Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Perhaps in the Future, Nations/Regions will be Set According to Watersheds and Rivers
Labels: 7th UU principle, interconnected web, paradigm shift, restorative justice, USA, water justice
Friday, June 15, 2012
Quick note on HFT
1. That the people who have the power to put this kind of money toward whatever they want would put it toward something so morally vacuous and selfish when there are humans with real needs. The blind eye turned away from this opportunity cost is like a brickbat to my moral head. 2. That people who have the mathematical ability to do Fast Fourier Transforms and other mathematical formulae to model and interpret the patterns of economic growth down to the millisecond minutia, and develop ever-faster computer systems for processing and networks for conveying this data for the purposes of greed. Our smartest people should be doing something else, like modeling a secure centrally-planned economy that models our current economy, and takes into account the production and distribution of every necessary widget and piece of food needed to sustain us. And can work to eliminate all of the unnecessary waste while still providing the same things to everybody. And perhaps when everybody feels secure we'll be able to stop overproducing and overbuying. 3. That our governments would allow automated trading like this which siphons out the incremental gains from real traders who can't afford to do something like this. Instead they should devise a system of laws that works justly, but they've been bought. 4. That the resources for this cabling and computers, and for its installation have been taken from the Earth.
Labels: Capitalism, classism, economics, interconnected web, Math, restorative justice, slashdot
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
For Sixteen Years, My Dove Seeking for Peace
 |
| After first of three sessions. |
This last year, during my chaplain residency / clinical pastoral experience, one thing I've been mulling over has been the meaning of the olive branch that the dove found in Noah's story. When I was younger, and I got the third portion of my head tattoo with the last of ten birds -- golden eagle, peregrine falcon, albatross; crow, raven, hummingbird; bald eagle, wren, loon, and dove. I asked the artist to put the dove right in front with the sunrise (and autonomically cried through the whole inking), but felt it was not appropriate at the time to have an olive branch in its beak, so left a little space to ink it in later, when the time was more appropriate. I had a lot of work left to do.
During my CPE, it came to my attention that the olive branch was a symbol for divine power. I've learned a lot about power this last year. I've learned the difference between power over (forcing somebody to work on the agenda of the more powerful person), power alongside (assessing complementary skills and working collaboratively), and power under (providing strength and opportunity for another to more completely follow their own volitional path). Given the US culture I was raised in, I had mainly only paid attention to the first kind of power, the power of battle, oppression, and suppression, in which the stronger is the victor and the weaker is the victim. I felt freed when I learned of the second as a good pastoral stance, and I made up the third myself, because balanced-ternary is the way I roll, and because there are some people in the world with way too much power who rarely put it to good use themselves, and might actually like to give much of it away, thereby freeing themselves.
Now, here I am, taking a break from assembling my MFC packet, and taking in this interview with Phil Anselmo of Pantera. I haven't been keeping up with his more recent projects, and while my musical tastes have changed, I still enjoy their older songs. And while his personality is arrestingly unique, I've met at least two others with similar qualities during my time here.
In any case, at the end of the interview in Part 4 at 12 minutes, 30 seconds, he says,
"I'm not afraid to make friends, and I'm not afraid to extend my hand, first. To walk up to people, extend an olive branch even…"
This, to me, is the meaning of my missing olive branch. I haven't been ready to trust until maybe now.
The question foremost in my mind at this point is, "What kind of person extends an olive branch when most everybody else stands (at least partially unknowingly) with their swords drawn?" I've been open and honest before, and have been through an emotional evisceration as people -- not understanding the context and framework I approached in -- applied their own, leaving me decontextualized.
In other words, am I actually returning from a hero's journey after finding dry land (peace and security) or have I found the ingredients for their formation? Or am I just saying "peace, peace" when there is no peace? And to help make this concrete (considering Joseph Campbell's diagram in the previous link) how have I atoned, and what was that atonement for anyway?
Moving beyond the narrative from within the narrative, like the hummingbird (which stands for Joy) in this story, I will just take control of myself, and do what I can.
Labels: angels, angry at organized religions, birds, inter-faith, interconnected web, peace, personal growth, personal religion, tattoos, theological sources
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Feasibility Study of Wind, Water and Solar for Meeting All of Our Energy Needs
Labels: economics, environment, interconnected web, renewable energy, sacred texts
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
How to Eat a Tomato
today,
i ate a caprese salad,
made as simply as can be.
a glob of fresh soft mozzarella
an heirloom tomato,
and some fresh basil
from our own garden.
a sprinkle of salt, a sprinkle of pepper.
served in a small bowl.
later, a little home-made hummus.
so awesome, it broke the blender.
and some couscous from out of a box
left over from lunch 3-4 days ago.
with chopped red peppers and zucchinis cooked in.
the first part of the meal:
eating the tomato.
sliced into golf-ball size chunks,
a sprinkling of black pepper
a small shake of salt and....
taken to mouth either by hand or by fork.
or on the side of a butterknife or an upside down spoon
if you're "playing the boob" for your toddler.
kiss it as a prayer.
honoring its rich history and the components in the world that came together to make it to this sweet moment for your mouth (and your tummy and your renewed body energy).
honoring the soil that the tomato came from.
honoring the
honoring the potential, of all that you may do with this energy given from the life of this earth.
kiss the tomato with your lips, your teeth, your tongue, and your gums,
as a sensuous act.
