The biologist E O Wilson, upon seeing the mass extinction taking place on the Earth due to human spoilage and encroachment on habitats, decided to implement Half-Earth > to set aside half of the earth and water in the most biodiverse regions, to ensure the survival, rather than extinction of species.
It will take all of us, because Climate Catastrophe i.e. Global Warming and the 6th Mass Extinction can be slowed down, if we all stand up and do something to contribute our energy, intention and make the effort to change habits and recognize the part that we play (either contributing to destruction (through continued development and construction) or acting as protectors and being kind and respectful to all other species, rather than being human centric and negligent to all other life on the planet.
My daddy, James Marcus Keiter, was born on October 19th, so I’m putting out this tribute to his life. He was kind, very responsible and a devoted husband and father.
Bleeding Hearts, that grew wild in our back yard.
He was a musician, a clarinetist, throughout high school, college and medical school. He decided not to pursue this career however. He also was a runner on track through college as well as tennis player and skier throughout his adult life.
James Marcus in his youth…running track
He had is medical practice as a physician in the first home in Campbelltown (where he’d do ‘house calls’). Later, he started an Emergency Room unit with several other doctors at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Lebanon.
He had a love for nature, animals and the outdoors, and shared this with his family.
He and my mother moved to a new home in Palmyra which was built new on a hill, where the two of them planted 50 pine trees and landscaped a lovely yard that was a nature habitat for wildlife. They had a garden and grew herbs as well.
Here’s a link to spring photos in the Keiter yard, where among the pines and other trees, were flower gardens and azalea and rhododendron bushes. They also had a marvelous ebullient wisteria, which had a thick twisted trunk and full aromatic flowers (which the new home owners incredulously chopped down, along with all the bushes that lined the house in the front which were safe places for birds, groundhogs, skunks and chipmunks to pass through and nest).
He painted water colors as he approached retirement, and then prolifically once he retired. Unfortunately these images that I took have a light glare/reflection from my camera, and nativity about how to properly record them. But i did, and here’s the link to his watercolor paintings (and wood carvings).
James Marcus Keiter watercolorJames Marcus Keiter watercolor Snow Drifts
My mother Lois and he loved to dance and would go out to dances often.
James and Lois Keiter (with Kitty Ulrich, husband Bob not in the pic) – who were each doctors and their best friends.
They also participated in a gourmet club among their friends, as well as getting together to play tennis regularly.
They learned to snow ski together and introduced this sport to their children, for which I’m very grateful.
I accompanied them to an outdoor classical music concert.
He was often working in the yard, which was a wonderland growing up. I grew up among pet dogs and cats, for which I’m very fortunate.
My father had a workshop in the basement where he’d build frames for his paintings and so forth.
He and my mother read a lot together. He devoured books about history.
They went to art gallery openings and concerts as well as supporting the local high school team sports games.
Lois and Jim walking with canes in the backyard wildlife habitat they created.
My parents hosted extended family Thanksgiving Dinners every year for 30 + years, where his brothers, and then their children, all gathered for the Turkey and meal which my mother and father prepared.
Rest in Peace Daddy ~ I appreciate very much the life you gave to me and my sisters and brother and am sure that your father Charles A. Keiter, a Lutheran Minister (who died 4 years before I was born) and mother were proud.
“Esteemed naturalist and biologist E.O. Wilson and co-founder of the Half-Earth Project appeared at the 2021 Global Live Concert at Central Park, NY as the guest of legendary singer-songwriter Paul Simon
Simon, who is also a Member of the Board of Directors of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, also performed at the Global Live Concert, a 24-hour live event broadcast across six continents, features activists and internationally recognized musicians in a global event to unite the world, defend the planet and defeat poverty.”
Yes, we actually live in a potential paradise, but our heads are submerged in an oil slick; worshipping the military industrialized, oil-driven processes that dominate our natural world. Running the machinery of BIG agriculture, fishing, animal livestock, combustion engines, lawn mowers, blowers…all lubricate our idolatry of objectifying and wishing to dominate everything. Banks and Big business love our mass consumerism. We are completely disconnected from one another and from the natural world. In the meantime, we compete and compare and continue to manufacture and build with full negligence – disinterest about what we’re destroying and the species that we’re wiping off the face of the planet – in our anthropocentric process for our own convenience.
We could stop being wage-slaves and servants to an economy run by a government bribed and beholden to lobbyists of the Oiligarchy, Big Pharma, Insurance, Defense…We could stop deluding ourselves that anything is going to change, as long as the GDP eclipses the value of life – regardless of its cost to the lives of other living creatures. Presently, the Democrats are already fumbling on their promises. Follow the money.
We could start caring and sharing information and working together in our communities to conserve and own our own resources in shared commons. We could act together, to change our destructive patterns and engage with each other and the natural world, rather than incessantly trying to control and wipe out nature in oblivious distraction. We can instead focus on being guardians and protectors of our planet and wild places.
Guarding Half-Earth (half of the most biodiverse regions of the earth and seas) to ensure the survival of species who are increasingly threatened, will only happen when all of us get involved. We are of the earth. We need to value it for what it is, alive, respect it and take actions together through love and appreciation for the wonders of the world and each living species.
The only way. is to step away from the Me First, My Country First, My Town First, My Team First, White People First mentality; when we genuinely let these Barriers and Walls fall. We can create a culture rich in spirituality and meaning through being our best selves and having full care, to insure that all people exist together in harmony together with all other life forms. We can extend our own individual power and hearts, as we extend ourselves beyond our own immediate families and our front doors.
I believe that the patriotic cries of ‘America First’ are a demonstration of complete insanity, and the religious right are the most beguiled (as the concept is irreverently non-Christian). Just as well if they reject vaccines and their population numbers decline. The misguided, who value Dumph and think he is a savior on the working man’s side, are fully deluded by the far-right narratives pumping out fear and hate-driven disinformation.
“Erik Prince, a private military contractor (and Betsy DeVos’s brother), was just caught charging Afghans desperate to flee the Taliban $6,500 a seat for flights out of the country. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki condemned his despicable actions, saying, “I don’t think any human being who has a heart and soul would support efforts to profit off of people’s agony and pain.” And she’s right. While the war in Afghanistan was a disastrous failure on many fronts, for weapons manufacturers and other warmongering corporations—many of which wield massive influence over U.S. foreign policy—it was an extraordinarily profitable success.”
Promises of ‘jobs’, and elevating the ‘economy’ to the primary purpose of life and its value, without any consideration of the affect on the natural world, is a hoax. How do you measure the worth of Paradise? This capitalism-based economy, with its requisite need to continually manufacture more and more and continually bent towards making quarterly profits, is not sustainable in a finite world. We are slaves to Big Business Robber Barons who have bought out our collective psyches, precisely what the Oiligarchy wants. We are fucked, unless some charismatic figure who is aware and genuinely heartful , appears, who can powerfully engage the populace and convince us emotionally, to begin together taking a new path. Global warming, mass extinction, mass violence, mass addiction and mass immigration, is not a hoax. Those profiting from our incognizance of what to prioritize in our short and unique time spent on this earth, don’t want you to be conscious of the fact that if we, the people, demonstrably act in unison to take back our lives and devote our time to resuscitating the Natural World, we will have a peaceful, loving, connected paradise of clean air, water, nutritious soil….once we’ve cut the source of the poisons out of the equation.
Hafez (حافظ, Ḥāfeẓ, ‘the memorizer; the (safe) keeper’; 1315-1390) and as “Hafiz”, was a Persian poet whose collected works are regarded by many Iranians as a pinnacle of Persian literature.
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Today is the 4th of September. It is the day my father died, in 2012. I paid attention to this date when I saw a street with its name in Aix-en-Provence, France. When i googled in English, i found no reference, until I wrote quatre septembre and then it appeared. http://parisisinvisible.blogspot.com/2011/09/what-happened-on-quatre-septembre.html
“This particular September 4th was in 1870, and it marked the moment that a group of individuals in Paris proclaimed the beginning of a new Republic (the third) following the capture of Napoleon III by the Prussians in Sedan.”
My father was a musician, as was his mother. I played piano again at this building with a piano within their antique store, where the woman has gifted me with flowers and then local corn on the cob for my playing. This last Sunday I played really well, sensitively, fluidly. I was only under the influence of a full stomach and espresso. It’s the second Sunday in a row I’ve created the time to go there with my Classical piano music book. I remembered that when I was a kid, my father’s mother would join the family for a Sunday dinner and always play piano during her visit. I am carrying on her tradition, i thought to myself.
My father also loved paint, dance and was a history enthusiast. I carry on these traditions. Thank you Daddy.
My father was dutiful and pragmatic. He relinquished the life of a clarinet musician to instead become a doctor to provide for his family. He warned me of not relying on art, or music and warned me of the last boyfriend with whom I was still in a codependent relationship, long after he ditched me. My father was an empath.
This article title popped up on my screen when I plugged into the WiFi network after bicycling to the closed library to sit outside of it. I ride miles and miles to different locations where I can plug in: to WiFi and electricity. I plugged the title words into google and it appeared. https://highlysensitiverefuge.com/9-secret-powers-of-highly-sensitive-people/
Frankly, I thought I would identify with it, and in many cases do ‘as far as aiming to save the natural world from humans’ and then in other respects I don’t. I looked up ‘the opposite of empath’. Oh shit, it’s a narcissist. I guess I am a bit of both.
Last night on my way riding bicycle back from the next town, Hershey, with a palatable bar, I came upon a deer, a fawn, in the middle of the road, struggling to move. It was able to move three legs, struggling to get up. Horrified, I put down my bike off the road and tried to move it. Cars came. I swung my arms. Girls got out of their vehicle, one helped me to carry the deer off the road. They then left. I stayed with the deer. Didn’t know who to call. A man along the road said to call 911. I am upset by how the Policeman who arrived, responded. I was stroking the deer, holding her neck in my arms, trying to soothe her. The Policeman, without getting close enough to even check out the deer’s condition, announced for me to “get away lady, you are prolonging he deer’s misery.” The deer was only slightly wounded, the leg. He said that there is no place to take it. It will be shot. I was yelling as I was leaving, venting my anger about people driving so fast, hit and run. Police offering no other option without having even investigated, close-minded, thug mentality.
My plan had been to eject myself from the United States of Apathy (an example of why I am not exactly an ‘empath’). I don’t flow in and redistribute the energy to a harmonious new direction. I express my annoyance and all of my feelings, when I find people doing things that I think are irresponsible to others and unconscionable to the rest of the living world.
I guess I can waver from feeling socially awkward and lacking in confidence, to feeling proud and annoyed with human behavior that I feel derives from not considering the larger picture.
So, just as I was sitting in Palmyra ‘pondering’ the upcoming UN Climate talks COP21 in Paris and then in a series of days I learned that an ex lover was involved in this, and within 2 weeks, I made the decision and went to Paris. Staying in a hotel reserved for the group of activists coming from all over the world and sharing their stories at the ‘placetobe’, was one of the more enriching and nourishing experiences I’ve ever had. I was and am passionately focused on extending my knowledge and understanding. One of these people I met there and with whom I’m connected on FB, had this message about the ‘pilgrimage to the upcoming COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland in November. I had this on my radar, as a deadline.
I was planning to move back to Europe soon, and thinking Portugal this time, because once again, I cower to the living expenses and overhead. Lessons not learned from my father.
The plan Portugal, with the knowledge in the back of my head of COP26 in Glasgow. Then two separate event celebrations popped up in September in the USA, separate sides of the country, but doable. I contacted several different factions of the people who I befriended 22 years ago in San Francisco when I lived there. I have an odd human habit of not staying in touch when I’m not in the same physical space, despite things like internet, telephones and facebook. I think we are all a bit tribal, yet, most have more responsibilities and families to hone into.
I said yes to the wedding invitation in Providence, Rhode Island and began investigating rail travel. Pretty expensive for me, didn’t book it. I announced and tagged several people including the organizer of the street faire that I wanted to attend on the west coast in San Francisco, CA. Last time I hitched to San Francisco from Tucson, Arizona to attend this event The Howweird Street Faire (6 years ago or so), and never found any of the people whom I had known. The event had grown enormously. That was weird. I hitched back not having seen any of my former housemates and people i danced with.
On the way to SF, which it now looked like I was going to hitch, I was thinking of doing a detour to help indigenous ‘water protectors’ in opposition to Pipeline 3 in Minnesota, yet having contacted them, the timing is off, I have to be willing to get arrested and frankly, the point was to get to SF, CA.
So I decided this time to in advance, contact some people announcing I was going to be in their area. Here’s where the empath comes in. It occurred to me, that just like my former frisbee friend, when I wrote a long letter through LinkedIn, and never heard back from him, I thought to myself, maybe NONE of these people are going to respond, AT ALL, in which case, why go to San Francisco at all. Montreal, never been there, francophone, it’s only 7 rather than a 44 hour hitch, and it’s in the neighborhood of Providence. I’ve been thanks to Covid, keeping up with my french conversation group through 2020, on zoom. All the people whom I sat around a table with weekly at the Alliance Française, in Providence, Rhode Island, speaking French with one another.
Okay, So I will travel with wedding attire and sleeping bag. The indigenous person answered my email inquiry, Let’s see if SustainaClaus, the Canadian man whom I met in Paris at the COP21 ‘placetobe’ who has been living in China, will have responded to me. He is a busy man, yet somehow I think he may have found the time.
I do have the discipline of my father, however, I am definitely following a very different path. I remember my father calling me ‘hyper’ one time. I actually was convinced that I could apply for a medical marijuana license as a classic ADHD. I have very high energy, and was never diagnosed with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. A chronic condition including attention difficulty, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness…failed relationships. I have self-medicated all my life doing sports> running 3-5 miles, ultimate frisbee, swimming (when i can), bicycling, skiing, tinkering with technical projects, doing art, practicing music, painting, traveling, moving.
the long of it:
After I was rejected from this last group house community where I didn’t quite fit in, that I’d circle back to the northeast and Pennsylvania, to my storage locker. I was now carrying skis and two pairs of ski boots and more boxes after passing by Taos, New Mexico where I had been storing this stuff in my friend’s house. I also thought, enough already. Since my affordable housing got covided out in Providence, Rhode Island, and I proceeded to investigate and chase ‘house exchange’ programs and then move back to where I had a lot of work several years ago in Santa Fe, New Mexico (substitute teaching during the weeks and a 1st year adult ski instructor on the weekends and holidays. It fit together perfectly. However, when I inquired to the ski school, covid now reduced the staff to last years’ return instructors. So, I continued searching for ‘affordable housing’, in Statesboro and Savannah Georgia in Asheville, North Carolina. But it doesn’t exist, at least, tougher when you are single. Ironically, after 11 days of sleeping outside with my linens and sleeping bag, I have found an affordable place, and swiftly found items to furnish the room … there are some undesirable characters there….yet I feel safe.
