Well, I'm still not ready for a planet DNR. Just as I will not give up on a person who is fighting against all odds to live.

If you two are still reading, in a few days or a few weeks I'll post what the meditations (constant awareness, and no awareness, of each moment) have revealed.

2009-01-08T09:58:00.001-06:00

This brief interlude brought to you by Uncle Jay.

2008-12-24T10:18:00.006-06:00

Did you hear about it December 22, 2008? Perhaps it was because a water main break received more attention. A "waste" spill. You know, stuff left over after the good stuff is taken out. Like, nuclear waste.

Nuclear waste. We still don't know what to do with it. And the feds want to make more nuclear power plants because nuclear power plants don't contribute to climate change. Nuclear waste is still piling up. A logical solution would be to make it into a smaller pile.

Recycled nuclear waste. A waste pile toxic not only to ground water but to the air. Did I mention that recycling nuclear waste makes stuff for even bigger bombs?

But I'm off on a tangent - back to the story.

A spill bigger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill off the coast of Alaska. Coal waste that piles up. We don't know what to do with it. Coal plants contribute to climate change. Ruling classes all over the planet want to build more coal plants. Corporations get money to supply coal for these plants.

Humans are board members of corporations. Bylaws made up by these humans create an entity called "corporation." The human board members are enabled to not feel personally responsible when bad things happen.

But I'm off on a tangent - back to the story.

(from a CNN news spot) -- Although video from the scene shows dead fish on the banks of the tributary, The Tennessee Valley Authority Spokesman Gil Francis said that "in terms of toxicity, until an analysis comes in, you can't call it toxic."

Now that's just plain stupid.

2008-12-21T13:47:00.003-06:00

International Energy Authority.
World Oil Supply:
There was an assumption made in last year's report. This year the report is based on a study.
Findings: World supply of Oil will peak in 2020. Sooner than anticipated.

The Hirsch Report (Commissioned by the U.S. Government, published in 2005) outlines how quickly governments must act to lessen the effect of the dwindling supply of oil. It's not pretty and now there is even less lead time than thought.

There are people who believe that we have enough oil (from shale)to meet the supply. But at what cost?
And those who think nuclear energy is the way to go.
At what cost?
Or more coal plants.
At what cost?

Pollution. Many forms of pollution. Polluted air. Polluted water. Polluted food.
Air pollution with more CO2 means increased climate change.

The Venus syndrome is the greatest threat to the planet, to humanity’s continued existence.

If anyone has been reading me you may surmise that I'm pretty sure we're toast as a country, but until today I didn't know we're toast as a planet. I really thought our mother could survive.

I'll let you know if I think it's time for a planet DNR. I need more meditation time first.

2008-12-16T18:13:00.000-06:00

Breathing spaces.

2008-12-01T11:10:00.007-06:00

Air Quality Index.

"Particulate matter," also known as particle pollution or PM, is a complex mixture of extremely small particles and liquid droplets. Particle pollution is made up of a number of components, including acids (such as nitrates and sulfates), organic chemicals, metals, and soil or dust particles.

The size of particles is directly linked to their potential for causing health problems. EPA is concerned about particles that are 10 micrometers in diameter or smaller because those are the particles that generally pass through the throat and nose and enter the lungs. Once inhaled, these particles can affect the heart and lungs and cause serious health effects. EPA groups particle pollution into two categories:

* "Inhalable coarse particles," such as those found near roadways and dusty industries, are larger than 2.5 micrometers and smaller than 10 micrometers in diameter.

* "Fine particles," such as those found in smoke and haze, are 2.5 micrometers in diameter and smaller. These particles can be directly emitted from sources such as forest fires, or they can form when gases emitted from power plants, industries and automobiles react in the air.

more about particulate matter.