awaken your body
deep down to the fact
you're alive in your body
to see hear touch and feel,
cherish scent and flavor
the tomato in your mouth,
know that it is in your mouth
it was from the ground
and now is becoming a part of the body you control
chew the tomato down into small bits,
swish it in your mouth like juice
and give thanks that it changes form for you.
give thanks that the earth offered it up
to the farmer who picked it,
give thanks for the sunlight, the water of rain,
and the worms and the robins,
the rabbits, the air and the soil.
know that humans have tasted tomatoes for millennia,
and will do so for millennia to come.
take three minutes and ponder life--
ponder one mouthful of life's beauty.
lyrics: "hey big bodhi!!!"
from Revolve, by the Melvins.
pax hominibus,agape to all,joel
(my blogspot template seems to have changed on me a few months back. it concatenated all three of my closing lines together. rather than fix it, i'm just going to leave it and stop wasting time editing it)
i ate a caprese salad,
made as simply as can be.
a glob of fresh soft mozzarella
an heirloom tomato,
and some fresh basil
from our own garden.
a sprinkle of salt, a sprinkle of pepper.
served in a small bowl.
later, a little home-made hummus.
so awesome, it broke the blender.
and some couscous from out of a box
left over from lunch 3-4 days ago.
with chopped red peppers and zucchinis cooked in.
the first part of the meal:
eating the tomato.
sliced into golf-ball size chunks,
a sprinkling of black pepper
a small shake of salt and....
taken to mouth either by hand or by fork.
or on the side of a butterknife or an upside down spoon
if you're "playing the boob" for your toddler.
kiss it as a prayer.
honoring its rich history and the components in the world that came together to make it to this sweet moment for your mouth (and your tummy and your renewed body energy).
honoring the soil that the tomato came from.
honoring the
honoring the potential, of all that you may do with this energy given from the life of this earth.
kiss the tomato with your lips, your teeth, your tongue, and your gums,
as a sensuous act.
awaken your body
deep down to the fact
you're alive in your body
to see hear touch and feel,
cherish scent and flavor
the tomato in your mouth,
know that it is in your mouth
it was from the ground
and now is becoming a part of the body you control
chew the tomato down into small bits,
swish it in your mouth like juice
and give thanks that it changes form for you.
give thanks that the earth offered it up
to the farmer who picked it,
give thanks for the sunlight, the water of rain,
and the worms and the robins,
the rabbits, the air and the soil.
know that humans have tasted tomatoes for millennia,
and will do so for millennia to come.
take three minutes and ponder life--
ponder one mouthful of life's beauty.
lyrics: "hey big bodhi!!!"
from Revolve, by the Melvins.
pax hominibus,agape to all,joel
(my blogspot template seems to have changed on me a few months back. it concatenated all three of my closing lines together. rather than fix it, i'm just going to leave it and stop wasting time editing it)
Labels: interconnected web, poetry, prayer, recipes, theological sources
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Jobs Creation: Public or Private Sector?
I am thinking. And that thinking is leading me to believe that there is something amiss with respect to the creation of jobs in the USA.
First, the US government is outsourcing our tax dollars by outsourcing formerly public sector roles to private companies so that they can efficiently get things done. Those companies tend to try to get as much worker productivity as they can, and hence aren't really increasing the labor force, unless the demand for their work increases. For example, private prisons can hire more people as guards, cooks, etc, if there are more people locked up. This is very backwards thinking. And of course, ultimately, these private companies are trying to earn money for their owners and shareholders. The fact that their revenue stream comes from the US government and goes to the investor class should raise alarm bells for anyone reading this.
Secondly, the US government could create agencies and "public corporations" invested by tax dollars to do the important work. Then our tax dollars would be going directly toward jobs creation and toward getting important things done--things that Adam Smith's invisible hand tends to wave past, until it's too late, or to deliver meager amounts to. Things like regulation, large-scale research projects, growing a commonwealth of resources like public parks, tree-planting, litter-reduction, economic welfare safety nets, and food banks. With the public taxpayers being the investors in this, the ROI shows up as benefits and security for us all, and the tax dollars can be efficiently used so that they go directly toward the equipment needed, and toward the people who are doing the work.
When more people are employed at fair wages, they will be able to spend more and grow the economy. When private corporations are making large profits for investors, in an unsteady economic environment, they will be hesitant to put their money back out there, and it will tend to pool (unless the government is willing to tax them heavily).
Regarding the US government revenue stream, consider this.... When oil companies are seeking to obtain energy/oil from the ground, they want to find the large underground pools. When the US government (with its power to levee taxes) needs to obtain energy/money, it should look for the large pools that have accumulated (in the investor class). Instead, it is still trying to squeeze oil out of the shale-rock of the middle class.
To jump-start the economy, the US needs to find major sources of money. There is ONLY ONE PLACE to find money like that, and it is in the abundance of wealth that has been siphoned off by the millionaires and billionaires in America. When Obama initially entered office, he said he was going to close the corporate loopholes, and tax-dodges for the rich. I wonder how effective he's been at that???
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
First, the US government is outsourcing our tax dollars by outsourcing formerly public sector roles to private companies so that they can efficiently get things done. Those companies tend to try to get as much worker productivity as they can, and hence aren't really increasing the labor force, unless the demand for their work increases. For example, private prisons can hire more people as guards, cooks, etc, if there are more people locked up. This is very backwards thinking. And of course, ultimately, these private companies are trying to earn money for their owners and shareholders. The fact that their revenue stream comes from the US government and goes to the investor class should raise alarm bells for anyone reading this.