I’ve come to Hotel Hershey to plug in and then will go to dance to cap off the night. I took my bass guitar to my storage unit today, Sept. 4th and grabbed a bungee chord, some magic markers to make hitchhiking signs, and have been preparing. Montreal borders are open. Have my Passport and CDC Covid Vaccination card. Not quite sure where I will go. Will see what emerges.
—,-,-,,-,
quatre sept
This proclamation brought to an end France’s second empire, but as it also coincided with the invasion of France by the Prussians, its constitutional laws weren’t actually voted until 1875. The September 4th date is therefore a purely symbolic one.”
No network news will EVER address this; NEVER address the business as usual, Profit for each Quarter status quo.
What if we just stopped buying and buying into it?
New and improved, just $19.99, $99.99, $99,099…
Bill Maher so boldly and eloquently unveils what we the consumer, blindly succumb to; the marketing tactics of the good ole United States of Apathy.
Where to begin to instate new habits and ways of seeing the world? Start with our unconscious addiction to buying. Consumerism bleeding the natural world.
Great video depicting the tragedy of consumerism, Happiness by Steve Cutts
Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook and music composition
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I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that “Over 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used in the USA each year and approximately 5.6 billion pounds are used worldwide. In many developing countries programs to control exposures are limited or non-existent.” Pesticides Use and Exposure Extensive Worldwide
I’m sure it has nothing to do with the amount of chemicals that humans use to try to control nature, that seep into ground water.
I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that humans are bent on continued expansion, more shopping malls, more housing developments, more highways and franchises that plow down trees and the essential loss of habitat.
I’m sure it has everything to do with all of these, and frankly, also everything to do with increasing EM frequencies of the human demand – or is it the perceived demand that is stoked by telecommunications marketing foothold on pressing us on to ever more towers and stronger radiation.
In which the fine print dictates that “The law now gives municipalities 60 days to approve or deny a permit to add a 5G cell to an existing pole, and 90 days to approve or deny a permit for a new pole. If a local government doesn’t take action within that time, the permit is automatically approved.”
I previously contacted a sanctuary inquiring about working or volunteering there and learned that they only hire local people. They want people to be available for years for the benefit of the animals. When they are locals, they can receive a long term commitment by people, with whom the elephants can establish a relationship with continuity over time.
I’ll simply try to volunteer sometime when I visit.
Landed! in a good way. Absolutely love various features of ‘my’ new small room that I moved into today; the lack of a hint of a smoke smell, the lack of an air conditioner perched in the window blocking opening it for fresh air, the style of the second door with nice character and the fact that the glass lets in more light and is an entrance to sort of my own porch (presently cluttered). It only took half a day to clean and prepare for myself to move into, after cleaning the larger room for the last week while I couchsurfed (work-traded).
Things are swinging into a good way. I may not be in a hip metropolitan area, but there is a lot of natural beauty in this state and the towns flanking this one of Annville and Hershey are perks. A big key is that I’m now paying $150/mo less in rent, which is what all of this zigzagging around the country was in search of. The town of Palmyra has streets that are super wide, I mean like, 4 military tanks side to side would fit on almost every street. Huh? This was a town built post car era. Yes, bicycles are stolen (when left unlocked) but the town feels really quite safe. No bicycle infrastructure. No public transportation (yes, buses exist). And last evening when I was checking out this one property’s gardens, I saw two deer scampering away from the grassy area I entered next to a wall of a corn.
I’m de lighted that someone suggested on this ‘local’ FB group a place they knew of that offered ‘extended housing’, and that my sister Joan Keiter suggested posting there that I’m looking for a room. My place is $10 more a week, than one hotel I checked out is day, the cheaper one. Like I said, the over-all manager whom I met third time I went by there (both times one of the residents was there to point out who was the live-in manager and then again when I came back to talk to him, then fill out an application form. As I was leaving him, the off-site manager was driving up. Because I offered off the top of my head to assist in preparing the room becoming available – with boots, strength, detailed skills in cleaning etc, they took me up on it – right away. She called and said I could go there that evening in the room that needs to be cleaned. I laid my sleeping bag on plastic in the closit and for a week, stood on a ladder cleaning ceilings (of smoke residue), walls, cleaning overall. This unit had its own bathroom. …………………Now today I moved out of that room, first helping the man Puerto Rican guy to move his stuff out of the smaller ground-floor room (great, i have a bicycle that I no longer have to carry up a flight of stairs) and have sink in the room with much more character and functionality…and ironically found day after day, pieces of furniture and ‘what not’ placed saying FREE, less than a city block away. Now I have a couple wood and whicker chairs, a mirror, a low wood and whicker table, and the guy gave me the curtain rods stands on wheels. I purchased one pot (every morning boil water to put lemon in a glass and also for oatmeal), a few cups, a small plate, one set of silver ware, and just found two nice glasses also at the TAKE AWAY FOR FREE BICYCLE SHOP TURNED GUN SHOP. huh? I’m sitting at the public library, limited hours, and have to bike two several different towns to get WiFi. cool. I get my exercise for free. Just found a local Glacier vending machine (filtered water through several processes) outside a grocery store. I make stops at these places on the periphery of town and next to another one: library, storage unit, grocery store…and have to choose the routes and times of day to stay alive in a place with barely any bicycle infrastructure. Stoked to have found just exactly what I need and a place right in town with an accessible and efficient manager and a ridiculously low price. Now I can begin to work on my book again on a daily basis, now that the housing is stabilized. In this new place I share a bathroom with a claw foot bathtub / shower. I shared a bathroom in the previous ‘community house’ where I lived in Asheville, North Carolina. Here there are signs and strict rules about common sense cleanliness in a shared bathroom, so I’m stoked about that.
It just so happens that a store within a city block that had been a bicycle shop, went out of business, to become a gun shop. Way to go Amerika. Anyway, there were a few pieces of furniture with a sign FREE. Because I bicycle to get around, and literally went by these on the sidewalk to grab shade, I saw the progression of items put out. I first grabbed and walked with a chair, cracked at its shoulder. Having just bought wood glue to repair my bass guitar where the ‘strap lock’ port is loose and the Guitar Witch of Asheville explained to me what tools I need and how to do it. So I can repair this simple crack in the handsome chair…..Well, once the initial stuff was removed, more items appeared on the sidewalk. The other matching chair that was not damaged (just worn) appeared. I walked with that. Then two coffee tables appeared that sort of matched the chairs, walked with that. When i was almost at my door a man pulled up across the street asking if I needed help. I said, not with this, but there’s another piece that is too heavy for me to carry. He he grabbed the car, I bicycled to the shop, helped him put it in his hatchback and bicycled home to help get it out of the car. It turned out that the boots sitting on one of the tables were size 7.5. I slipped my foot in, they fit. I had no ‘rain/snow’ boots but a pair of antiques. It occurred to me today to put this super heavy mirror on the table between the rolling garment racks. I already had the string of Christmas lights and plants. I had washed the mirror and chairs and table thoroughly. So now I have a kitchen, living room, dining room, bedroom and closet > all in one.
I drove a rental car from Asheville, North Carolina on the 14th and 15th of July to the central PA car drop off point. I went out of my way via Pittsburg, to drop off a guy who drove with me, who also was trying to book a one-way rental to Pennsylvania. We discovered the present dramatic shortage of vehicles in many car rental agencies. In order to make some sort of profit during the Covid-19 haunt in business. Rental car companies sold a lot of their cars. Apparently there’s also a shortage in production of the computer chips used in the manufacturing of the vehicles. The rider who accompanied me also drover and we had a lot of good conversation. We have a lot in common. After meeting in person prior to sharing this long 8 hour ride together, several hours later on that last evening, he spontaneously joined me and the local Asheville Haulers weekly bicycle ‘critical mass’ group ride. I was happy that he participated to not only have a great time himself among these people, but also to get a taste of this community of people I felt bitter sweet about leaving behind.
On the edge of Amish Country
After arriving to my hometown and fully packing my storage locker, I drove the vehicle to the Harrisburg International Airport drop off and kept just my bicycle, backpack and sleeping bag. There were two torrential downpours, after the first dry evening where I luxuriously slept 12 hours on a lawn next to trees. That first morning I eventually strolled over to where I saw people picking some kind of fruit. It was an elderly couple, Asian decent. I was really surprised at this woman’s jewelry, looking like she stepped out of two centuries ago. Her nose was obscured by two nickel-sized wooden disks and her ear lobes lined with about 15 holes with thin gold threaded through each. She had thin bangles on her wrist and inch thick. I asked where they’re from, she shook her head, no words, didn’t understand. She offered me some of the mulberries she had collected. I said, no thanks, I’ll pick them myself. Later when I asked again where they’re from, she answered Nepali. I have since seen a Nepali (Indian Nepal) restaurant in another town in this area. He sat and smoked while she picked. When she finished, she sat down to smoke. At one point he said something softly and she came over and insisted that I take mulberries from her bag. She Insisted. He was the one that now offered. I took some. We smiled with one another. The two of them walked away. Living in Middletown? How did they arrive there?
These are pics approaching and then in the town of Annville, PA that has a college LVC Lebanon Valley College
1 in 25 people are not Patriots with Trump 2020 signsAnnville, Pennsylvania
I had a conversation in Hummelstown with a man whose entire family have been in the military. Eventually it became clear that we were each approaching various subjects from entirely different perspectives, even though we never ‘identified’ with black and white Republican vs. Democrat values. He was talking about how immigrants are being taken care of better than those who served in the military. He therefore does not condone immigration and giving refugees a chance. He mentioned that an uncle who had served 30 years in the military was then billed for the bullet hole in his uniform. He also talked about the fact that there are no free services provided for people who served in the service for PTSD and emotional health. I agreed that this is a horrific way for the government to treat people who served them. I mentioned that I’d heard the amount of suicides by people who had served in military active duty exceeds the amount of people killed in combat. He mentioned a program that is dealing with this, Platoon 22, regarding the frequency of suicide. I stated that these two do not mutually exclude one another, that an individual or government can act humanely towards all individuals, both their own service members and people who are suffering the consequences of the circumstances of war or human driven climate change and mass extinction.
Not by far the only American Independence flagsI love these, of which I saw a few, among a zillion American flags
The term comes to mind as I watched this documentary film by Andrew Morgan, about the immense pollution, waste and indulgence of the fast fashion industry.
Vandana Shiva is so incredibly eloquent and thorough in describing the world we live in as Keynote Speaker in the Soil Not Oil International Conference.
Russell Brand’s current interview with Vandana Shiva is inspiring.
It exposes oil industry leaders and their multi-million-dollar, 30-year denial campaigns that have undermined science and cast doubt on the dangers of climate change.
The documentary by Josh Tickel Kiss the Ground reasserts the need to concentrate on he soil..
presents that we need to systematically and structurally change our relationship within our cultures, between one another and with the other creatures with whom we share the planet. “We need to make the priority to sustain life on earth”.
Rather than continuing with our current trend of the last centuries of anthropocentrism, as we learn that health, happiness and quality of life is woven into the fabric of health and quality for all networks of life on our planet, we can embrace this work and regard our behavior from the point of view of one of our fellow earthlings.
Fabulous that more than 2,000 years ago, humans had the foresight, love and empathy to consider the right to a good quality of life for all sentient beings.
The Animals’ Lawsuit Against Humanity: An Illustrated 10th Century Iraqi Ecological Fable Paperback – Illustrated, April 1, 2005
“In this interfaith and multicultural fable, eloquent representatives of all members of the animal kingdom – from horses to bees – come before the respected Spirit King to complain of the dreadful treatment they have suffered at the hands of humankind. During the ensuing trial, where both humans and animals testify before the King, both sides argue their points ingeniously, deftly illustrating the validity of both sides of the ecology debate. The ancient antecedents of this tale are thought to have originated in India, with the first written version penned in Arabic sometime before the 10th century in what is now Iraq. Much later, this version of the story was translated into Hebrew in 14th century France and was popular in European Jewish communities into the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This exquisite English translation, illustrated with 12 original color illumination plates, is useful in introducing young and old alike to environmental and animal rights issues.”
Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition
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Manifesto of the many projects which could manifest the Green New Deal. What would you choose to be involved in?
In a more recent evolution of house searching posts, I suggested an ‘artist residency’ ‘in your home’, in which both the artist and proprietor are involved. If the artists doesn’t produce according to the agreed timeline, they lose the room. Win/Win. A humanitarian tax investment, coupled with the motivation-propulsion by the artist to deliver, to maintain the residence. Then I was thinking, this could be part of the Green New Deal, a takeoff on FDR’s ‘New Deal’ which involved the (NRA) ‘National Recovery Act‘.
Within a year of the 1929 stock market crash, 50% of the population was unemployed. The (WPA) Works Progress Administration concept was to employ mandatory structural works, with everyone involved in rebuilding; to put the entire country ‘to work’ – from local to regional – improving their own territories and their quality of life. Among these, the (TVA) Tennessee Valley Authority (which stretched beyond the borders of Tennessee) involved the entire community in constructing a hydroelectric dam, who previously had no electricity whatsoever. In the process, the stones they excavated were used to build homes.
The (CCC) Civilian Conservation Corps also involved restoring, beautifying, repurposing places around the country. The concentration was on re-building the infrastructure of the US, ‘Making it Great Again’, after Wall Street devastated the country with the economic crash that lead the trajectory to the Great Depression.
Does this not give huge perks to the idea of instead, putting the local resources and commodities into the hands and protection of the people?
Establishing local ‘Commons’, in which all the members of the community share ownership and responsibility – as proprietors of their own wealth of resources – to protect: land, water, forests, rivers and air. So that rather than private industries having a right of passage to purchase, privatize and reap rewards and profits for themselves, the community who maintain their resources, have profits recycled back into the community for further enrichment. I remember walking in East Providence, Rhode Island, and looking down at the sidewalk and seeing that this was achieved through the WPA.
Different communities could have their own commons, in addition to creating virtual collective ‘round table’ commons in which information and ideas are exchanged transparently, benefiting all. Meetings of minds to exchange ideas for super efficient and inexpensive ways to manage resources, build sustainable transportation infrastructure and produce energy locally.
My current 77 year old housemate just told me that with the CCC, artists, musicians, writers, performers, actors were all put to work: painting, playing music, entertaining, doing theatre. To make their environment more beautiful and rich with activities. What could possibly be distasteful about being matched to a project that suits one’s interests and capabilities?
I was talking with my sister about how treacherous it is to lose the majestic forests of tall and elegant Pine trees here in Georgia. With awareness of the risk of losing a treasure, we could all be put to work in coming up with ideas that are environmentally ethical and sustainable alternatives. Regardless of the standard for centuries, we know that our planet has finite space and resources. Presently, with an abundance of waste products, there are innumerable ways to employ trash that can be recycled and repurposed. Work that involves brainstorming and design, research and development; encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit in all of us, each involved in their own way.
Repurpose waste materials, combined with products that are abundant. Design and construct things repurposing plastic, glass bottles, cans, rubber from tires, etc. I recently walked on the cushioned surface of pedestrian paths created by Georgia Southern university made from tire rubber, meshed together with other materials. It looks like wood chips, but tightly woven, smooth and resilient. World Wildlife Fund stresses that we need to love nature, or lose it.
