COUNTING MY BLESSINGS

Life can be short and unpredictable, yet I have so far escaped serious trauma. My husband, parents and brothers are all still alive and well.

Two weeks ago, our good friend Lyle suddenly lost his brother to cancer. Karen, my riding buddy, lost her mother last month and Nancy, another friend lost her husband last year. Both of Bob's parents have left this world.

When I look into the eyes of these friends of mine, I am reminded of how lucky I am. When I think of their loss, I know what I must do. I must make every day count. I must honor every interaction with those I love and care for. I must be mindful and count my blessings.

A PERFECT CHISTMAS DAY

Bob and I had a perfect Christmas Day. We lazed around in the morning and then took some food over to Jason and Haruka's at noon. Bob showed us how to make Seitan and I made some seitan lunchmeat. David came by and we walked through the woods to play some disc golf at Augusta.

We saw a flash of orange (it's still deer hunting season) and here came Lyle walking through the woods towards us. He joined us on the course, which he created on his property. We have not played with him since his brother Mark died a week and a half ago.

The weather was blue sky, sunny, warm, gentle puffs of breeze perfect! Absolutely the best weather imaginable. There was silence between shots, while we waited for the next Frisbee tosser to line up their shot and in that silence we listened to the birds and the gentle swish of the pines.

Bob and Lyle and I are birders so I was paying particular attention to the bird calls and at one point asked, "What is that bird?" Lyle listened and answered, "I don't know." And that was the hole he threw a birdie at.

We were all playing well and Lyle threw a putt from nearly 100 feet which landed in the basket with a resounding "Ka-ching!" Everybody ran up and gave him high fives and he was beaming. He was one under par and it was the best shot any of us had ever seen him make. I wondered if Mark was helping him by blowing little puffs of air under the disk to make it float better.

After we played, Lyle walked back through the woods with us and Greg arrived. Jason broke out an expensive bottle of Japanese liquor and poured everyone but Greg, the teetotaler, a drink. We sat on the deck behind Scott and Rachel's house and drank and chatted as the sun went down and the temperature began to drop.

Lyle borrowed Greg's phone and called Tami. She came over and we went back to Jason and Haruka's to finish pulling dinner together. Haruka showed us how to make Daikon "steaks", Greg fried up some awesome potato latkes and David brought some biscuits and Challa he had baked. We all ate and drank some more and laughed and listened to that silly Christmas music Bob brought (Bob Rivers' hysterical Christmas Carol parodies.)

Tami and Lyle went home to be with the kids who had called, wanting some mom and dad time, and Greg did the dishes with help from the rest of us. Then we played a card game called Apples and Apples. It was quite the fine afternoon/evening in every way and Bob and I were glowing by the time we went home.


The after dinner group that remained after Lyle and Tami went home.

WHAT'S FEEDING OUR FOOD?

The true horror behind CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) is the destruction wrought by GM Soy. Whether it is in this country or elsewhere, agribusiness kills habitat, destroys the land and displaces families.

A report by campaign group Friends of the Earth is to be published on Tuesday to focus the attention of UK consumers and the government on the scale of this destruction. It will detail for the first time the cutting, burning and spraying that occurs as a consequence. The report, What's Feeding our Food?, will start a campaign urging the government to take action, ending subsidies and other policies that encourage intensive farming and making sure public money spent on food is not propping up damaging practices.

Across the main soya-producing countries of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, an area the size of California has been cleared for this one crop. >snip<

The destruction wreaked by soya has forced about 90,000 families in the neighbouring state of Caaguazú to leave their homes since the mid-Nineties, according to Javiera Rulli, a biologist for Asunción-based research group BASE, and the editor of a book on soya's expansion in South America.
>snip<

Although it is hard to prove any one person or village has been poisoned by the farming chemicals, the World Health Organisation estimates that, excluding suicide, 355,000 people a year are poisoned by chemicals, and agrochemicals are a major contributor, particularly pesticides.

UNCONDITIONAL RESPECT

Link stopped by today and we had a long three way conversation with Bob about this and that. Eventually, the topic of unconditional love came up. Bob referred to something Kurt Vonnegut Jr. wrote about people getting hung up on the word love, as in "love thy neighbor." Vonnegut suggested we substitute the word "respect" to make it easier to swallow.

A discussion about the difference between love and respect ensued and out of it came the question, "Can you love someone even if you don't respect them?" My answer was "No." To me, the kind of love you would give someone you don't respect is not really love.