Secondly, the US government could create agencies and "public corporations" invested by tax dollars to do the important work. Then our tax dollars would be going directly toward jobs creation and toward getting important things done--things that Adam Smith's invisible hand tends to wave past, until it's too late, or to deliver meager amounts to. Things like regulation, large-scale research projects, growing a commonwealth of resources like public parks, tree-planting, litter-reduction, economic welfare safety nets, and food banks. With the public taxpayers being the investors in this, the ROI shows up as benefits and security for us all, and the tax dollars can be efficiently used so that they go directly toward the equipment needed, and toward the people who are doing the work.
When more people are employed at fair wages, they will be able to spend more and grow the economy. When private corporations are making large profits for investors, in an unsteady economic environment, they will be hesitant to put their money back out there, and it will tend to pool (unless the government is willing to tax them heavily).
Regarding the US government revenue stream, consider this.... When oil companies are seeking to obtain energy/oil from the ground, they want to find the large underground pools. When the US government (with its power to levee taxes) needs to obtain energy/money, it should look for the large pools that have accumulated (in the investor class). Instead, it is still trying to squeeze oil out of the shale-rock of the middle class.
To jump-start the economy, the US needs to find major sources of money. There is ONLY ONE PLACE to find money like that, and it is in the abundance of wealth that has been siphoned off by the millionaires and billionaires in America. When Obama initially entered office, he said he was going to close the corporate loopholes, and tax-dodges for the rich. I wonder how effective he's been at that???
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: economics, interconnected web, politics, USA
Thursday, February 18, 2010
High-Risk Pools, Pre-Existing Conditions, and Throwing the Sick Under the Bus
.
I just read an article, and one of the comments, by post LLWillis was so dead-on, I have to repeat it, because I know that sometimes things get lost and articles disappear after a period of time. (But this blog, of course, is forever...)
chant/prayer/mantra: Love is part of our budget.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
I just read an article, and one of the comments, by post LLWillis was so dead-on, I have to repeat it, because I know that sometimes things get lost and articles disappear after a period of time. (But this blog, of course, is forever...)
From LLWillis on Slate.com:
Back to basics. The lifetime cost of healthcare is an insurable risk. The 'universal' part of universal healthcare is that everyone is included, the healthy and the unhealthy, the old and the young, male and female. The natural tendency of the healthy and the young is to opt out, to increase both the pooled risk of others and the individual, mathematically small, risk to themselves. The risk is there over a lifetime. When the need strikes, and its severity, is not predictable at the individual level, but we know what the probabilities are over a lifetime. The premiums for all the healthy people for all the healthy years funds the care for the unhealthy, whenever it occurs. The premiums for all the healthy children pay for the child with leukemia or juvenile diabetes. The premiums paid on my behalf all the healthy years of my life paid for preventive care, minor ailments, my maternity care, and are only now paying for the conditions of age (I am now 60). Not everyone can be so fortunate, or so predictable.
Every insurance plan is designed to avoid 'adverse selection', a pool of insurance risks that is prone to claims in excess of premium income. If the healthy exclude themselves, the insurer responds by rejecting the very expensively sick. This is for the benefit of the insurer; the insured (or more precisely the hapless uninsured) are on their own. The insurer has control, the insured does not.
The lowest cost is achieved by the largest possible pool (universal, mandated, national, single payer). Every alternative that moves farther from that economic principle is increasing the total cost and increasing the individual risk, beyond a person's control, that today is the day he has a major healthcare need, or that yesterday was the day that she was afflicted with a pre-existing condition, or lost his/her employer health insurance. Please note this is an economic argument, not a social welfare argument. It's math. It's dollars and cents.
Full disclosure: I am Canadian, and my family benefits from universal, single payer health insurance. The US can decide for itself whether health is an essential human right. But viewed from where I sit, it is a human catastrophe that some 45 million citizens of the wealthiest country on earth are without access to affordable healthcare, and anyone can be ejected from the system because of a health condition that they have through no fault of their own. It's a mess, but it sure would be nice if you could figure it out. I do sincerely wish you luck. And then get on with the job of reducing the per capita cost of quality healthcare from $7,000 a year to the norm of $3,000 a year in other civilized, industrial nations. (Hint: the two problems are related.)
chant/prayer/mantra: Love is part of our budget.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: anti-oppression, interconnected web, Math, universal health care, USA
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving from President Obama
I.
I just got an email from the president of the USA. Here's a copy:
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
I just got an email from the president of the USA. Here's a copy:
Joel --
Tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, Americans across the country will sit down together, count our blessings, and give thanks for our families and our loved ones.
American families reflect the diversity of this great nation. No two are exactly alike, but there is a common thread they each share.
Our families are bound together through times of joy and times of grief. They shape us, support us, instill the values that guide us as individuals, and make possible all that we achieve.
So tomorrow, I'll be giving thanks for my family -- for all the wisdom, support, and love they have brought into my life.
But tomorrow is also a day to remember those who cannot sit down to break bread with those they love.
The soldier overseas holding down a lonely post and missing his kids. The sailor who left her home to serve a higher calling. The folks who must spend tomorrow apart from their families to work a second job, so they can keep food on the table or send a child to school.
We are grateful beyond words for the service and hard work of so many Americans who make our country great through their sacrifice. And this year, we know that far too many face a daily struggle that puts the comfort and security we all deserve painfully out of reach.