Energy, transportation could be redesigned. Instead of paying a private utility company, involve the community in the design, research and development and maintenance of their own energy. If the mentality was changed to complete transparency with an intent on conservation, preservation, health and beauty, involvement in decision making about areas where one has more of a relationship, they would want to take more responsibility and have pride in what their individual contributions to the community manifested in their own region, country or municipality.
Anyway, can you imagine, being able to almost effortlessly, drift towards work that you’d love to participate in, which is completely connected to an area you’d like to invest your time and talent, education and energy into? OK, say the Green New Deal work is mandatory, obligatory and enforced, yet people are given multiple options to match themselves in projects they have interested in, because they enjoy it and are subsequently good at it. Did you hear that correctly? People expressing themselves while participating in assignments in which they have interest. Climate Mandate A Time to Heal.
For some, it may be municipal works in which they are rejuvenating the streets of their town, greening walkways, creating parks and gardens to create pedestrian areas, greening buildings (growing vertical gardens on buildings sides and greening and/or solar rooftops), cleaning up and beautifying a places, restoring, planting trees, establishing neighborhood community vegetable gardens, developing public transportation and local energy systems.
Others may want to apply their participation in the Green New Deal Works by venturing on trains and sailboats to far reaches of the planet, to clean up, collect and separate the massive, ubiquitous plastic trash. One could work together with others with the same intention. Perhaps cleaning up rivers in India, beaches in Southeast Asia, helping countries to restore equilibrium and to balance their environmental impact. Or traveling to remote islands to monitor marine life, land animals and birds, to join E.O. Wilson’s ‘Half-Earth Project’, joining millions to protect half of the earth and sea, for wildlife. Contributing information about local flora and fauna, observing, documenting, identifying sources of pollutants, assessing the more biodiverse regions, in order to incorporate these into the protected earth.
Or joining a crew in the middle of an ocean (via train and sailboat) to clear the islands of plastic that have accumulated in every ocean. Debris swept with the currents of gyres to deposit plastic mounds, which like ice burgs, have much which has accumulated beneath the surface. People could collect and sift the microplastics throughout oceans and beaches. Some could make jewelry, others collect the microplastics to be mixed with others materials like mud, or the fibers of hemp or bamboo (both fast growing), to replace concrete, for walls, roads, sidewalks. paths. The volumes of rubber from dead tires can be mixed with fibers as buildingmaterials.
What if part of the Green New Deal for people of any age, scientists, entrepreneurs and thinkers, participated in working out NikolaTesla’s original experimentation with Zero-Point energy. John Searl points out that an enormous amount of energy is perpetually present all around us, because all matter (which is energy), is in constant motion. Our earth, solar system, galaxy, are all in continuous spiraling motion. At the quantum level, all is continuously moving. Searl talks of capturing this energy that is everywhere around us, through a pretty simple device – using magnets – that perpetuate a continuous flow of energy, with no friction. Clean and quiet.
Others may want to participate in brainstorming ways to develop energy and other processes that are sustainable; that do not involve harming habitats or diminishing natural resources. Taking down telephone poles and electric wires. and instead of silicon or mining rare minerals used in the production of our telecommunications technology, adapting the implementation of graphene: 1-atom thick wafers of carbon. Graphene is extremely conductive, and sourced from carbon, the most abundant material around.
Or one may prefer helping locally in a community garden, planting trees along every street, or doing physical work like creating bamboo or hemp woven with plastic sidewalks, that have the durability of concrete but more flexibility to allow tree roots to breath and grow naturally, without cracking, planting bee highways. Why bee highways? Because everything in nature is connected and interdependent. It’s all about biodiversity. Here’s an explanation of ecoliteracy from Nature’s Web of LIfe.
Jobs would re-create a massive eco alternative, to the current industrial and digital. Because we need less new construction and more imagining of green alternatives and acknowledgment of the habitats of other creatures, we can learn new methods of living harmoniously with the other species inhabiting the planet.
Each can contribute something, with a pencil, paint brush, tool or shovel..Cleaning up, clearing out, repurposing and transforming areas. Planting trees to transform barren, dusty areas or humid regions prone to landslides, to restore them.
Every city mapping out car-free, pedestrian-friendly areas. Creating clean and efficient public transportation options.
With an increasing population of elderly, immigrants – children and adults – could be given education and placement as companions and helpers to the elderly. They could assist, clean, maintain, help with transportation, make meals, learn how to monitor basic vital signs and administer medication, listen to stories, learn the language of their host country and exchange stories. Housing in exchange for services and companionship. Without having the insurance industry having a choke hold on who can be let into your home.
Recently, observing from back roads in Georgia, I noticed less and less tall pines along the road and well, what about the boars? Shall we begin to entirely ‘think differently and rethink together? What building materials, types of vehicles, types of energy that we have used traditionally, to recreate sustainable means everywhere? Not just to be implemented in the Northern Hemisphere.
Prohibit housing and development from spreading like a virus, prohibit expansion of box store franchises, and create more and more green spaces.
Reformulate all factories, mines, yeah, even off-shore oil wells, etc. to create housing, establish reefs…
Repurpose agricultural fields or crops grown to feed animals for the meat industry, into hemp, bamboo, plants which humans eat, plant trees. Undoubtedly, the more minds who are engaged in conjuring up clever ideas, to re-think designs, materials and energy to create sustainable solutions, the more rewarding and fascinating this process will be. Might as well attempt incentivizing people towards better health by encouraging vegetarian diets and informing people about the facts of how unsustainable and wasteful it is to devote land to raising animals; they require more land and water than what the land could be used for to feed humans. Eco education is a must. Green New Deal Projects involving growing food together and learning about nutrition and cooking would be invaluable for young people. Break up pavement and replace it with sustainable ones. Plant trees, EVERYWHERE. Nurture the wilderness. As George Monbiot states, we need to ‘rewild the world’.
There are so many ways the Green New Deal could be a fantastic luxury: putting talent and natural incentive to task. Employing simple fungi to clean up toxic spills, and generate biological life. If we would all be incentivized to clean up plastic all over the world, this could be repurposed with bamboo or hemp, to create building material. We could have a decade and a half of clearing out the trash that humanity has deposited all over the planet, and repurposing it to designs that replace using trees.
What if news channels, delivered by those who own them, were transformed into venues of participatory global commons, in which counties, municipalities, states and federal domains would maintain a global commons channel, for communities to exchange ideas about energy and transportation infrastructure.
Does this sound insanely idealistic? Radically off the cuff, stream-of-consciousness babble? Or am I making a point for ‘socialism’, community shared intention and commitment, to full-out re-appropriation and repurposing of space and industry. With training and education matched with interest and desire to task. Channels streamlined for the purpose of actively sharing ideas at digital round tables – rather than passively listening to news that is dictated by those who wish you to passively attend to that subject. What if everyone was engaged in thinking of ideas, finding teams to draw them up and design, then manifest them?
There would be plenty of ‘work’, to create effective animal bridges and tunnels, to nurture the habitats and migratory nature of animals. With an emphasis on community, not driven by profit or anthropomorphism, but with genuine appreciation and wonder of the natural world. Education can focus on ‘ecoliteracy’. Awareness of the interconnected nature of life and the need to protect habitats and maintain biodiversity, will translate into a population of caring and proactive youths. products, re-appropriate factories and dirty industries.
How would you want to contribute? What would you like to involve yourself in? Where’s the money coming from? Well, all the billionaires, of course.
The little black boars I saw were all running in the same direction as me….and then I passed them. whew!
I was incredibly delighted to encounter the wild boars scrambling and grunting along the tree-lined highway to the left of me as I bicycled by them not long after midnight. It was exhilarating, particularly when I realized that I was now moving beyond them and they hadn’t charged me. Oh My Dog!
I had arrived in Georgia just several weeks earlier. After other options fell away, I decided to drive a rental car there with the 2-day voucher I had. I plotted my trip by scouting distances along various segments along route 40. I also compared local weather patterns to calculate the driest times en route to rent the car.
I used the internet to plot the various segments, distances, local weather to plot out when each segment was dry. I was also researching Savannah local transportation.
As I was entering the state of Georgia after driving most of the night, as I looked in the darkness at the trees along the highway, I was stunned at their height. I thought I was hallucinating. They can’t be that tall. Thought that it was a reflection superimposed on the windshield from the dash board. It wasn’t.
I was planning my arrival in Georgia while still in NM. Transportation from the airport, what downtown Savannah looked like on a map, where the stops from the airport bus were in relation to the ‘historic district’. After again and again finding no buses between the two cities, I googled ‘shuttle‘ and one popped up; connecting the two Georgia Southern campuses. One in Statesboro, the apartments where I was moving to were next to the campus, and the other in South Savannah. A live human being answered the phone. A young woman confirmed that there are no buses: no local, no greyhound, but that the shuttle which doesn’t check ID’s. I had to drop off the car by 9am Sunday morning at the Savannah airport, the shuttle was Monday morning. The airport information office hadn’t offered the information that there was a public bus from the airport, until I inquired. The bus driver from the airport told me to catch the 14 bus to get to the campus south of town where I needed to go the following morning. He pointed out the road and where the stops were.
I resolved to stay up all night, which I’ve voluntarily done plenty of times, at airports, when visiting a city and having no accommodation. She said the only alternative is an über or lyft, $60 – $70. When you are employed and making $20 + an hour, no hesitation. However, I didn’t even want my housemate (who offered) to pay this. Already sleep deprived after driving across the country, I decided to go for it. Stay the night and map out how to get to the Savannah campus of the university by the morning. I had the schedule. Must say that when one does not have a cell phone contract (I don’t) enabling 24/7 internet access, everything, including the lack of GPS, involved a lot more planning. I decided to hang in Savannah all day and stay up all night. Even CouchSurfing is ‘Covided Out’. They’ve suffered enough to now demand payment for the previously free to join, surf or host. Now one can’t even open their own account, much less contact people.
I strolled to the river front, promptly found a tourist office with a man who handed me a map and pointed out that in the historic district, there are 20 parks, 2 square miles. Wow, cool. After wandering along the waterfront looking at the barges and ships, walking along cobblestone streets lined with quaint gift shops, I headed to meander around the historic district. Gorgeous. Super inviting to pedestrians to walk around and bicycle friendly!
I approached a young woman holding a sketch pad and commented on her drawing and told her I like to do draw too. I was asking her where there’s a local grocery store. She offered the information to check out Forsyth park 12 blocks away. When I arrived there as dusk approached, there was a live band playing good music, outside. for free. People with toddlers meandering around. I was stoked. The mild weather was cozy. The drooping moss off many of the trees downtown, enchanting. It became chilly, but I was on solid ground, alive, well. I could endure.
I managed to catch that the following morning, get to the campus, find my way to the location of this shuttle stop which I also mapped out ahead of time, then saw two other female students also waiting for the same shuttle. I boarded quietly. The driver yelled out ‘hello’ but hadn’t asked for ID. I did it. And was on my way.
Then on the morning of February 1st, several weeks after my arrival in the town of ‘Statesboro Blues’, I was asked to move out. That day. 1st of the month. I decided not to call his bluff. And since I was enchanted with Savannah from the start, I decided that it was a synchronistic timing and an opportunity. Several days earlier I had begun investigating housing in Savannah online. I found a number of super reasonably priced ‘house shares’, that I then realized were each scams. I found that there was indeed a local savannah ultimate frisbee pickup games group page, joined them and inquired about housing suggestions.
Friends in my Providence Rhode Island Alliance Français (now zoom) french conversation group, informed me that there’s a college of art there, that I could find bulletin boards in various departments to look for housing. What first popped up was the Savannah Academy, a K-8/Magnet/Charter school, then the Savannah College or Art and Design. The day before I found a link to the various SCAD departments, with the intention of mapping out the campus, plotting out the best buildings to visit to look for postings, and bringing already created and photocopied tutoring signs to post for language, music, arts. I’d begun the process of applying through a 3rd party for substitute teaching jobs at the Savannah Academy of Art Magnet school, thinking that this is where I could also market my book. I was going to make this trip in a few days, but when on the morning of Feb. 1st I was awoken super early (for me) by my housemate’s computer several feet from my door, I opened the door and complained about the noise. My housemate who is typically very kind and gentle, demonstrated a bit of a temper.
Now, thinking quickly, I resolved that if I want to move to Savannah, I’ll be more likely to negotiate housing and work, if I am there. I decided that I therefore had to make a move there, today. I’d catch the same free shuttle, take the bus to downtown Savannah from the south side. Now I found a rental car place online. My plan: to to Savannah to pick up a rental car, drive to Statesboro an hour to pick up my stuff, drive back and somehow find a place (apartments/hotel) in Savannah, to move, by 5pm the following day. I discovered the morning of the 1st, online that the entry to the SCAD buildings, was Covided Out. No entry, without a student ID card. No point stopping there to read or post signs. I had mapped out by now its location. I even was going to google a copy shop somewhere, to make signs.
I was planning all this, having mapped out different places to go and screen grabbing the pic (no WiFi contract, no GPS). Now I looked at the time that I wasn’t going to catch the 1:30 shuttle, unless I bicycle there. The adventure begins. if I am to get to the downtown rental car place before it closes at 5pm, I must take this one. I raced. I have made a point of remembering its location. The bus was still there. I asked the driver if I could bring my bicycle on. No rack, Only two other girl passengers, and me. Now the questions came: do you have a student ID? No. No, I’m not a student. I had to convince him. Said I’m going to pick up a rental car..He was skeptical, an unusual request. Then he got up, walked around the front of the bus and said, “Don’t make me regret this.” I had arrived there within 2 minutes of his departure. I thanked him profusely as I got off at the other end and gave him my card, with Paul Chappell and “The Peace Paradigm” written on the back. hehe.
A New Peace Paradigm: Understanding Our Human Need
Ok, he’s like a preacher a bit, but he has a very interesting lens (distance in time, which magnifies the present).
After the shuttle arrived an hour later at the Savannah campus, I inquired in a student housing office about alternative websites to the scam breeding ground of craigslist. There were none, Facebook suggested. A girl in the office below gave me a map with innumerable resources printed on it, among them apartments and housing. Once I found the bus stop to downtown, which arrived within 5 minutes for an hour duration, I looked over the map, ready to make phone calls, and realized I had no cell phone reception south of the city. T-Mobile, can you hear me now?
The local public bus, unlike NYC closing in on $3 or so, are $1.50. Huh? They have bike racks. I arrived downtown (another hour long ride), realized I was blocks from the address of the rental car place, who never answered the phone, but twice was switched to a Mexican operator, never the local office. I arrived there 15 min. before closing. Everything was perfect, car available, $65/day, regardless of whether you return it in 2 hours or keep it for 24 hours. Then, I went to pay, and had not (consciously or subconsciously) brought my credit card. I couldn’t get the car. Two hours to get there, timing was perfect. No debit, not cash, no card, no car. It was now 5pm. In another hour the last shuttle would depart from the campus south of town. I raced to the transportation depot, found my bus was there to go the hour south of town to the campus, departing in 4 minutes. I put my bicycle on and phoned my housemate (while I was downtown with reception) to ask for an extension of a day.