After Link left, I started thinking about the news stories I've been reading on the web about my brother Joe. Apparently, he wrote a letter and sent it to all 15,000 of his parishioners advising them to get absolution before taking communion if they had knowingly voted for a pro-choice candidate and had understood the implications of that according to the church at the time they voted.

I had to think on this for a little while before coming to the conclusion that I still respect my brother as well as love him even though I don't agree with his position. I believe in the separation of church and state and in a woman's right to make a choice without breaking the law or risking a back alley abortion. I believe that American fetuses are no more sacred than Iraqi citizens, some of them undoubtedly pregnant women.

But regardless of the issues, I can respect my brother for doing what he feels is right, namely advising his parishioners regarding their spiritual health. Now I'll have to give some thought to how I might feel if someone I love did something I couldn't respect or even of what that something might possibly be. I figure if someone does something that I can understand and it doesn't cause me pain, then I can probably respect them for it.

That Link - always thinking and now he's got me thinking, too.

ANOTHER BLACK FRIDAY, ANOTHER DEADLY STAMPEDE

Today is the day after Thanksgiving and to many it means "shop 'till you drop." Which is what literally happened today in New York City when a stampede of shoppers who had been queuing up in front of the store since 9:00PM Thanksgiving evening trampled a store employee to death.

Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death

At 3:30 a.m., store employees called the Nassau police to report that the crowd was growing quickly, the police said. Officers came by to try to organize the line, but were called away to a Circuit City, a Best Buy and a B.J.’s Wholesale Club nearby, to deal with crowds there.

A half-dozen Wal-Mart employees lined up in the entryway trying to hold back the crowd by pushing against the locked sliding doors, but they were overwhelmed by the force of the crowd, Lieutenant Fleming said.

As the doors snapped open and people streamed in, several people fell on top of one another. The 34-year-old employee who died was at the bottom of the pile, the police said.

Lieutenant Fleming said that the store “could have done more” to prevent the melee.

“I’ve heard other people call this an accident, but it’s not,” he said. “This certainly was foreseeable.”

SOME OF MY HEROS HAVE WINGS

Last weekend Bob and I joined Matt and Lyle for a trip to the shore to join a group of writers and activists at Orion's Grassroots Network Southeast Regional Conference in Columbia, NC. Over our two days there, we enjoyed a good mix of idea exchange, campfire, hiking and birdwatching.



Our group of twenty-six nature loving, intelligent idealists (is that an oxymoron?) brought stories of the battles they have fought or are fighting for change. We talked about the words we use to put labels on people and how those people are all basically the same.

We discussed the implied meanings of words like Hope and Industrialists. We talked about how overpopulation, over consumption, corporate personhood, politics, the plantation mentality, willful ignorance and the military industrial complex all contribute to the destruction of Southern wetlands and compromise the health of the people of the South.

There were many wonderfully articulate speakers with great ideas but I was extremely impressed by one participant in particular. Virginia Townsend, a retired teacher who lost at lease nine members of her family to the polluting industries in her community and who has since put her shoulder to the wheel to educate her neighbors and enforce anti-pollution restrictions. She was the only woman of color in the room but she didn't let that stop her from speaking from her heart about her experiences.

All my life we've had to play a game, being black. You know your place and you'd best stay in it. Labels can be draining, embarrassing. But labels -- knowing who a person is -- is helpful. To acknowledge differences between people isn’t necessarily wrong. Everybody has a right to be who they are. We’re all different and that's to be respected.

Con men study the people. The first person to come into the room and say something smart will find followers. That’s how so many get over on people. Basically corporations go in and study the people before they put a plant in.

Writers have a great advantage. Writing is a great medium. I’ve read books that gave me a completely different view of a person. Like the essay the other night. When people read those words, I can’t see how they’re not touched. Sometimes a simple play changes the face of the world.

You can't get to where you need to go, if you don't know where you are. If you want to keep a people down, you’ve gotta stay down with them.

REASON TO HOPE

Like many, I'm breathing easier today. Despite my naturally cynical nature, I'm hopeful that Obama can begin to turn things around. While my rabid liberal side wants an immediate end to war and health care for all, my experience with horse training tells me I need to settle for small steps in the right direction.