So when we gather tomorrow, let us also use the occasion to renew our commitment to building a more peaceful and prosperous future that every American family can enjoy.
It seems like a lifetime ago that a crowd met on a frigid February morning in Springfield, Illinois to set out on an improbable course to change our nation.
In the years since, Michelle and I have been blessed with the support and friendship of the millions of Americans who have come together to form this ongoing movement for change.
You have been there through victories and setbacks. You have given of yourselves beyond measure. You have enabled all that we have accomplished -- and you have had the courage to dream yet bigger dreams for what we can still achieve.
So in this season of thanks giving, I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to you, and my anticipation of the brighter future we are creating together.
With warmest wishes for a happy holiday season from my family to yours,
President Barack Obama
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: anti-oppression, interconnected web, paradigm shift, politics, USA
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Rough Draft for a Future Sermon: Unreckonable Gratitude
.
Thank you!
For reasons that I am not even fully aware of, and from the bottom of my heart, I am compelled to repeat, "Thank you!"
To each of you here sitting in this space, most of whom I have yet to fully meet and get to know, to an indefinite number of people who have come before and left traces of beauty in this life for me to enjoy, and to all of the plants and animals, this Earth, the Sun, Moon and stars, and to all of the energy and matter in the universe that has come together to make this moment and every other moment, I just want to say, "Thank you!"
My list of blessings in this life has been long. The gift of life from our parents is something each of us were granted through no doing of our own, as far as we know or could attempt to prove. We just arrived here into life. I don't even know who all to be grateful to for this life. My parents were most directly responsible, but for all I know I might want to thank my father's employers for giving him a raise, or my older sisters for both being girls, or perhaps the quality control person at the condom factory for being lax in their duties because it was a Friday.
It's not just the simple gift of life to be grateful for, but to be born into this time and this place. To have the privileges of a family with enough money, that values education; to be born into this world by chance male and white and "straight" in a time and place where those attributes often carry benefits.
And I'm grateful not just for the gift of life, but the gifts that have sustained life. To be born on a planet with the right molecular mix in the air, soil and water--where plants grow easily from seeds, with water and a little care, and to be born into a time with domesticated livestock and to be raised to find them tasty.
I'm grateful to those who have created social systems and technologies that have helped to boost up the quality of life for me, even when those social systems and technologies have caused harm to our environment and to the quality of life of others. And I am grateful to the environment and to those people who have been oppressed for suffering through the damage caused by the inherent evils (or evil byproducts) of those same social systems and technologies.
So many blessings have come to me, and to many of us here, and I think it's of utmost importance that we acknowledge those blessings in all their fullness, even if that stings sometimes. Because by being in life, whatever lot we've received, we are each blessed in fundamental ways just to be alive and aware in the universe--as the universe experiencing itself!
That acknowledgment is critical. The gratitude that we can put forth is critical, because it changes our state of being. The existence of gratitude changes our attitude.
----
In Boy Scouts, in order to use a knife or saw or axe--anything with a blade, it was important to have your "Totin' Chip" card, which meant you'd passed basic safety training. One of the critical piece of knowledge I recall learning was how to safely pass a sharp item from one person to another. When the person receiving the bladed tool had safely gotten a grip on the item, they said "Thank you," as a sign to the giver that the transaction had taken place.
----
The person who does not say "thank you" in this case is dangerous, because the acknowledgement of an exchange is rather unclear. In a similar way, when we fail to acknowledge the benefits we have (or the detriments we avoid), our danger becomes one of ingratitude, of entitlement. Without changing our attitude to one of gratitude, we may continue to expect that more benefits should be heaped upon us.
Incidentally, how many over the course of the last decade have noticed the patriotic phrase "God Bless America" in speeches or on bumper stickers? Has America not already been richly blessed in so many ways? "Astoundingly so!" a reflective person might say. And yet the prevailing attitude of our country has been one of expectations of greater wealth and economic growth, with little acknowledgment of the blessings thus far received.
As a nation--and equally as important, as individuals--our change to a state of gratitude has the potential to work miracles. When we realize what we have been given, our modus operandi changes. The recognition of our wealth turns us away from habits of acquiring and consuming, and away from resistive re-gifting, and toward generosity. The fundamental gift of life calls us to give and to pass it on. Not simply by giving life to new human babies, but by spreading greater life, energy, and love to all the people and beings with which we come into contact.
By acknowledging the privileges obtained by virtue of having a certain gender, race, class, sexual orientation, ability, or nationality, we become aware of clear paths for re-gifting gifts that never ought to have been bestowed unjustly in the first place. Our privileges can be powerful tools for creating equality. Whenever greater equality is achieved and recognized, the gratitude becomes a chain and the world becomes richer.
We each are given the gift of one life, and we each have whatever time, ability, and energy left to do what we will in the world. Some people have become great leaders and turned their lives into amazing works of justice--people like Jesus, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, MLK, Cesar Chavez, and Dorothy Day. But for every one of those well-known saints, there are thousands of people playing supporting roles in those movements. And for every preeminent social movement, there are thousands of unrecognized or anonymous movements that support the lives of smaller communities, families and individuals.
So...you may be blessed with the skills and opportunities to be a great leader. Or you may be blessed with money, energy or time to re-gift toward important projects. Or you may be blessed with a mind, a heart, a voice, hands, and a body, each of which you can create new gifts.