It turns out that both the lack of cell phone reception and my ‘error’ of not bringing my cc, were both the blessings in disguise. My housemate’s voice changed. He said, we’ll have to have a ‘talk’, but that I can still live there’. Relieved, now that I could arrange this move in a steady and methodical manner. Now I knew that I wasn’t going to return with my stuff thrown out. (In fact, after he expressed his objection to me having raised my voice, then listening to my desire to move to Savannah, he himself kindly offered to let me pay weekly (accommodating and being more than reasonable). I had to phone him while I still had reception! Meanwhile on the downtown 14 bus, the drivers changed, cutting out precious time. When we arrived an hour + later at the campus, the last shuttle had already departed 15 minutes earlier.
A one hour drive is approximately a 4 hour (minimum) bike ride.
I don’t have a ‘road’ bike with skinny tires, that roll faster with less resistance and friction.. I had paid attention to where the shuttle had turned in this town, Pem(something). He drove on a ‘back’ road, not an interstate. I found two gas stations across the street from one another. I asked people, looked at maps, found cardboard at one station, made a sign (no magic marker). I strolled back and forth to both gas station on either side of the highway, but no one was going that way. I was actually asking the wrong question; not if they’re going to the closer town, but to the further one.
I decided to ride. Problem # 1, it’s an interstate bi-pass on the south end of the city, leading to the non-interstate roads. I rode along the shoulder, facing traffic, until I came to a place at a bridge. Abruptly, the shoulder ended, with absolutely no pedestrian place to cross the bridge. I studied oncoming headlights to gauge how much time they took to arrive to the bridge.
The flow of traffic was consistent. Looking along where I’d have to bicycle along a wall with cars and trucks screaming by, was horrifying. I had to make it across this stretch for several hundred yards. I thought of how I had recently expressed appreciation to each of my sisters…and thought, was this a premonition? After the third or fourth time of approaching, studying the traffic and walking away, I decided that I was not going to unfold the story of my fatality, so I gave up, and walked back to the gas station. There, I spotted a pizza delivery car, a hatchback. I approached the young African American guy filling up his tank and asked if he was going towards this town. “Yes, but I can’t take passengers.” I explained that I just needed to get beyond this point a hundred yards away where I couldn’t cross the bridge. Without saying anything, he then proceeded to take the domino or whatever lit pizza sign off the top of his car, laid it inside, walked around and opened the hatch back, and told me to put the bike in. It was filled with debris, I managed to squeeze it in, pull it above the top of the mound of stuff. I had to trust. He said,”The cashier girl might tell on me, sayin’ that a delivery guy picked up a hitchhiker.” He was a bit nervous about that. When I said that I was moving, he mentioned that “My sister moves, all the time. Now she’s in Atlanta. Ya gotta just stay in the same place.” He did me a huge favor taking me 5 miles. He mentioned NOT to take highway 17 (which had been in my mind) because that will take me back to Savannah.
I asked him, so where do I have to go? He gestured, just go up that on-ramp over there. At this point the traffic was much less dense. Monday night, close to 11pm. As I bicycled up the ramp, I saw high walls on either side of the freeway, which seemed to approach another narrow bridge section. I then saw a guard rail next to the wall and a tiny walking space within. Score! I lifted the bike and stepped over it, into this narrow walkway. I was feeling safe and proud of myself. And then, it ended at a wall. This google earth photo is the same bridge, but the metal awning running along the length of the bottom edge wasn’t yet added to the bridge when the photo was taken.
So this awning, with a slightly concave slant, allowed space to walk with the bicycle, stretching across a gap between the lower lip of the wall and the ledge.
Choice # 1. go back. # 2. Step onto the road, and hope I can make the stretch with few vehicles driving by. 3. I spotted a ledge about 5 feet above the ground next to the wall. It was wide enough to walk, double the width of a curb (inches/meters). There was a sheet of a metal awning stretching along its base, and angling up a few feet to the wall, closing the gap between them. I went with number 3. I lifted the bike up to the ledge, resting against the wall. Spotted a hand-hold, a gap with a metal strip. I had gloves on. I reached to grab this and pulled myself up next to the bike. It was wide enough to allow me to walk with the bicycle to the right of me, rolling along on the slightly slanted awning. I began slowly. If anyone had spotted me, surely the absurdity of seeing someone up there walking with a bicycle could have itself caused an accident.
I continue LOL ever since, only because it was exhilarating and it had a happy ending. I managed to cross and to where the ledge suddenly ended, however I was now on the other side, because below once again a guard rail. I lowered the bike down to the highway, then lifted it over the rail, this side even a narrower, and walked the rest of the way. Eventually there was adequate space along the roadside to ride. After I came to and passed yet another freeway entrance, traffic thinned to only an occasional car.
I rode on the oncoming traffic lane, in the middle, in order to immediately spot headlights from afar. When a vehicle comes, I cross the road to the other side. (No longer a divided interstate). I hadn’t planned this ride and had left my bike head and rear lights at home. The clouds mostly blocked the recent full moon. Once in a while my path was illuminated. However, I felt that I was better off without lights, because I was going through a rural area. As I sat on the shuttle earlier, I saw quite a number of double-trailer homes, properties with junk. There are a lot of jacked up pick-up trucks with loud engines around here. I decided that it was NOT in my favor to announce to cars that there was a bicycle. Didn’t want to give them the time to manifest any premeditated acts of hostility. My method: ‘see and avoid’. Whereas on a bicycle path with other riders, it is ‘see and be seen’. So, I cross the road to get as far away from any passing vehicle, then go back to the center of the lane of oncoming traffic. There was only one place (later in the morning) when there were two vehicles passing me at the same time. I was attending to the one approaching and for a few seconds hadn’t looked behind me, when as the truck approaching flashed his headlights. I responded by immediately moving off the road, and within two seconds, a car sped by. This person saw this and warned me.Thank you, whoever you were.
I was alone on the road in silence, with tall trees to the left of me and quiet stillness, when suddenly, I heard grunting. Huh? A lot of it. I swept my eyes to the side of the road to the left of me, and 30 yards or less away, in front of the wall of trees in this thick forested area, were a pack of not 10, not 20, more like 30 or more, little round black bodies grunting. Wild boars! WHAT? I hadn’t considered the potential of ‘non-human’ predators. I continued to pedal, alert to watching what direction they were running, not knowing where I’d go if they’d start embarking onto the road towards me. I didn’t slow down, realized they were running in the same direction as me, and then, I was beyond them. They may have been really startled by my presence, and were that were scrambling to get away, almost falling over each other, snorting very loudly in unison. That was ‘fo sho’ the highlight of my adventure, only because it didn’t become a misadventure. Wow, exHILarating.
Later, cycling along within an hour of the boar incident, having only dented the 52 mile ride , I noticed an absence of these grand trees. Empty lots, then some places along the highway with a thin row of trees in the front and an obviously hollowed area beyond. In one area I saw a few remaining straggly trees. Lone ones which looked awkward and sickly, as if crippled by being left standing after their entire community was wiped out. I noticed a number of acres with juvenile trees, replaced after loggers cleared the area.. That’s great to replenish, necessary, yet a young tree will not conceivably replace a majestic ancient one, with all of the life surrounding it that coexisted and creates a web of biodiversity. It’s incomprehensible that humans don’t see the bigger picture, beyond profit. One can not replace a forest that has evolved over centuries. These forests are worth much more alive, than dead. Go ask a wild boar.
At one place, I looked over and saw a gazebo, 2am or so. I wandered over, stepped under a rope to hang out there. The national park by a canal had a sign saying they close at 5pm. The wind was strong. Trees creaked, I’d hear a noise and quickly dart my eyes in that direction and scan the surroundings. There were very occasional cars. I was getting spooked at this point (after the wild boars). Every time i heard ANY sound (even that of the fabric of my jacket or something) that was different, I was alerted, then laugh. I walked over to read their sign for guests to the canal walk:
Remember, you are a visitor here, this is their home.
Wow, I wish that ‘observing and being considerate of nature’ was part of the fabric of education in our world. But this isn’t the standard in schools. From the political standpoint in our world of o\economics, ‘jobs’ are what people want and need. The argument, it spells out ‘money’, however with little concern for the source of the labor. So that working in lumber, mining, oil, fracking, dirty, destructive industries, building more Walmarts and CVS’s and parking lots to accommodate them, means more destruction and pollution. The discussion of jobs, overriding any sense or concern for even a second, about what that job entails and what harm it may cause to habitats of other creatures or what it is doing to spoil our earth, our home, is seldom part of the equation.
I finally arrived to the town where I needed to make my right turn at the light, recognizing the signs I’d scanned from the shuttle when we made that turn. I rode this first 25 miles, it was about 3:30am. Stood for a bit in a lit area before a sign to see if a pick-up truck might come by, but there was only one car. I had only 24 miles to go. Went to buy a beer at a gas station, state law, no beer sold after midnight. I had very little water, as I had not planned this. However I had long underwear, layers and gloves, and was fairly warm. I had seemed to be heading into the wind going west, but when I turned on the road heading north west, I realized that now, I was indeed heading into the wind.
We can create sustainable work. People can be trained in sustainable energy industries. We just need to reformulate what our priorities are and recognize that a healthy earth, means healthy and pleasant environments. And adapting to accommodate other species on the planet, can also be included in the R&D; research and development, of an alternative. However, continued construction, which in fact is destruction, air, water and soil pollution, will not only destroy all the habitats, but will also lead to our own extinction. We can not continue at this pace; leaving only tiny strips of old growths, a facade of trees.
Might as well have electronic billboards that show what majestic trees, rivers and hills once lived here.
As we kill off all the other creatures’ habitats, we will eventually be left with only concrete and dust bowls, with the climate catastrophe and heating planet leading to more fires, floods, longer and stronger hurricanes, earthquakes where there’s been fracking…until the planet, with rising temperatures and more prevalence of viruses and insect destruction of what forests are left, will no longer support human life. We have to work together on this. We can not let politics divide and fracture our consciousness of what is happening. As billionaires and traders get richer, and gaps in wealth become deeper, and the GDP grows greater, as they bank on the losses of everyone else. Let’s do this together.
Now that our swamp of denial is going to be drained and replenished in the White House with a semblance of normality that instead promotes honesty and directed effort, we can also establish an epic new road as citizens; of participation in the health of the globe and its inhabitants. The opposite of nationalism, of waving a flag that shows limited devotion, to only a particular, familiar place, we can extend our love and caring to the world. Not just love to our immediate family, a 30 mile radius of our town or county, but actually showing interest in the health of the planet and every creature that happens to be share this space on our globe, before they are all wiped out. Godliness is not worshiping in a building on Sundays, yet feeling and extending empathy, caring and love to the fate of our entire earth. We have had an economy driven by a defined and relegated promise of security through ‘jobs’ and ‘finance’. Yet this means NOTHING, if the planet and all of the species around our ‘Garden of Eden’ are dead or diseased. We can not eat money. If soil is dead and full of chemicals, our food is non-nutritional as well.
Listen to the pure intuitive instinct of a young unjaded girl. Greta connected the dots of information and saw the complete and brutal denial that the citizens of the world have been swept into. A lopsided prioritization of ‘work and earning money’, that actually contributes to the destruction of the earth and spoiling of its habitats.
Published Jan. 6, 2021/Updated Jan. 14, 2021. As a journalist, he journeyed to personally spend time with the 2 last remaining White Rhino’s. He came to love them. And in the process of spending time with them and contemplating their fate, he realized that the cornerstone of the problem of mass extinction – besides habitat loss, pollution of air, water, soil, the heating globe, wars, poaching (rhino horns worth more than gold)…is the human capacity to love. ‘Love among humans seems to have a range of thirty (30) yards. People love and cherish their own families, who or what they come into contact with personally, yet don’t seem to have the imagination or abstract thinking to extend ‘love’ and empathy to something at a distance. Therefore, humanity will never feel the love to act with the collective urgency that is required to stop the massive climate disruption and mass extinction. In the USA, we don’t even seem to be able to grasp when we are robbed by the government and laws are passed to give charity to billionaires and corporations, that this is our right and obligation to be in charge of our own destinies. As long as we are distracted by busily ‘working’ to pay exorbitant rents and complacently focused on consuming our entertainment through our devices, we simply don’t want to bother to care, because the ‘issue’ is too remote. Nobody seems to be paying attention.
Top scientists warn of ‘ghastly future of mass extinction‘ and climate disruption. Sobering new report says world is failing to grasp the extent of threats posed by biodiversity loss and the climate crisis.
I sit in a new apartment, having driven across the country after searching where I may be able to afford to live. The tap water smells and is toxic, the apt cockroach infested and a housemate smokes inside. The area is a ‘food desert’; Walmart has the monopoly on grocery stores. However, I can not presently afford to live anywhere else. I cringe, as a person who is extremely focused on cleanliness and fresh air, yet I need to creatively solve through action, all that I can, with an effort to endure. Why, because I can not as an artist, writer and intellect who cares deeply about the fate of all of the creatures of the world, and the laziness and incognizance of humans to how their actions affect everything, everywhere, do anything but continue to do what I believe is right and just.
I have just been humbled into tears after posting this. And this last sentence above I will leave there, as a clear reflection on the attitude I have been carrying and projecting. I have a blaming tone often. I am not a selfless Mother Teresa, but an ego-driven person directing my anger at what I perceive as injustices and ignorance, abounding everywhere. I have been taking the wrong tact. I have been playing the victim card, and putting ‘money’ into a category of ‘bad’. And so I remain in my carriage of entitled and underprivileged, instead of creatively monetizing and creating a much greater umbrella, through which to share wisdom or resources.
An hour ago I went to a place with the intent to ‘get my money reimbursed’. I was impatient with having to print out a long pdf document and feeling penalized for an error I did not commit. I showed anger and impatience, that was over-the-top to the woman at the desk, who was merely following orders of the higher institution. I was obnoxious enough to have the girl go to the manager. The director did not insult me, but scolded me with wisdom and gentle truths.
He spoke of the fact that regardless of any aims I may have, if I’m not kind to other people, I’m feeding the fire of the same injustices that I’m speaking of. I mentioned that I was dealing with a lot of things that impacted me emotionally, yet he said that one has to be capable of separating oneself from that which is not relevant to the context. (Don’t bring your own baggage into the scenario). One can say anything about what one is capable of doing, yet if one is not kind and gentle to other people, then saving the world is a puff of smoke. I can’t reiterate precisely at the moment all the tidbits of wisdom he included. He does art and writing and cares deeply about nature, like me, however he has created a multi-million dollar institution that is educating the public. If my writing or creative pursuits with art and music are not hardly reaching anyone, then perhaps by not framing ‘money’ into a category of ‘bad’, but using it as a resource to reach more people, is a ‘good’ thing. He mentioned that to be able to reach people and import wisdom, people need to trust you. I am absolutely guilty of impatience and hostility at the ‘world’, and blame people for what I perceive as laziness or willful ignorance. He mentioned that one can not condemn someone for what they do not know. So, I apologize, to anyone I have insulted. I will try to wear a hat of love and patience, instead of directing anger and intolerance towards ‘the other’; the idlers, the Repugs, the lifers. It is so easy to throw ‘an-other’ into a box. And by despising the ‘message’, one need not lash out at the messenger. Be guided and accurate in where to state your case; not gonna affect change to the system and aggravation with the bureaucracy by raising one’s voice to the receptionist.