It was a news story that helped me realize I was feeling hopeful. Especially this bit about farm reform:

How about repealing the $307 billion farm bill and slashing subsidies — especially the for-no-apparent-reason "direct payments" we send to commodity farmers in good times and bad. Farm lobbyists will squeal, but 60% of U.S. farmers receive no subsidies. Instead, Obama can increase conservation subsidies for farmers who adopt green practices.

ORGANIZED ANARCHY

Bob and I met Trace and his partner Kristin recently when they moved up here from the coast. Kristin is a media activist. and co-founder of Be Yr Own Hero.

Trace works at Eastern Carolina Organics, a marketing and distribution service for local organic fruits and vegetables. Trace also hand makes books and writes an excellent blog called Cricket Bread.

Basically, they both live and breathe Anarchy, something which up until now is a concept I've been having difficulty grasping. Fortunately, Trace does a masterful job of making the concept clear in his latest blog entry.

In his words, Anarchism is "community based, non-hierarchical, inclusive, effective, non-governmental, do-it-yourself, consensus-based, and sustainable."

All those things we stand for as individuals, we can stand for together! Who knew? If there is any chance the working class can beat the corporations which run our world, this is it.



To date, we have ordered three of Trace's hand made books and are quite impressed with his writing and his workmanship.

I VOTED "YES!"

I voted early and I voted "Yes" to:

Peace
Health care
Civil Liberties
Fair Trade
Solar Energy
Electoral Reform
Instant Run-off Voting
Impeachment for Bush and Cheney
A Foreign Policy based on Diplomacy
A Wall Street Securities Speculation Tax

I voted "No" to:
Militarism as a way of life
A Foreign Policy based on War
The Bailouts
Nuclear Power
Clean Coal
Free Trade
Corporate Crime
Anti-Union Laws

I voted for issues, not rhetoric. I voted for people, not corporations and their rich CEOs.
I voted to cut the huge, bloated, wasteful military budget to a level needed to protect the country.
I voted to reverse U.S. Policy in the Middle East, including a rapid withdrawal of troops from Iraq and an end to support for the militarists in Israel.
I voted to adopt single payer national health insurance that would save $350 billion and apply those savings to comprehensively cover all Americans for all medically necessary services.
I voted to end Corporate Personhood. See Licensed to Kill.
I voted to stop subsidizing entrenched oil, nuclear, electric, coal mining, and biofuel interests and to invest heavily in solar and wind and in more efficient homes, automobiles, businesses and government facilities.
I voted for a first-class, high-speed passenger rail system that will save more than it costs.
I voted to tax the buying and selling of blocks of derivatives for profit so as to help lower income taxes on the working class, reduce speculation in the markets and increase stability in the oil and mortgage industries.
I voted against NAFTA and the WTO, which make commercial trade supreme over environmental, labor, and consumer standards.
I voted against the winner-take-all election system which often pushes voters to vote their fears and not their beliefs - or to simply not vote at all.

I voted with my heart, with my brain, and with my values. I voted for Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez.


"There are those that are gonna say that what we're doing is gonna take votes from other candidates. Let me just emphasize this: There's nothing that we do that can force anybody to vote for us, but we very much want the opposite not to be true - that anybody that wants to vote for us should not be forced to vote for other candidates.

If there is any candidate that fears what we're trying to do here, then I invite them to go out and earn the votes that would otherwise be cast for us. We are in a democracy, that's how it works. Candidates with different opinions put them forward and go compete for votes." - Matt Gonzalez

WHEN THE CAT'S AWAY, THE MICE WILL PLAY

Priorities. Our government has them, but they don't resonate with many of our personal values. One good example is a bloated military budget (an amazing $515.4 Billion or 16.5% of our budget earmarked for 2009) when one out of every three Americans is left without adequate health care.

Another good example is the government's obsession with terrorism. While the fat cats on Wall Street are robbing us blind, the FBI is kept busy wiretapping our phones and reading our emails.

F.B.I. Struggles to Handle Wave of Financial Fraud Cases

Since 2004, F.B.I. officials have warned that mortgage fraud posed a looming threat, and the bureau has repeatedly asked the Bush administration for more money to replenish the ranks of agents handling nonterrorism investigations, according to records and interviews. But each year, the requests have been denied, with no new agents approved for financial crimes, as policy makers focused on counterterrorism.
>snip<

Some critics question whether the shift indicates not just a lack of resources, but a lack of interest by the Bush administration.