Whatever gifts you have been given, receive them and acknowledge them.
And then let your life be a Thank You!
lyrics: "If the Sun refused to shine, I would still be loving you."
from Thank You, by Led Zeppelin
colors: Green and gold. (A lush grass-green, and real gold, not Green Bay Packer green-and-gold.)
mood: grateful
chant/prayer/mantra: thanks.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Thank you!
For reasons that I am not even fully aware of, and from the bottom of my heart, I am compelled to repeat, "Thank you!"
To each of you here sitting in this space, most of whom I have yet to fully meet and get to know, to an indefinite number of people who have come before and left traces of beauty in this life for me to enjoy, and to all of the plants and animals, this Earth, the Sun, Moon and stars, and to all of the energy and matter in the universe that has come together to make this moment and every other moment, I just want to say, "Thank you!"
My list of blessings in this life has been long. The gift of life from our parents is something each of us were granted through no doing of our own, as far as we know or could attempt to prove. We just arrived here into life. I don't even know who all to be grateful to for this life. My parents were most directly responsible, but for all I know I might want to thank my father's employers for giving him a raise, or my older sisters for both being girls, or perhaps the quality control person at the condom factory for being lax in their duties because it was a Friday.
It's not just the simple gift of life to be grateful for, but to be born into this time and this place. To have the privileges of a family with enough money, that values education; to be born into this world by chance male and white and "straight" in a time and place where those attributes often carry benefits.
And I'm grateful not just for the gift of life, but the gifts that have sustained life. To be born on a planet with the right molecular mix in the air, soil and water--where plants grow easily from seeds, with water and a little care, and to be born into a time with domesticated livestock and to be raised to find them tasty.
I'm grateful to those who have created social systems and technologies that have helped to boost up the quality of life for me, even when those social systems and technologies have caused harm to our environment and to the quality of life of others. And I am grateful to the environment and to those people who have been oppressed for suffering through the damage caused by the inherent evils (or evil byproducts) of those same social systems and technologies.
So many blessings have come to me, and to many of us here, and I think it's of utmost importance that we acknowledge those blessings in all their fullness, even if that stings sometimes. Because by being in life, whatever lot we've received, we are each blessed in fundamental ways just to be alive and aware in the universe--as the universe experiencing itself!
That acknowledgment is critical. The gratitude that we can put forth is critical, because it changes our state of being. The existence of gratitude changes our attitude.
----
In Boy Scouts, in order to use a knife or saw or axe--anything with a blade, it was important to have your "Totin' Chip" card, which meant you'd passed basic safety training. One of the critical piece of knowledge I recall learning was how to safely pass a sharp item from one person to another. When the person receiving the bladed tool had safely gotten a grip on the item, they said "Thank you," as a sign to the giver that the transaction had taken place.
----
The person who does not say "thank you" in this case is dangerous, because the acknowledgement of an exchange is rather unclear. In a similar way, when we fail to acknowledge the benefits we have (or the detriments we avoid), our danger becomes one of ingratitude, of entitlement. Without changing our attitude to one of gratitude, we may continue to expect that more benefits should be heaped upon us.
Incidentally, how many over the course of the last decade have noticed the patriotic phrase "God Bless America" in speeches or on bumper stickers? Has America not already been richly blessed in so many ways? "Astoundingly so!" a reflective person might say. And yet the prevailing attitude of our country has been one of expectations of greater wealth and economic growth, with little acknowledgment of the blessings thus far received.
As a nation--and equally as important, as individuals--our change to a state of gratitude has the potential to work miracles. When we realize what we have been given, our modus operandi changes. The recognition of our wealth turns us away from habits of acquiring and consuming, and away from resistive re-gifting, and toward generosity. The fundamental gift of life calls us to give and to pass it on. Not simply by giving life to new human babies, but by spreading greater life, energy, and love to all the people and beings with which we come into contact.
By acknowledging the privileges obtained by virtue of having a certain gender, race, class, sexual orientation, ability, or nationality, we become aware of clear paths for re-gifting gifts that never ought to have been bestowed unjustly in the first place. Our privileges can be powerful tools for creating equality. Whenever greater equality is achieved and recognized, the gratitude becomes a chain and the world becomes richer.
We each are given the gift of one life, and we each have whatever time, ability, and energy left to do what we will in the world. Some people have become great leaders and turned their lives into amazing works of justice--people like Jesus, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, MLK, Cesar Chavez, and Dorothy Day. But for every one of those well-known saints, there are thousands of people playing supporting roles in those movements. And for every preeminent social movement, there are thousands of unrecognized or anonymous movements that support the lives of smaller communities, families and individuals.
So...you may be blessed with the skills and opportunities to be a great leader. Or you may be blessed with money, energy or time to re-gift toward important projects. Or you may be blessed with a mind, a heart, a voice, hands, and a body, each of which you can create new gifts.
Whatever gifts you have been given, receive them and acknowledge them.
And then let your life be a Thank You!
lyrics: "If the Sun refused to shine, I would still be loving you."
from Thank You, by Led Zeppelin
colors: Green and gold. (A lush grass-green, and real gold, not Green Bay Packer green-and-gold.)
mood: grateful
chant/prayer/mantra: thanks.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: interconnected web, paradigm shift, Process Thought, restorative justice, sermons, theology
Monday, October 26, 2009
What does the clove cigarette ban tell us?
.