Misdirected anger or blame will get me (or anyone), no where.
Having the capability of letting go of things not in my control, and not creating an even larger divide and attack, by disregarding the feelings and human ness of the person with whom I am dealing, is the first lesson. He advised me about being able to separate the little aggravations from the real problems, and not drag them into the scene. Also about not becoming the thing which I am against. In order to guide and inspire people, I must gently pull them in, from a place of trust, through enticing them with how lovable all of ‘creation’ is. He said that people need to have trust, in order to listen to what you are saying. And that learning, is not through tough discipline or pointing out mistakes, but by reinforcing positive behavior. I am humbled.
Well, the water coming from the tap in the town I just moved to, smells ‘funny’. Not humorous nor a joke. It smells noxious in the apt complex where I just moved in Statesboro, Georgia, USA. It has a sulfur smell. I googled Statesboro’s water quality and found this article which talks about some serious contaminants. I immediately went on alert to find a solution, other than purchasing plastic water bottles en masse, and I don’t feel like the baggage of purchasing a 50 gallon water jug and filling it, with a bicycle. I also didn’t sense that a Portable Pitcher such as a Brita water filter was going to tackle all the contaminants.
I went to buy water, which I rarely do, an almost 1 Gallon ‘plastic’ jug, Deer Park spring water. I’ve typically drank tap water, and have had the fortune of drinking filtered water from the refrigerators in the last several places I lived.
Then I googled : drinking water machines, purified water refill stations.
And discovered that a local Walmart super center has a water refill center. Friends don’t let friends go to Starbucks or Walmart. I’m pretty appreciative that this one hosts the Primo refill stations. I bicycled there yesterday with the empty container and yes, it exists. I filled the jug i brought, for free. (I think the machine has a malfunction 🙂 Gonna be cycling there almost every day, in fact, I already ran out of the gallon I brought home yesterday. Will look for big glass jugs, and continue to ride the 15 min. (2.6 mi) each way to bring home odor free, clean drinking water. So the water filtration system at Walmart is through Primo
Really glad that I had that hunch to google, and then found that the store I avoid at all costs, is the one with the capacity to host the Primo machine! It seems to be good.
I just visited with my Pennsylvania hometown friend Chris Erb in Taos, New Mexico over Christmas. One thing Chris mentioned was that we’re in the age, according to Hindus, of the “Kali Yuga”. Among all that glistens, we are in a sort of dark ages, that lasts for uh, 432,000 years, from 3102 BCE. That’s reassuring. Not!
And though I’m not Hindu, and sort of identify with Buddhism more than Christianity, I feel that all religious doctrines carry truths as well as stories and metaphors from which to learn and for guidance. I do feel that what is expressed in the bullet points below, from the Mahabharata, seems to be pretty right-on target.
Perhaps the more we become ‘enlightened’ through acknowledging this larger picture and recognizing the trends, we can begin to release ourselves and begin new habits.
Hindus believe that human civilization degenerates spiritually during the Kali Yuga, Well, this text is basically from one someone contributed to Wikipedia on the subject.
“The “Kali” of Kali Yuga means “strife”, “discord”, “quarrel” or “contention” and Kali Yuga is associated with the demon Kali (not to be confused with the goddess Kālī).”
“A discourse by Markandeya in the Mahabharata identifies some of the attributes of Kali Yuga.
In relation to rulers, it lists:
Rulers will become unreasonable: they will levy taxes unfairly.
Rulers will no longer see it as their duty to promote spirituality, or to protect their subjects: they will become a danger to the world.
“At the end of Kali-yuga, when there exist no topics on the subject of God, even at the residences of so-called saints and respectable gentlemen of the three higher varnas (guna or temperament) and when nothing is known of the techniques of sacrifice, even by word, at that time the Lord will appear as the supreme chastiser.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam
With regard to human relationships, Markandeya’s discourse says:
Avarice and wrath will be common. Humans will openly display animosity towards each other. Ignorance of dharma will occur.
People will have thoughts of murder with no justification and will see nothing wrong in that.
Lust will be viewed as socially acceptable and sexual intercourse will be seen as the central requirement of life.
Sin will increase exponentially, while virtue will fade and cease to flourish.
People will become addicted to intoxicating drinks and drugs.
Gurus will no longer be respected and their students will attempt to injure them. Their teachings will be insulted, and followers of Kama will wrest control of the mind from all human beings.
All the human beings will declare themselves as gods or boon given by gods and make it as a business instead of teachings. <<< Trump popped into my head reading this one>>>
People will no longer get married and live with each other just for sexual pleasure.
Weather and environment will degrade with time and frequent and unpredictable rainfalls will happen.
Maximum age of humans will be 50 years by the end of Kali Yuga.
Many fake ideologies will spread throughout the world.
The powerful people will dominate the poor people.
Many diseases will spread.
At the end of Kali Yuga, lord Vishnu will take birth on earth to wipe out the sinners.”
Getting back to the natural world and recognizing that our earth and universe is extraordinary, I took this picture of the rising ‘almost’ full moon in the high desert of New Mexico in the SouthWest of the United States.
Gosh, well, like overcoming an addiction, the first step to releasing oneself from it, is to recognize that it is an addiction in the first place. Knowledge will set you free. And listening to your own heart’s wisdom will guide you.
Abbbaddeee, abbbaaaddeeee, abbbadddeee, that’s all folks.
In local time, as my German friend pointed out on FB, we’re leaving the Year of the Rat.
“Character traits: Oxen are usually patient, fair-minded and trustworthy. They are dependable, industrious and hard workers. They have strong staying power, are cautious and don’t jump into making decisions. An ox rarely regrets the decisions they’ve made.
Oxen can also be stubborn and poor communicators. Due to their traditionalist nature, they can be overly authoritative over others.”
Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition.
The dream of EO Wilson can only be realized through the participation of humans. He strives to protect the most biodiverse places on the earth and seas, to circumvent mass extinction – which is already taking place – by safeguarding the habitats of half of the earth.
See how you can become involved!
Be a guardian of the natural world. Our earth is paradise, if we nurture life and save habitats.
I spontaneously decided to sign up for a Move-On live #PowerInAction: Winning With Our People online national organizing livestream. Tuesday, at 8 p.m. ET (7 CT/6 MT/5 PT). I hadn’t realized what a treat was in store. I listened to most of the live Nov. 17th webcast of various speakers presented by articulate Move-On hosts. It was educational and enlightening. I’m super impressed with the messages of the hosts and all the guest speakers.
Lots of inspiration!
The emphasis is on all of us participating towards influencing those we elect; to improve the quality of everyone’s life. Motivating us all to get involved in manifesting the society that we want; influencing the changes we’d like to see through our collective actions and voices. It is up to all of us to hold our elected officials accountable and democratically participate in seeking the changes that we know and can imagine, will improve the quality of everyone’s life. Volunteer with Move-On.
One of the speakers, Senator Cory Booker, really impressed me with his insights and heartfelt sharing of his wisdom. His points were about maintaining faith that one’s actions will make changes, and that it is now (after the election results) imperative for us all be involved and engaged in maintaining our Democracy; continued action, tipping the scale of the Georgia election for the Senate so that Bitchy Mitchy McConnell doesn’t block all of the things that we voted for. He blocked everything that Obama attempted to install and was the Yes Man to Chump, to unravel so many protections and programs for people, the natural world and the protection of our commons. Booker mentioned how the book by James Baldwin “The Fire Next Time” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fire_Next_Time impressed him.
Alicia Garza, the founder of Black Lives Matter, spoke about holding elected officials accountable and working together to build progress. To better our quality of life and that of future generations: on education, health care, lowering housing costs, attending to our Police forces (I’d say mandatory education, social studies, psychological programs and non violence training) so that they are groomed into a force that is not a militia of violence but more leaning towards protecting and helping society). She spoke of the book she has written, not as a How-To book, but one to guide us to asking better questions.
Let’s help Stacy Abrams, who has achieved getting an enormous response from Black woman in Georgia and all over the country, to swing the vote to the Democrats.
So, I signed up to make phone calls to people of Georgia, I guess with a script of what to say, and also the possibility to chat and enjoy listening to that Southern Accent.
I am profoundly moved and awakened, each time that I’ve listened to Arundhati Roy’s ‘Come September’ speech which she boldy presented at the Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe, New Mexico 2002, in which she states
“Nuclear weapons are stockpiled, to make the world a safer place.”
Roy quotes Thomas Friedman talking about the US policy of using war to support their control of resources. Each of the recent US wars fought for oil.
I read Arundhati’s book “God of Small Things” and have listened to her recently, 2020, as a guest of Amy Goodman on Democracy Now. She is still active and bold in her declarations. She’s a heroine for sure.
Thank you Jane Goodall for a lifetime of risk and effort to help the living creatures of the world and to save their habitats. Thank you for continually reaching out to people of the world to educate and encourage other humans to recognize the beauty and intelligence of other creatures; to respect them and see that our habits and actions can indeed make their world a better place.
I arrived. Santa Fe, New Mexico, listening to a dream I had the day before I left Palo Alto, California. I’ve had some quick ins and then disruptive times, yet maintained equilibrium and now found the perfect situation. AFTER HUGE EFFORT, THE BEST FIT EMERGED.
Ironically, first I found a place nearby many of the schools of the SFPS where I commuted to as a substitute teacher before, yet during Covid-19, none are open. The ski area will most likely open.
However, rather than sinking, I went into casting the net widely, considering everything from living as an expat in Chiang Mai, Thailand to the Yucatán in Mexico, have done thorough and detailed applications with aupair agencies regarding tutoring, while keeping my ads up locally. Then the phone rang yesterday, Nov. 14th, and I walked into a situation in which I have a startling amount in common with this woman offering a place: values, travel, language, arts, music….and the universe seems to have answered each of our intentions, in a synchronistic match.
I’ve had to ‘dersertize’ my mountain bicycle wheels, to best avoid flats due to the notorious desert ‘goathead’ thorns.
My first workaway host brought me to outside of Washington, DC, College Park Maryland. I loved that there were a lot of wildlife there, due to how the developer maintained trees and wildlife habitats. I’d bicycle an hour into DC each weekend day to explore the local culture and take pics.
From DC, I flew to San Francisco International, to do a gig in East Palo Alto, just minutes riding (across an 8 lane highway) to the lovely Palo Alto, California. There, in the heart of Silicon Valley, I was intrigued with the demographics of the tech industry. The workforce are primarily of Indian decent, second are Asian. These countries planned proactively in their higher education, 25+ years ago, for the booming computer technology scene. They’ve produced an extensive body of tech people, who flood these jobs from Silicon Valley to Singapore.
Driving from California to New Mexico, I encountered once again a culture shock through the FM radio stations I discovered along the way. There were consistently ‘Christian Rock’ stations that are distinctive in their weird similarity of sound. And too, too many Bible Belt preaching stations. Some so bizarre I wanted to stop and record them, but didn’t have time to. Even in the Blue States, there are red stains of eerie ‘born again’ sermons across the radio dials, with a mega-church hypnotism vibe.
Holy moly, did I ever have tears of relief when the Democrats won. I’m ready to contribute as much as I can towards shifting to the Green New Deal and doing things differently, with respect to mass extinctions of other creatures and the repeated climate catastrophes caused by human actions, mega-industries, monopolization and runaway neo-liberal capitalism.
Now, I’ll concentrate on completing my book (already) and juggling different work gigs to pay my rent. I’d be stoked to use my writing, portrait, art, music playing and composition to work in the film industry.
I’d love to be employed doing my writing, art, photography, music and composition. I hear the film industry is booming here. My electronic music compositions could move in the sound track directions, telling stories.
Because of how completely surprised and delighted I am with the content of these two people’s talks and writing, I felt the need to hastily put these out on both blogs simultaneously, to broadcast this information. I certainly hope that people who do not speak English as a native language, can find someone to translate.
Breathtakingly insightful, with a rich history of experience, Dr. Zach Bush has a great deal of wisdom to share.
Here is to looking forward! Change our hearts from our anthropomorphic view of only seeing the earth and all of its different creatures as resources and objects to use, to loving all earthlings. and recognizing our interdependency.
was officially April 22, 2020. I watched the ongoing broadcasts and listened to many very articulate youth activists who fully impressed me. There were numerous featured scientists, artists and musicians and indigenous people bringing forth informative and inspiring messages as well. Thank you all so much for sharing and being part of the voice of the new evolving story.
What prompted me to write this blog in the first place, was synchronistically coming upon this powerful 20 minute video presentation by Eileen Crist, in her ‘Confronting Anthropocentrism’. Powerful information as a mirror for humanity to look into the mirror, and move forward.
Confronting Anthropocentrism presentation by Eileen Crist
Even Pope Francis speaks to power. The pontiff said that the (Wuhan virus) Coronavirus outbreak offers an opportunity to slow down the rate of production and consumption and to learn to understand and contemplate the natural world.
“We did not respond to the partial catastrophes. Who now speaks of the fires in Australia, or remembers that 18 months ago a boat could cross the North Pole because the glaciers had all melted? Who speaks now of the floods?” the Pope said.
Pope says coronavirus pandemic could be nature’s response to climate crisis
“German ministers have reacted angrily following reports US president Donald Trump offered a German medical company “large sums of money” for exclusive rights to a Covid-19 vaccine.” Excuse me, did i read this correctly? So Trump would like to capitalize on a vaccine, to exclusively own, control and drive the prices higher; with more concern for profit than saving lives worldwide?
Coronavirus: anger in Germany at report Trump seeking exclusive vaccine deal.
This is a mad man, of the mentality which has arrived through decades of a population who have been increasing fixated on reproducing and consuming, driven by marketing lies and blindly following the herd. This mentality of followers have been conned into voting for this masquerade of a leader, who was groomed and bred not as a diplomat, but dégoutant (french for disgusting). This mentality allowed the Sackler family to get away with murdering hundreds of thousands (certainly my number is an underestimate). How many years has the opiate epidemic in the USA been allowed to continue with a blind eye?
This is too preposterous to be real. Trump wanted to persuade, once again through money and bribery, the exclusive rights to the Corona virus vaccine (not yet developed) and exclusive US access. Let’s expose this malicious excuse of leadership for what it is, a horrific display of egomania that could wrench a country into war with his rhetoric. It’s a mentality that perpetuates war, (us first, USA first, me first).
In terms of the laws of nature in which every creature is interdependent and part of a larger network of systems, this errant behavior of me first, is an assault to the natural world and aberrant to nature itself. Our industries and dominant story: perpetual production, geared towards continuous profit, while never considering the impacts on everyone and the stress to all other life systems, has become the perfect breeding ground for a virus to appear to nudge the ‘me first club’ into a far larger perspective on the assault that all the rest of the planet has been taking from man’s short-sighted greed and contempt, rather than praise and care, for the natural world which we’ve been casually and thoughtlessly contaminating and destroying, with the aberrant vision of valuing things through the profit we can make from them, rather than seeing worth in life itself.
It’s the right climate to breed a contemptuous virus,
All people can be part of the solution in a worldwide watchdog network. Yes to good practices towards sustainability and ecological health. No to any proposals for production that is part of the status quo, contributing to the suffocation or destruction of any natural system that doesn’t take into consideration the entirety of the natural world.
Our Living Planet Needs Us to Say No EVERYWHERE to ANY War, Oil Drilling Activity, Fracking, new Highway production, Clearing of Forests for crops, coal or any energy other than sustainable, no to mining (emphasizing recycling) no to Big Ag or Big Meat production, No to plastic production, No to the Capitalism machine of endless production with the sole aim to increase the GDP, with no consideration for the mass extinction and spoiling and destruction of the natural systems on our planet. It is time to take a stance, and through your actions, be part of the solution.
Note an App idea:
Any city, state or federal government that allows, gives the go ahead, to any new production that isn’t aimed towards ecological sustainability, should be targeted and stopped by an international community of watchdogs. In other words, someone should create an app so that anyone, anywhere in the world can do a thumbs up for who is funding or subsidizing beneficial ecological practices according to what the site (community of scientists and specialists and elders) agree upon as ‘best practices’
And a thumbs down, listing of any projects that are obviously continuing the status quo, contributing to the suffocation or destruction of any natural system that doesn’t take into consideration the entirety of the natural world. Any information that anyone knows – local or covering a broader region – can be posted, investigated and tracked on this global site. All people can actively participate. The app needs to be something that makes people proud and empowered, and also compels them to be involved.
Seeing images of people from the 1930’s through to the present of wasted bodies, limp and diminished spirits, people emotionally wasted, like zoo animals surrounded by concrete. I was moved to hear the producer talk of the difficulty of putting this out to the public, because of the ‘shame’ he and his family and many other families felt because of the tarnished interpretation of emotional, mental health disorders.
What this discloses is that many, many of the homeless people in the streets of the USA and in the prison system, are there because of their own mental health issues. and that in fact when dumped into this environment in which there are no programs to rehabilitate and create a nurturing environment towards their improvement, they are instead institutionalized.
Thing is, there are some who declare that institutions are the problem, and that all people should have the ‘right’ to not go into an institution. However, as I discovered when I saw a double amputee – probably Vietnam Veteran – fall from his wheel chair in San Francisco, which was already on the rise to being one of the most expensive cities in the country, with a huge abscess the size of a basketball in his back. I had been bicycling by on Market street, and saw this aghast, wondering how this could possibly happen right next to so much wealth. One person informed me that the Reagan era ‘reformed’ things in a way as to declare that people have the right to ‘freedom’. Yet what if they really don’t have the faculties to make the best decisions for themselves? It provoked me to write an article Cultural Abscess. However because recently my computer ceased, I temporarily don’t have access to the HD.
Many people could be rejuvenated or at least have a much better quality of life and feeling, if they were living in a caring environment among kind people, and not criminalized because of their decision impairment. I feel that this is a very important documentary to expose these truths and re align our values. Just as climate and war refugees whose lives are fragmented and who must flee their homeland, should be fully embraced and helped, since the northern hemisphere wealthy western countries who have been living phat and comfortable lives as our consumption of energy for our material comforts and energy and transportation needs, have been literally wiping out habitats, killing species of birds, insects and animals at an alarming rate – as much due to habitat loss as global warming. The citizens of the world must be informed of how their habits have affected wildlife and the natural world internationally, and come together to work together in an unprecedented manner, and do everything that we can to help the stream of refugees which will be increasing dramatically as they lose their homes.
I bring these topics together, because I believe that many physical and emotional illnesses are contextual. I believe that if people have a comfort and security and models of kindness and caring around them, they will develop habits that improve their own health and attitude, which will naturally ripple to extending their caring and kindness to others.
Health, car free, health care, kindness, caring, build bridges not walls, empathy, caring, quality of life, emotional and physical health contextual
Already there are dozens of cities around the world where there are no cars. Regardless of the terrain and topography, any environment or city could be dramatically improved and beautified by clearing out the cars and planting more trees and gardens.
My sister who is presently in Nice, informed me that the city extended their tram system which was already quite extensive, with a multitude of inexpensive public transportation options, has now eliminated benching buses. We could be subsidizing train and clean energy and public transportation to lure people out of their cars and create jobs to massively produce clean sustainable energy and transportation. It could become hip and fun to take the train, as well as affordable. If people could own and be part of the transition into clean energy, improving the quality of the air and water and life, they could circulate the money back into the community and feel directly involved in maintaining this as a right, as well as protecting public lands and waterways and natural habitats. Train and safe infrastructure for pedestrian and bicycle transportation could increasingly transform public spaces into beautiful ones that draw people to congregate and interact in public places with one another. The community of people could at the same time choose to design with thoughtfulness about other creatures: insects, pollinators, birds and mammals, to live with them and allow them to live.
What would you choose? A job with excellent pay (such as new highway, new bank or box store, nuclear power plant, fracking, oil drilling or pipeline or massive agricultural spread…) that will destroy a beautiful place and wildlife habitat,
just to get that promise of good pay?
Pretending somehow that the money is the essential thing, the GDP and one’s paycheck more important than anything else?
Indigenous native Americans historically thought hard before making any decisions about how it may impact the NEXT SEVEN (7) GENERATIONS.
Or will you recognize that more destruction and dismantling and razing of nature, or purchase that involves destroying nature on the other side of the globe, is your responsibility, and see that there is and can be a completely different approach to what is considered progress, that values nature above everything, and will utilize your best effort and skills and allow you to do what you love and work together with others in revitalizing nature and empowering you and your sense of community at the same time?
These are choices we all need to make. Yet it’s very difficult if people are completely blinded by the incentive to make another buck.
We can choose to educate ourselves, listen to scientists and knowledgeable people who know that there is a better way, and as we talk with one another and support one another in our awareness, we can make these changes.
It is our choice. Helping to support all life and empowering other life with respect and love, while empowering one’s own spirit with the joy of empathy, or somehow only considering oneself and one’s immediate family, and not giving a fuck about anyone or any creature outside of your own immediate walls.
And just like that, going from here to there and in between, I was captivated with colors and textures and took 107 photos today. Here are most, except for three that I retouched, wysiwyg.
I was simply going to post the 106 pics whose subject matter grabbed my attention today, and then it morphed, into the topics that stabbed my attention.
nov 7 autumn leaves photo album beauty of the natural world
Pantheism nothing in nature lives for itself systemic interdependence and harmony
Horrible events are occurring among Amazon Indigenous people who have been repeatedly attacked, killed, mostly by loggers who want to get to their trees. I’m sure the convoluted story includes international corporate and banker criminals of the USA as well. There was also a recent news story in the BBC about lumber thugs killing a man in Romania, who wished to protect the only virgin forests left in Europe. Perhaps there should be an international team who can get information from the sources of people who wish to protect the forests and act as liaisons. They should have within their tools a bunch of drones, that can quickly and accurately see what’s going on, and a team of scientists and data analysts who can help to interpret the data. A body of teachers and negotiators who can work with local and national governments and more specifically, talk to the culprits in the industries that have been doing the attacking, and figure out a way for them to be subsidized and brought into training in various different renewable industries.
There are plenty of people with skills and needs, and plenty of changes that need to be made in the world. These people are acting out of desperation. I presume that if the lumber or whatever trade these people have (lumber, palm oil, plastic, coal, oil, gas, chemical industries) if they were provided with alternative work, other options and subsidized as they are educated and trained in new skills towards renewable, regenerative agriculture, planting trees, being guardians of the forest, clean energy, building animal bridges, windmills, solar, growing hemp, bamboo, fungi for growing building material as well as cleaning up toxic waste, that they would choose to do it. If there were educational outreach systems and options for training in any one of a dozen of relevant new trades that can help to safeguard the planet and the habitats of other creatures, they would do it.
I’m sure that all of the weapons, ships and aircraft and warcraft of the world could be melted into some pretty functional items, other than to kill people. Okay, I’ll stop now.
He wanted only to be a guardian for all the life in the forest. Simply put down, he was in the way of cutting down trees.
Brazilian Indigenous Leader Killed in Amazon he wished to be a guardian for all life murdered by lumber thieves
This story doesn’t seem to go away. People with greed or desperation, only see through the filter of their desire to make gains.
They’ve lost their soul. The Brazilian leader along with the US and dozens of right wing plutocrats around the globe, prefer to turn a blind eye, and cold heart.
Sacred Giving, Sacred Receiving by Joseph Bruchac June 20, 2016 The American Indian Giveaway
Parabola, Search for Meaning Sacred Giving, Sacred Receiving, by Joseph Bruchac June 20, 2016
There appears to be a spiritual malaise, whenever faith encounters the market place. This existed since the time of Jesus Christ, who was a huge threat to the Romans, because he wanted to empower people and expose the truths. The market place won.
“Wealth, among American Indian people, is not seen as the accumulation and keeping of money or goods or land. The strengthening of community is much more important in the American Indian practice, a gifting more akin to prayer than self-aggrandizement and acquisition. American Indian giveaway practices have often been viewed as a threat by government officials, both in the United States and Canada. Government policies in the nineteenth and much of the twentieth century were designed to suppress such activities.”
Indigenous people who are closest to nature and respect all life the most, just keep getting massacred, by what is propelled by the power of fascism driven by economics. The US governenment, in protecting their economic interests, continue to grab weapons first and contemplate their actions, never.
We need to set aside nature, specifically areas which are populated with biodiversity and focus on repairing the slices and ruptures within habitats presently, to repair and regenerate them.
Woonasquatucket River Greenway
Captivating autumn colors, primarily captured along the Woonasquatucket River Greenway.
Providence, Rhode Island, autumn leaves, four seasons
I’ve written about EO Wilson’s Half-Earth project in both blogs, which can take place through the contribution of everyone around the world, yet which Yale University students are helping to research and catalogue.
EO Wilson’s Half-Earth Project protecting half the land and sea for wildlife systems
This Is What Extinction Sounds Like
Bernie Krause has spent a lifetime recording the sounds of nature. It’s getting quieter every day.
Bernie Krause Interview
what extinction sounds like Bernie Krause huffpost
That’s because the beauty of the earth and preservation of habitats of all of its creatures is true wealth, whose value needs to be incorporated into human culture and economy on all levels.
“The emphasis is on restoring and regenerating human communities together with restoring and preserving ecosystems; the emphasis on diversity and living systems.We’ll share an economy that is restorative and regenerative, that preserves ecosystems and increases their return over time, that creates prosperity, and that fuels growth by capturing more value from existing infrastructure and products.”
We can focus on what all human populations can do through intentionally restructuring the economy from a hierarchical to a circular one, which focuses on human, earthling and environmental justice.
Deceased prolific writer Rudolph Joseph Rummel who wrote Death by Government was a professor of political science who taught at the Indiana University, Yale University and University of Hawaii. He spent his career studying data on collective violence and war with a view toward helping their resolution or elimination. His research reveals that Democide – megamurders by governments – typically occurs when a leader develops too much unchecked power. ““The more constrained the power of governments, the more power is diffused, checked, and balanced, the less it will aggress on others and commit democide. At the extremes of power, totalitarian communist governments slaughter their people by the tens of millions.”
shepard fairey creating 100th mural pvd Providence, ,Rhode Island
Anjel Newmann AS220 Youth Director
Shepard Fairey 100th mural Providence RI pbn
Dedicated to the arts, it features a local woman Anjel Newmann, Youth Director at AS220 a prominent arts establishment in Providence.
After speaking to a full house and spillover crowds to two separate places also with capacity seating receiving a direct feed from RISD auditorium, he worked on the mural for several days, prior to the opening of his show through the collaboration with AS220, to create a pop-up gallery. His show Facing the Giant features the evolution of his work – from the beginnings with André the Giant going viral, which morphed into an iconic image of the giant, and a continued elaboration on similar themes embedded in many of his works. The line to the art opening wrapped around the block, with the mural in lit up splendor in view from the glass walled gallery front. The show will remain at 233 Westminster street in downtown Providence, Rhode Island until November 16th.
Back in his beginnings, as Shepard was always an avid skateboarder, a skateboarding group adopted some early versions of his work, the iconic giant face in stark red, framed within a star. His line of clothing and designs have continued to be adopted by the skateboarding scene. Decades of his art have made stances to power; speaking out against war and standing up for justice.
Shepard dj’d old school punk for the duration of his art opening on Friday, October 25th, Spinning vinyl on turntables, with his laptop (plastered with stickers) functioning as a virtual mixer. He was animated throughout, singing and gesturing to the music. Signs urged people not to interrupt, declaring that he’d lost his voice…so as not to be distracted by the waves of people wanting a selfie with him.
I was going to tack this video within the post c-change conversations with respect to the spiritual relationship we need to co-create, with ourselves, between one another and with the water, the sky, soil, a spider, a bird or rhinoceros. Yet his words and viewpoint needs to stand on its own.
Living with Less is LIving with More Co-Creating a New Story A New Relationship with Earth and her Creatures
“Can you imagine a more beautiful world your hearts knows is possible?
We have inherited a culture without any critical inquiry.”
Leo Murray talks of the need to decouple the relationship between standards of living and quality of life.
Authors, visionaries and thought leaders who are inspiration to less is more: Charles Eisenstein, Daniel Pinchbeck, Niki Harré, Yuval Noah Harari, David Holmgren, Masanobu Fukuoka, Bill Mollison.
authors visionaries and thought leaders inspiration less is more
Here is information some of these visionaries have communicated.
The purpose of the infinite game is to continue the game.
The purpose of the finite game is to win.
The infinite game invites others in and is full of creativity, the rules continually change and all are flexible in their interactions.
The finite game includes only select people, it is all about replication and does not bend. In life, the finite game winnings are such as getting a trophy, owning property, getting a degree, a promotion, publishing an article, get funded for a program.
She talks of the amazing power of symbol and metaphor. And that in order to keep the infinite game in play, we need to trust people and promote creativity. It’s up to all of us to bring this awareness into our workplace, schools and communities.
Yuval Harari Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind – 5 year anniversary
A Brief History of Humankind Yuval Noah Harari
Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition
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It is over a week since I hitchhiked (l’auto stop, trempen) to New York City from Providence, Rhode Island. I intended to participate in the Global Climate Strike.
global climate strike 20-27 September 2019
global climate strike nyc sept. 20 2019
if climate was a bank, it would have been saved.
climate strike new york city september 20, 2019
What I learned after fortunately being introduced to a pop-up space ‘Climate Action By The People’ Presented by If Not Us Then Who and the Hip Hop Caucus
Was that indeed, a lot of the climate problems’ source are economically motivated.