From the FDA's website:
This is remarkably similar to the conspiracy of the corporate power grab against industrial hemp, except this one is obvious and right in front of us. It's hard to say where the industrial hemp suppression originally came from, but at this stage, it's obvious that it should no longer be suppressed (for environmental and economic reasons). The main reasons now for not legalizing industrial hemp are:
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
From the FDA's website:
On September 22, 2009 a ban on cigarettes containing certain characterizing flavors went into effect. The ban, authorized by the new Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, is part of a national effort by FDA to reduce smoking in America.According to the act
…a cigarette or any of its component parts (including the tobacco, filter, or paper) shall not contain, as a constituent (including a smoke constituent) or additive, an artificial or natural flavor (other than tobacco or menthol) or an herb or spice, including strawberry, grape, orange, clove, cinnamon, pineapple, vanilla, coconut, licorice, cocoa, chocolate, cherry, or coffee, that is a characterizing flavor of the tobacco product or tobacco smoke
- They're not banning menthol cigarettes, which are a major cash cow for American cigarette companies. Clove cigarettes are imported from Indonesia.
- Kids who smoke haven't heard of clove cigarettes, and typically smoke marlboros or camels. The big demographic to be affected by this: people who wear black and go to Cure concerts, NOT kids.
- They're not banning flavored alcohol (wine coolers, schnapps, the new Bacardi-Ice-type malt beverages, etc), which kids DO consume.
- If we're serious about stopping kids from smoking, why not ban cigarettes outright? Are the big US tobacco companies still pushing it to kids overseas?
This is remarkably similar to the conspiracy of the corporate power grab against industrial hemp, except this one is obvious and right in front of us. It's hard to say where the industrial hemp suppression originally came from, but at this stage, it's obvious that it should no longer be suppressed (for environmental and economic reasons). The main reasons now for not legalizing industrial hemp are:
- There actually now are competing industries (oil, ethanol, timber/paper, cotton) that don't want hemp back in the mix because it is a mighty useful plant.
- It is not easy to tell from a distance whether a plant is industrial hemp or actually contains cannibis flowers on it. My guess is that as long as the war on marijuana continues, there will be little headway made against laws pertaining to growing hemp.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: drug war, economics, indifferent corporations, interconnected web, racism, renewable energy
Saturday, August 15, 2009
The Problem of Plastic
.
Plastic is problematic for many reasons.
First, it's made from oil, which might well be usable in other ways in the future that we haven't even thought of yet, but we're running through at a breakneck pace.
Second, it doesn't biodegrade.
Third, it's polluting our oceans and killing them. Here is some important recent information about the garbage patches in the Pacific Ocean, along with their effects.
In short, we need to:
lyrics:
"Tried to save the trees
Bought a plastic bag
The bottom fell out
It was a piece of crap"
From Piece of Crap, by Neil Young
colors: color of clear plastic 6-pack can ring containers. (I always cut them up so they don't get caught on the birds' necks if they get into the wild, but really that's nowhere near enough.)
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Plastic is problematic for many reasons.
First, it's made from oil, which might well be usable in other ways in the future that we haven't even thought of yet, but we're running through at a breakneck pace.
Second, it doesn't biodegrade.
Third, it's polluting our oceans and killing them. Here is some important recent information about the garbage patches in the Pacific Ocean, along with their effects.
In short, we need to:
- Discontinue using nonbiodegradable plastic, and switch to other materials for our bags, our products, and our drinking/storage vessels.
- Gather up all of the plastic on land and store it safely, or put it to good use where it won't go missing in the ocean, killing untolled wildlife populations.
- Design some type of swimming robots that can identify and capture plastic in our oceans, and return it back to land.
- Educate everybody about plastics, and find new ways of living where plastic plays a dramatically different role in our lives.
lyrics:
"Tried to save the trees
Bought a plastic bag
The bottom fell out
It was a piece of crap"
From Piece of Crap, by Neil Young
colors: color of clear plastic 6-pack can ring containers. (I always cut them up so they don't get caught on the birds' necks if they get into the wild, but really that's nowhere near enough.)
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: economics, environment, indifferent corporations, interconnected web, paradigm shift
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Housing the Homeless on a Budget
.
I just came across this story about a developer in India who is building and selling condominium apartments for between $7800 and $13,400 each. That's not annual rent. That is the price it costs to purchase and own these units. Here's the simple floorplans, ranging in size from 283 to 465 square feet. This is the same guy who developed and marketed the $2000 car.
According to a study two years ago, there were 744,000 homeless people in the United States. The average price of one of these condominiums is $10,000.
Okay, let's do the math. But first, let's say that apartments like this actually cost a little more to build in the United States. Say it costs twice that, so it's $20,000 per condominium. And let's assume that the number of homeless in the U.S. has tripled with this economic recession/depression, so we have an estimate of roughly 2.5 million homeless now.
And let's assume that not every homeless person is single, and that these apartments are going to be suitable for two people each. That means we divide by two.
DOING THE MATH:
I've already done this math before. This is the second time I've specifically mentioned this here. My thinking this time agrees with my thinking then.
The United States is a sad, sad place if we can't do this. No, it's not that we can't do it. It's that those who control where resources go refuse (or do not have the will) to do it. Guilt and shame, to the highest order of magnitude, rides upon the heads of all those who have the capacity to make this happen but do not. HERE IS A CASE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN WRIT LARGE, and being "good Sam" in this case doesn't even require these people to spend their own money to make it happen -- only to dedicate a portion of the budget from our commonwealth. Honor and true pride can swell within those who dedicate resources to making this happen, and see it through.