I am still floored, shocked and baffled that this information is not completely open and taught in classrooms. But a regime doesn’t openly reveal what keeps its constituents enslaved. It’s a fabulously written article by Mathew Desmond for the New York magazine on Aug 14 2019, with a thorough coverage of the history of capitalism, in the cotton fields. In order To Understand the Brutality of American Capitalism, you have to start at the Plantation.
New Yorker magazine article In order To Understand the Brutality of American Capitalism, you have to start at the Plantation, Mathew Desmond Aug 14 2019
“American slavery is necessarily imprinted on the DNA of American capitalism,” write the historians Sven Beckert and Seth Rockman…
But cotton needed land. A field could only tolerate a few straight years of the crop before its soil became depleted.The United States solved its land shortage by expropriating millions of acres from Native Americans, often with military force, acquiring Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Florida…
MODERN SLAVERY
Today modern technology has facilitated unremitting workplace supervision, particularly in the service sector. Companies have developed software that records workers’ keystrokes and mouse clicks, along with randomly capturing screenshots multiple times a day.”
It makes the pleas by both American democrat presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren inescapably relevant, reparations for African Americans for slavery and discrimination, i.e. our industrial prison system as well as reparations for Native Americans whose land was stolen and who were slaughtered, in order to barter and profit from their land. My sister reminded me today in conversation that the British were lords of the slave trade at the time.
Bill McKibben, co founder of 350.org, wishing to limit the carbon in the atmosphere to 350 (ppm) parts per million, before it recently tipped to 415ppm recently contributed this article to the New Yorker
What if the banking, asset-management, and insurance industries moved away from fossil fuels? By Bill McKibben, September 17, 2019
Amazon Watch Complicity in Destruction
Banking on Climate Change RAN rainforest action network
The biggest contributors to the burning of the various rainforests of the world are companies like Cargill in the USA, and banks who invest in them like Chase and asset management companies that trade in this demise, like Black Rock
Each have their tentacles in the destruction of the rain forests and other pristine places of the globe, to Big Ag, Big Oil and Big Lies. Tear up your Chase cards and invest ecologically and wisely. Inform yourselves.
I just spoke for about a quarter of an hour with a French couple from Biarritz, who agree that though the youth are much more aware and mobilized, many people prefer to not even talk about the climate, as if they can’t wrap their heads around it, and are super reluctant to think beyond their immediate time and place. That’s where we need leaders to establish that we need to be caring for the planet, now.
Humpty Dumpty says to the earth, they aren’t going to know how to put you together again.
We are not alone on the planet, it is up to us to be guardians of life.
The beginning of the march was designated as Foley Square in lower manhattan at noon. I had 12 hours until it would start. I used the opportunity after arriving with only 2 rides in Flushing, Queens, with plenty of time to spare. I decided to walk the 16 + miles through Queens, known to have one of the densest concentrations of languages in one not so large geographical area. I could take the train at any point, but in fact walked from little Chinatown in Flushing, through a labyrinth of street taco stands of various Latino ethnic groups, then East Indian and middle Eastern, before more Spanish speaking cultures.
hitch 9.19.19 to nYc 181 miles global climate march, UN Climate Summit
Four days later I returned to Providence, Rhode Island via taking the regional train from Manhattan to Babylon, Long Island. I wanted to check out a bit of this borough before taking the ferry back to Connecticut. I intended to swim in East Hampton, however the ocean was so tumultuous that I didn’t feel comfortable, despite being a strong swimmer. Other locals whom I spoke with felt the same way. This day was a quite tempestuous body of water. The hitch is a pleasant story in itself, in which I got quite quick rides with interesting people, two of them were women. All were aware of the climate strike.
hitchhike, Long Island, NY, Orient Point Ferry
aiming for East Hampton
Decided to check out Long Island and go to the mainland in Connecticut from the ferry at Orient Point.
I had never been to Long Island, so I used regional train transport to bring me a third of the way to the Eastern end, the Hamptons. East Hampton, with multimillion dollar homes, wide white sandy beaches. It’s extraordinarily hard to believe that this is also a New York borough.
carol Keiter, greg altman, september 20 climate strike new york city
I used to go on the critical mass bike rides each month among friends and many strangers when i lived in San Francisco.
I just happened to look at my calendar and saw that the Providence Critical Mass called PVD Bike Jam, was going to be that evening. Was fun, nice weather, 70 people, and unlike the bike ride that the mayor held when these cops on motorcycles were jamming along side of the bicyclists so fast, that they were dangerous, i guess in the name of ‘security’ for the mayor. After several of us biked even further to the next town north to dance Salsa on a bridge, but it wasn’t happening. It was a fun detour with fun people.
The bike jam was fun. No need to pay much attention, just follow the lights and tunes. Just a whirrrrrr of bikes, no fumes, no loud noises, oh, except for the sound systems on several bikes accompanying the ride.
Here’s a video just to show the one stopover.
not a well shot video, but just showing that the bike jam stopped at a monument
providence bike jam
In the meantime, I had noticed that my breaks were not working so well, the need to change them had been brought to my attention perhaps months ago in a bike shop. I decided to stop by this bike shop in the hood for a quote, $50. Went home, looked online for the hours of recycleabike where I purchased my GT that a mechanic put together, and they were open for another couple hours. I biked there, a bike mechanic who had stopped in to help some kids working on their own bikes, showed me what to do. I took off the breaks, put on the new break pads I purchased, Patrick helped me to adjust the break pads, explaining not to let them touch the rubber of the bike wheel. He kicked in oiling the break cable when I mentioned the previous idiosyncrasy of the back breaks, which he identified and solved. Left after cleaning my black oiled hands, paying $17.50 and learning something new, saving 30 dollars. DIY is fun.
After being gifted a bicycle in Montpellier which was stolen right around the time that it was malfunctioning so much that it was a burden, i googled a recycle a bike kinda place and disocovered Le Vieux Biclou. I went there figuring they might have some second hand bikes for sale, and found one, a Specialized with a seat jammed all the way down. One of the people present in the shop that day helped me by pounding out the seat. I then greased the pole, and voila, I had a very cool bike, frame just a bit smaller than I would have bought, but this size turned out to be PERFECT in this hilly town. I love, love love that Specialized, and love the bike shop. I mention it because it is similar to recycleabike, in that one can go in and get assistance and training on how to repair it yourself.
Le Vieux Biclou Montpellier France
What make Providence cool is the WaterFire festival which takes place downtown on the water, with mostly world music played on speakers along the water for the duration of 6 hours, so that you’re encased in sounds throughout.
good evening America, morning to Europe, afternoon to Australia. Re posting this article written by an Australian.
Hopefully as people read this, they may be instigated to finally act, which would cause his title to shift dramatically towards success.
…and since the US, Brazilian, Australian…governments are ignoring reality in favor of the business-as-usual paradigm of profit over, e v e r y t h i n ga n de v e r y o n ee l s e, there is no more clear reason to drop everything, strike for the climate globally, Friday, and continue striking. if only all the truckers, police, military, agriculture and gas industries… would somehow grasp this picture, listen and decide to work together. maybe Greta Thunberg will have a huge impact on world leaders at the climate summit. But what she realizes, is that leaders, as long as they only see through the veil of economic profits, will continue to DO NOTHING. Thereforei ti s u pt ot h ep e o p l eto wake up and take action, for however long it takes, to demand and follow change.Greta knows this, she came all the way over here to the US and then to Chili for climate talks with global leaders, but MORE IMPORTANTLY, TO RALLY THE PEOPLE TO GET THE FUCK OUT IN THE STREETS AND WAKE UP.
Tim Flannery Aussie Activist
Greta Thunberg explaining to the grownups on a psychological treadmill.
Greta Thunberg explaining to the grownups on a psychological treadmill
Why? Why not? Wake up! What could be more important?
global climate strike with Greta Thunberg, Sept 20-27
Greta Thunberg, climate strike, 150 countries, massive Friday climate strike, international protest, UN Climate Action Summit
I just organized my Faber-Castell watercolor paintings that I’ve done over the last few years. This prompted me to update my Collection and put it out in cyberspace.
I love doing portraits of people and animals which are penci, charcoal and pastels.
A short and sweet version of what’s been happening over the last decades of inaction.
We are fucked Global Climate Strike Sept 20 2019_presenter
Global Climate Strike 20-27 Sept
Greta Thunberg, the Swedish girl who strikes school for climate awareness and responsibility of governments to TELL THE TRUTH, just sailed across the Atlantic to attend the UN Climate Action Summit, to be present for the Global Climate Strike September 20th to 27th and to attend another Climate Action Summit in South America.
She crossed the ocean in a non-emission, solar powered sail boat.
Greta Thunberg arrives to New York city on solar-powered, emission free sail boat across Atlantic
“We Are Striking to Disrupt the System”: An Hour hour interview with 16-Year-Old Climate Activist Greta Thunberg
United Nations greeted Greta Thunberg’s arrival in NY with 17 boats – sustainability goals
UN Climate Action Summit Sept. 2019
It’s up to us to read, have conversations with one another and to recognize that government leaders in a democracy, need to be lead by the people. If the people do not elect leaders who are accountable to the health of the earth and all of its creatures, then jobs and profits for the 1%, account for nothing. Humans learn habits, and they can learn to break them.
Recently, article after article from independent real media who do tell the truth, talk about how the corrupt right-wing leaders such as Trump, Bolsonaro and other continue to allow industries to spoil the planet and manufacture weapons, while the earth, all its creatures and 99% of the global human population suffer the consequences.
global climate strike sept 20-27 worldwide rebellion oct 7-18
DoTheMath Gobal Climate Crisis Kumi Naidoo Greenpeace website
Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition
The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.
I’ve checked out this Swan Point Cemetery several times. It’s full of life. I sat on a rock next to the water. I did this in one sitting today. Because it was a lovely Sunday, there was a trickle of people, live ones. It took me 5 hours to do this. After about three and a half hours, I heard not a purr, but a growl, that sounded a bit like a cat. Didn’t sound like a bird. Just as I was finishing, I heard it again. I don’t know what kind of wild animal are around here (northeast USA) that makes that sound. It was pretty close to me in the bush to the right. I didn’t investigate. I just wanted to get out of its way. There are no bobcats around here, but it sounded like one. I was imagining something launching out, but not really intimidated. Dusk was falling to darkness as I bicycled away. I saw a fox running across my path ahead. I know how to get out of the cemetery once the gate is closed, just have to lift my bicycle down a stone wall and jump a few feet below it. I often only leave as darkness is coming. Another place I sat I saw these huge birds. I never get scared actually, even thought I’m alone in a cemetery. It’s just gorgeous, for sure, the oldest growth as far as trees go, around.
swan_point_fountain_sign_9_8_19
There really was a little school of reddish-orange gold fish swimming around, so I didn’t make that up!
I had a series of magical moments after I had moved from a cafe to a waterfront area. I was looking over the Table of Contents (TOC) of this book I’m writing and realized several pages were not ‘recognized’. I was doing the quick and assured fix of formatting the title text and making sure there were page breaks, and this one page simply would not allow itself to be recognized. It would not appear in the TOC.
I had no choice but to look at the content more closely, having decided that I had completed this page, and then realized…
…that I could subtly change the wording of this part of the title. And, oh, I see, it would be better to omit this and re-create this series of lines instead.
I had wanted to use the quick and obvious fix of reformatting the title, which functioned with other pages, but this one page would not allow me.
So, i don’t know about you, but I think that the book, via the computer, was not allowing me to hastily skip over this page, but insisted that i look at it more closely. This part of the story, did not want to be portrayed in that way.
I think it’s like magic, and I call this a synchronicity. Like a gut instinct or intuition.
sunflowerssunflowers to the left of me sunflowers to the right
“Writers imagine that they cull stories from the world. I’m beginning to believe that vanity makes them think so. That it’s actually the other way around. Stories cull writers from the world. Stories reveal themselves to us. The public narrative, the private narrative – they colonize us. They commission us. They insist on being told. Fiction and nonfiction are only different techniques of story telling. For reasons that I don’t fully understand, fiction dances out of me, and nonfiction is wrenched out by the aching, broken world I wake up to every morning.”
Here was the approaching back drop.
ducks the geese had already flown in two flocks to grass lawns
sunset september 6 in Providence, Rhode Island
sept 5th sky I had seen a green blue moon at sunset and later an orange pink crescent
Thanks to Carbonmade for providing online hosting tools to easily and simply 7create portfolios, for free!! http://carbonmade.com!
Here are the recently updated first few pages of the Table of Contents (TOC). As of May 29:
2020 Version, TOC, Table of Contents, Carol Keiter, Young Adult educational ebook, A Seahorse Tale, A Spin on the Matter of Motion
2020 Version, TOC, Table of Contents, Carol Keiter, Young Adult educational ebook, A Seahorse Tale, A Spin on the Matter of Motion
Carol Keiter, Young Adult educational ebook, A Seahorse Tale, A Spin on the Matter of Motion
A Seahorse Tale A Spin on the matter of motion, water funnel baobab
Waterfunnel painting
Doing the writing, editing, illustrations, formatting on my own. If you have any suggestions or connections to schools, educational publishers or donations, please send them my way.
Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition
Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition
The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.
If what this woman has to say doesn’t completely blow you out of your complacent comfortable reality into seeing things on an entirely different level, then go ahead and keep pretending that you have no idea what she’s talking about and that you have no role to play as an individual in waking up to reality.
She says what very few people say – as she jokes 20 years ago about America’s Free Press. Twenty years ago, and absolutely relevant. She has courage and insights that most either simply don’t have a clue about, or are too frightened to express.
Arundhati Roy full speech 2002 Come September
Lannan Foundation US Globalization Nationalism Arundhati Roy Come September
I would recommend that everyone set aside some time to listen attentively to what this erudite woman, Arundhati Roy has to say in her speech “Come September”. ARUNDHATI ROY ~~~ COME SEPTEMBER (2002) (FULL SPEECH)
Then listen to it again. then turn off your television and set aside time to listen to it again. And if you still feel inclined to think that America is Great, listen to those brave and eloquent Americans who see beyond the hype and offer something completely different to the table of politics. People who will cut through the corpocrisy and oiligarchy, to actually manifest a conscious awareness that can deliver to the world, something way, way out of line of the corporate for – profit delusion that has been deceptively running this country.
We are not powerless, unless of course we believe that we are and because of that thinking, opt to not do a fucking thing. Most Americans somehow, simply don’t get out into the streets to shake things up and express their opinions.
“Corporate interests are the basis of America’s dysfunction in every area, it’s not just chemical policies and agricultural companies, it’s health insurance, pharmaceutical companies, gun manufacturers, fossil fuel companies also the defense contractors.”
Marianne Williamson | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
There are lots of democratic contenders running for president, who have not been given much time. As the typical American policy, as in Hollywood, is to keep putting up the same leading actors, simply because they have already been proven to draw big box office profits.