And I realize that I was here talking about the United States, because that is presently the primary domain of my jurisdiction, but this simple mathematics can be extended to everywhere on the planet. If there are 500 million people without homes across this planet, the math works out to 2.5 trillion dollars. A seemingly large sum, but not when you think about it over the long haul, and of the benefits it would provide.
lyrics:
"Feed the babies
Who don't have enough to eat
Shoe the children
With no shoes on their feet
House the people
Livin' in the street
Oh, oh, theres a solution."
From Fly Like an Eagle, by Steve Miller
colors: Brown, as in the new mud huts for everyone. BTW, I hope that these apartments are eco-friendly. For this to be a real solution, they should be as eco-friendly and sustainable as possible.
mood: Hopeful.
chant/prayer/mantra: A place for everybody.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
PS- Here's an even more affordable housing design, perhaps preferable, and from a company with a true eco-friendly, people-friendly mission statement.
I just came across this story about a developer in India who is building and selling condominium apartments for between $7800 and $13,400 each. That's not annual rent. That is the price it costs to purchase and own these units. Here's the simple floorplans, ranging in size from 283 to 465 square feet. This is the same guy who developed and marketed the $2000 car.
According to a study two years ago, there were 744,000 homeless people in the United States. The average price of one of these condominiums is $10,000.Okay, let's do the math. But first, let's say that apartments like this actually cost a little more to build in the United States. Say it costs twice that, so it's $20,000 per condominium. And let's assume that the number of homeless in the U.S. has tripled with this economic recession/depression, so we have an estimate of roughly 2.5 million homeless now.
And let's assume that not every homeless person is single, and that these apartments are going to be suitable for two people each. That means we divide by two.
DOING THE MATH:
2,500,000 x 20,000 / 2 = ?For only 25 billion dollars, the United States could have addresses for every homeless person, and a place to lay their head down and call their own. Without home addresses, it's really difficult to get a job, because where will potential employers contact you? This would only help the economy. We spent 700 billion dollars (and much much more) to try and bail out the bankers (who by and large still have homes after screwing us, thank you very much). That is 28 times as much as it would cost to give all of our homeless people homes.
25 billion dollars!
I've already done this math before. This is the second time I've specifically mentioned this here. My thinking this time agrees with my thinking then.
The United States is a sad, sad place if we can't do this. No, it's not that we can't do it. It's that those who control where resources go refuse (or do not have the will) to do it. Guilt and shame, to the highest order of magnitude, rides upon the heads of all those who have the capacity to make this happen but do not. HERE IS A CASE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN WRIT LARGE, and being "good Sam" in this case doesn't even require these people to spend their own money to make it happen -- only to dedicate a portion of the budget from our commonwealth. Honor and true pride can swell within those who dedicate resources to making this happen, and see it through.
And I realize that I was here talking about the United States, because that is presently the primary domain of my jurisdiction, but this simple mathematics can be extended to everywhere on the planet. If there are 500 million people without homes across this planet, the math works out to 2.5 trillion dollars. A seemingly large sum, but not when you think about it over the long haul, and of the benefits it would provide.
lyrics:
"Feed the babies
Who don't have enough to eat
Shoe the children
With no shoes on their feet
House the people
Livin' in the street
Oh, oh, theres a solution."
From Fly Like an Eagle, by Steve Miller
colors: Brown, as in the new mud huts for everyone. BTW, I hope that these apartments are eco-friendly. For this to be a real solution, they should be as eco-friendly and sustainable as possible.
mood: Hopeful.
chant/prayer/mantra: A place for everybody.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
PS- Here's an even more affordable housing design, perhaps preferable, and from a company with a true eco-friendly, people-friendly mission statement.
Labels: anti-oppression, changing the prison paradigm, economics, homelessness, interconnected web, paradigm shift, restorative justice, USA
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Invisible Children: Rescue Effort
.
A friend recently sent an email to me about how his 19 year old daughter is going to abduct herself, and ask Barack Obama to come save her, in order to call attention to an ongoing atrocity in Northern Uganda, in which a man named Joseph Kony has been kidnapping kids and forcing them to become brutal soldiers.
Several hundred youths have put up videos on YouTube.com to get the attention of celebrities, and include this text in the Information box to the right of the videos:
I wish them well in their effort, and it will be interesting to see how this form of information activism changes the world. Would it necessarily be a bad thing if more and more causes started to saturate the new airwaves, to direct us toward the things that really need attention?
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
A friend recently sent an email to me about how his 19 year old daughter is going to abduct herself, and ask Barack Obama to come save her, in order to call attention to an ongoing atrocity in Northern Uganda, in which a man named Joseph Kony has been kidnapping kids and forcing them to become brutal soldiers.
Several hundred youths have put up videos on YouTube.com to get the attention of celebrities, and include this text in the Information box to the right of the videos:
We want YOU to come to The Rescue! April 25th, 2009! Watch the movie about the situation in Uganda and The Congo at therescue.invisiblechildren.com And contact us (publicists, assistants, offices, moms) if you are willing to come or have questions at therescue@invisiblechildren.com
I wish them well in their effort, and it will be interesting to see how this form of information activism changes the world. Would it necessarily be a bad thing if more and more causes started to saturate the new airwaves, to direct us toward the things that really need attention?
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: globalism, interconnected web, paradigm shift
Thursday, March 19, 2009
How Much Water?
Something has been on my mind for the last few years, and I'm finally doing a little research. Fortunately, it's easy.
I wanted to know how much water does it take to make certain products, so that I can make better decisions when choosing. Here are a few that I want to know:
Here's a quiz.
Here's the answers to the quiz, because they make you go through heck and high water just to get this important information.
Water required to make one pair of jeans: 1800 gallons
Water required to make one loaf of store bought bread: 1000 gallons
Water required to make one cotton T-shirt: 400 gallons
Water required to make one ounce glass of milk: 48 gallons
Water required to make one pound of plastic: 24 gallons
Water required to make one keg of beer: 1500 gallons
Water required to make one new car: 39,090 gallons
Here's another little one, to figure out how much fresh water it actually takes to make your FOOD.
chant/prayer/mantra: I think Blogger lost my most recent edits for this post. I had some more answers, but here's a picture of some...
Song Lyrics:
From "Story of my life" by Mary Livermore, p. 254
Oh, brethren pray, for cloudy is my way;
Go send dem angels down!
Dere's a fire in de East, an' a fire in de West;
Go send dem angels down!
Ole Satan's mad, an' I am glad;
Go send dem angels down!
He'll miss one soul he t'ought he had;
Go send dem angels down!
I tell yo' now, as I told yo' befo';
Go send dem angels down!
T' de promi' lan' I'm boun' t' go;
Go send dem angels down!
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
I wanted to know how much water does it take to make certain products, so that I can make better decisions when choosing. Here are a few that I want to know:
- How much to make a computer, desktop or laptop? Or even just how much to make a circuit board or chip...
- How much to make a 1 Liter plastic bottle to put a liter of water into?
- How much to make a 500 sheet ream of paper from scratch? And from recycled materials? And therefore, how much water to make a single sheet of paper?
- How much water to make a hammer, or a saw?
- How much water to make all sorts of plastic doo-dads?
- How much to make clothes from natural fabrics? From synthetics?
- How much for a paper bag or plastic bag at the grocery store?
Here's a quiz.
Here's the answers to the quiz, because they make you go through heck and high water just to get this important information.
Water required to make one pair of jeans: 1800 gallons
Water required to make one loaf of store bought bread: 1000 gallons
Water required to make one cotton T-shirt: 400 gallons
Water required to make one ounce glass of milk: 48 gallons
Water required to make one pound of plastic: 24 gallons
Water required to make one keg of beer: 1500 gallons
Water required to make one new car: 39,090 gallons
Here's another little one, to figure out how much fresh water it actually takes to make your FOOD.
chant/prayer/mantra: I think Blogger lost my most recent edits for this post. I had some more answers, but here's a picture of some...
Song Lyrics:
From "Story of my life" by Mary Livermore, p. 254
Oh, brethren pray, for cloudy is my way;
Go send dem angels down!
Dere's a fire in de East, an' a fire in de West;
Go send dem angels down!
Ole Satan's mad, an' I am glad;
Go send dem angels down!
He'll miss one soul he t'ought he had;
Go send dem angels down!
I tell yo' now, as I told yo' befo';
Go send dem angels down!
T' de promi' lan' I'm boun' t' go;
Go send dem angels down!
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: economics, environment, interconnected web, salvation, water justice
Monday, March 16, 2009
Deforestation in Ariquernes, Brazil
.
Here is a satellite's eye view of the deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest.
I just thought I'd leave a note here on my blog that I saw it. It looks like one helluva scar, 100 miles wide by 400 miles long. One big scar, about the size of Kentucky!
And another view of an area called Ruropolis (I wonder who named it that?)
Where does all that wood GO TO??? Is the land usable after it's been clear-cut?
chant/prayer/mantra: For our home, Earth. May we see fit to bless it and save it and all its creatures from ourselves, before it pays us back.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Here is a satellite's eye view of the deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest.
I just thought I'd leave a note here on my blog that I saw it. It looks like one helluva scar, 100 miles wide by 400 miles long. One big scar, about the size of Kentucky!
And another view of an area called Ruropolis (I wonder who named it that?)
Where does all that wood GO TO??? Is the land usable after it's been clear-cut?
chant/prayer/mantra: For our home, Earth. May we see fit to bless it and save it and all its creatures from ourselves, before it pays us back.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: economics, environment, interconnected web, theological sources, Universalism
Friday, March 13, 2009
Speaking of slow --> The Anatomy of a Snail
Click here, and see if you can guess where the various organs of a snail actually reside.
I could not. At first, I was even thinking that the head was on the left, which really made it difficult.
lyrics:
"It's conditional
Not for free
There are strings attached
Tied to me
I'll want something back
If you agree
To be in love with me."
From Conditional, by Tracy Chapman
Oh, and regarding the "Speaking of slow" comment in the title. I was referring to the previous post's sermon, where I was referring to photons of light from the Sun's core.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
I could not. At first, I was even thinking that the head was on the left, which really made it difficult.
lyrics:
"It's conditional
Not for free
There are strings attached
Tied to me
I'll want something back
If you agree
To be in love with me."
From Conditional, by Tracy Chapman
Oh, and regarding the "Speaking of slow" comment in the title. I was referring to the previous post's sermon, where I was referring to photons of light from the Sun's core.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: audio, interconnected web, renewable energy, theological sources