Don’t let this CNN driven debate stuff blur out (with barely any time) the excellent points and potential leadership qualities of people, just because they are not as well known.
Why am I writing blogs? Well, I don’t make any money from them. It’s because the whole arena of this culture in which I’ve been raised is so absolutely WRONG. The ideology, the complete lack of awareness of connecting the dots and seeing how peoples very small actions, affect the rest of the world. American’s habits and comforts, ease and license to do whatever they want, is causing the massive die offs of all of the different species and affecting the mass extinction. Yet the 1%, the increasing wealth gap, the fact that corporate activities and governments are just puppets to the people who dictate activities, these people are w buying their own islands, building their multiple properties, and living off the rest of the work force who have been stripped of their rights and freedoms, continuously. It is so extensive, that it happens before our eyes and we are lead to believe that we actually want the things that are dangled before us.
Steve Cutts Happiness animation
carol_hitch_return_santafe
Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition
The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.
I talk with people ‘strangers’ all the time – at the grocery store, post office, art events, walking by – about plastic, the climate crisis (el cambio climático), idling engines, etc. I learn things in the process. There was a massive heat dome sweeping the United States this past weekend. A few days ago I was informed of this report about the level of emergency of the climate crisis we are in, written by people in the Australian Navy, divulging the truth that they have learned.
Shocking UN Report Warns Millions Species are at Risk of Extinction due to Human Activity Democracy Now
Frankly, what does it take to get people’s attention and leaders to have the strength to go against the status quo of thinking about their coffers, and actually taking unprecedented action by enforcing sweeping informational campaigns and establishing regulations to change peoples’ habits – and particularly industry practices? As in Burningman, when people are facing the extremes together (as opposed to the wealthier ones remaining insulated from the elements), when we are all participating together to make the changes that we need to, then brilliant minds will continue to have great ideas to help out in different communities. I think the only way we can do it, is when ALL PEOPLE PARTICIPATE.
Australian Military Report High Liklihood human Civilization Ending 2050 Independent
As long as the truth is not out to the public, we can keep shopping and acting as if we are clueless about how our actions affect this. Thing is, it appears that many people are. News feeds are lined with sleek automobile ads, seducing you to believe that you’ll suddenly have that exceptional strength and fire to finally do what you want. As if. We can not let government inaction, choosing to ignore the truth as they bow and cater to the oil oligarchy, to steam roll ahead. There are the few politicians who are principled and brave enough to speak the truth; i.e. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, the Squad of newly elected women of color democrats – each one ferociously eloquent, each one could cause DUMPH (CHUMP/TRUMP) to just melt or start screaming like a toddler and covering his ears. Yet we really sort of have to help to steer this, and do something, rather than waiting for ‘the next election’; ad infinitum.
BUSINESS AS USUAL, NEEDS TO COMPLETELY STOP.
The Climate Reality Project the Climate Crisis and Your Health
Here are 10 examples I thought of, that we can do [with money earned through idling fines] to better our environment and build a nature friendly infrastructure. At the post office, mentioning idling cars, one of the postal workers responded that the state of New Jersey imposes a $75 dollar fine for a car parked with an engine on (idling). New York city, $150 for idling buses. There could be bicycle cops in cities who are only hired to enforce this, to gather tens of thousands of dollars a week, just here in the small city of Providence, to contribute to:
1. bicycling lanes to invite more ease, comfort and safety bicycling
2. bus transportation system that is electric or solar powered
3. fines to homes that are using too extreme of a power usage to air condition their homes (unless the inhabitants are elderly, disabled or ill)
4. paying people to plant trees in their yards, streets and parks
5. create community gardens where people can grow their own food and enjoy community participation in the process
6. putting money towards transportation and building architecture that is renewable
7. creating more parks and pathways for animals such as: animal bridges and tunnels, bee highways
8. encouraging people to bicycle, rather than drive in a car
9. creating local transport that is not gasoline based, but bicycle powered, solar or electric trollies that are fun
10. stop buying water in plastic!!! please
…etcetera
Why Are You Striking for the Climate
“Millions of people across the world are going to be striking for climate on September 20, all with different experiences of the climate crisis. We’re all a part of this movement for a better world, and all our stories and reasons matter.
Are you joining in? If so, tell us why. We want you to take a selfie or record a quick video explaining why you’re going to take part and show your support for the incredible mobilizing already happening from our youth.
We also need you to do more than just take a selfie though, don’t forget to sign up at globalclimatestrike.net. We need you on the streets in September.”
I just wrote to a local educational institution and then to the Congressman in the state where I reside presently, about making legislation to enforce anti-idling laws.
Congressman David Cicilline of Rhode Island
subject: Establish Anti-Idling Laws for RI > Funds from Fines to Create Jobs Transportation Infrastructure
Back of the Envelope: Establish Anti-Idling Laws for RI > Funds from Fines to Create Jobs to Build Community Greenways & Renewable Energy Transportation & Building Infrastructure.
The state of NJ has anti-idling fines of $75./automobile. New York city fines idling buses, $150. Nova Scotia, Canada just passed laws against idling vehicles waiting in fast food take-out lines. There are plenty of state, county and city anti-idling laws. It is a no-brainer that in Europe, where many vehicles are diesel, turn off the ignition when they aren’t moving. Many countries have excellent train transportation. Train transport could be subsidized, to invite people to use public transportation because it is cheaper and more efficient than driving.
When Federal government leaders in large countries such as the USA and Brazil are in climate change denial, and more in the pocket of the Oil Oligarchy, they tend to ignore the present extinction and climate crisis. That is when individual State, County and City leaders need to set precedents and show their accountability and ‘best practices’, as leaders for others to follow.
How about a ‘Have you Heard’ educational campaign, to inform the public about the consequences of idling (among other habits)? We are currently in an unprecedented climate crisis. It is not 10 years away, it is happening now, around the globe.
The habits of individuals, collectively, quickly add up.
My encounters as a bicyclist residing in Providence and having visited Block Island, RI, after living in multiple US cities, states as well as abroad, has lead me to being completely astounded at the apparent total lack of awareness of individuals. I see dozens of idling cars and trucks, daily. Most individuals simply are not aware of the impacts of their idling cars and trucks; of the toxic fumes released in the immediate vicinity of their vehicle nor awareness of how the heat and exhaust affect global warming. Because of this general lack of knowledge, nothing will raise their attention or raise your budget faster, than establishing legislation and fines, to set the precedent for others to follow.
I have contacted the RI Governor, Mayor of Providence, RI DEM, Brown University and am finally contacting the most appropriate recipient, the one who can establish state-wide laws to prohibit idling, and fine people.
Allison Archambault, Supervising Air Quality Specialist
Climate Change & Mobile Sources Programs – RI DEM –
Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, retorted to my letter, that “Motor vehicles may not idle unnecessarily for longer than five consecutive minutes during any 60-minute period.”, siting https://rules.sos.ri.gov/regulations/part/250-120-05-45 a law on paper.
However, there is absolutely no enforcement nor awareness of this law. Various police officers know nothing of anti-idling laws. A woman officer in Providence mid July, 2019, told me she knows of no anti-idling laws and ‘what people do in their cars is their own business’.
She is unequivocally incorrect in her response. It is not up to the individual, when collectively, each contribute to poor air quality that affects others directly in their vicinity and long term effects of CO2 emissions leading to the potential extinction of humans, along with the human induced 6th mass extinction of life on earth. it is everyone’s business when the quality of the air, water, the temperature and fumes emitted in the immediate vicinity of a vehicle and temperature of the global environment is warming due to ever increasing CO2 levels.
I implore you to take a stand and impose legislation and fines. You could accumulate tens of thousands of dollars a week, hundreds of thousands a month, if you’re interested in deterring peoples actions and at the same time utilizing the money towards creating jobs to build green infrastructure.
Please impose laws and fines. $75/car, $150/truck, $300/diesel engined vehicles. Double the fines if they are caught a second time. Create a task force for this issue, police on bicycles, to regulate and enforce it. $300/dirty institutional air conditioning systems. Enact a statewide campaign.
I can not emphasize the huge number of vehicles i come across daily, on every block. It is so excessive, that it is blowing my mind. I have resided in several states and abroad, and have never come across such an excess of idling vehicles and complete lack of awareness as well as blatant hostility in response. I’ve encountered parents sitting in their idling SUV’s while waiting to pick up their kids from school.
Students test ozone levels where cars idle at schools
There is no age, ethnic, or socio economic divide, there is a tremendous lack of awareness.
I just sent a letter to Brown University to implore them to educate their Facilities’ staff about the implications of idling vehicles, to encourage them to enforce anti-idling rules and be leaders with ‘best practices’ for other organizations to follow.
I’ve blogged about the IPCC report and the need for particularly the developed wealthier nations and the US in particular, as the leader in emissions from the transportation sector and a major player in habitat destruction and industrial pollutions, to be accountable to the world community and be leaders in creating jobs, rebuilding renewable energy infrastructure.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that we have ten years to avoid outright disaster and extinction of the human race, while human activity has already triggered the six mass extinction of all other creatures, mostly due to the human energy demands tied to the Petroleum industries, along with excessive building, global warming from CO2 emissions with the transportation sector responsible for most.
I routinely encounter people sitting in their idling vehicles talking on their phone, saying that ‘they’re just about to leave’. I encounter people who are working in houses, in construction, in moving businesses, who leave their trucks idling while they are working outside of the vehicle, yards removed from their vehicle. I can not ignore this issue, because it is scorching my nostrils and heating my skin, literally every day, every block. I do not have the time to approach people – as i do frequently to gently communicate this – nor do I wish to risk my life with some hostile reactions, because people become defensive when approached. The public needs to be informed and educated through campaigns, the media and most effectively, by laws that spell it financially, since that appears to be the main driver, not just running the world but ruining the world.
Please contact me if you want to hear what I encounter on the streets, in dirty detail.
Sincerely,
I’m doing this on my own time. This blog is not for profit, no advertising.
Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition
The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.
Carol Keiter on Block Island lens through convex lens
For those of you who are not native American English speakers, ‘blast’ is slang for a ‘killer’ time, which is slang for a really fun, great time. Bliss on Block Island. he he he
I decided at the last minute, the night before, after seeing the weather forecast and having investigated transport a week earlier. My sister Joan kept recommending Block Island. This was her gift. Afterwords, I asked her about how she knew about the place, and she said that back in the day when she lived in the East Village in Manhattan, she had done stand-up comedy not only in nYc, but also went a few times with other comedians to a club on Block Island to perform, and had rented a bicycle…
The night before I quickly perused on the internet suggestions of things to do, attractions on the island. I drew my map of things to do.
hand drawn map of attractions on Block Island, Rhode Island
marine_map_block_island
I was quite proud of myself to get up early enough to catch that 8:15 bus; up at 6, to bed at 3. Had a wonderful conversation on the way. I was the only person with a bicycle at that time of the morning.
Fabulous experiences, the animal petting zoo, wildlife reserve, the southern light house, the northern light house, the bluffs, and the enormous amount of bicycle and moped traffic 🙂 taking photos the whole time.
Block Island photo album bicycles and mopeds abound
I had miraculous timing! I had drawn a map, quickly looked up and jotted down points of interest, was so proud of myself to actually plan and wake up (alarm had been set for pm) and take an 8:15am bus. Fab person (25 year postal worker going back from his night shift in PVD) and made it to the ferry at Point Judith with literally minutes to spare! (sat. morning traffic). then set off bicycling. asked what looked like a local, elderly gentleman where the petting farm is, he pointed it out. I then went to the south point lighthouse. At that time, I wasn’t sure if I’d try to do everything in one day or not. I managed to find a fab beach to swim, strokes, no life guards there, lots of people, little waves, then as soon as I finished swimming and body surfing, I left the beach in my bathing suit, got on the bike wet, with back pack and continued my exploration. found the wilderness sanctuary, the north point lighthouse where all the baby birds were!!!…..decided as I wandered around, that I’d stay the night, fuck it, I’ll ride around if I have to. I also was scoping out potential places tucked away to come back to late at night to lay down. I didn’t even have a towel, just some layers of clothes.
then I found myself at close to dusk in a town area and remembered someone telling me about the historical society, oh yeah, a woman in a wheel chair I had asked a question to. I saw the building, saw a tent and people in the lawn. had went into a store to purchase some food with my food stamps and a bottle of beer with my debit card. the store refused the EBT food stamps, the island doesn’t cater to this. I thought, fine, I’ll have a liquid dinner, pint of IPA beer I bought. the trickle of food had cost $18 which I didn’t buy. Then as I was about to cycle this other direction, I remembered the tent of the historical society and made a 180º turn, and as I approached, there was a very gregarious woman sitting with several other people on these large lawn chairs before the tent. She said to me, come over here, join us. She was calling out to other people that passed by as well. She was in her 50’s, 60’s elegant. I laid down my bicycle and sat down with her, another woman about the same age and an elderly man. They were all residents of the town. I sat down to join them and cracked open my bottle of IPA. I chatted, very meaningful conversation, this woman was very prescient, sort of psychic or extremely psychologically alert with attention to character. She was ebullient in welcoming me, said she was so glad i was there. I had my cooked oatmeal breakfast with me that i brought in a tightly sealed plastic container. (I ate that 24 hours later in a lawn, slightly tinged with the beginning of becoming spoiled after riding with it in a baking sun all day the first day. Figured oatmeal wouldn’t go bad like meat.
This soiree was a historical society Ferry boat fundraiser. She said, go help yourself to food, I had sashimi and sushi, cheese and crackers, chips and dip (the food i hadn’t managed to purchase 30 minutes earlier).
She asked where I was staying, I mentioned that I didn’t have a place yet. She welcomed me to stay on her boat. Dream! However, after one by one the others left, the gentleman (in his 80’s) wife came, they left. The other woman (also writing a book) her mother came, she left. I asked if she goes to bed early, and she retorted yes. It was about 8:30pm. I decided to risk it, and told her that it being my only night here, Saturday night, i think I’ll not join her, thanking her. Got her #.
I wandered around a corner where a bar had had a musician outside, now he left, and there was a flurry of people. I locked my bike to go inside, and the door guy said $5. I usually NEVER pay a cover. I never go out to eat. I go to the bars with no cover, dance instead of drinking. I smiled and walked away, then as I was about to unlock my bike, i thought, now wait, i have my sketch pad and pencils, eraser, sharpener with me. I went back and asked if i could do a portrait of him in exchange for the entrance fee. He said, with amusement, if you do a portrait, I’ll buy you your first drink as well. I wound up standing there, more and more people lining up to go in, a band starting inside, i was chatting with the people working there and getting close to the guy then moving back to let him check peoples’ id’s. I did it pretty quickly, and it really was looking like him, and he was completely an open, nice friendly guy who was very happy to have the portrait.
I finished it, full house at this point. He let me in. I stashed my pack. Came out several times to ‘get that drink’, and had to wait quite a while cuz there were so many people coming in. Then finally he asked the one guy working there to run to his car to get his money, and the guy then handed me a $10. (I had just enough cash to pay the $2 bus and $32 ferry, because i was cat/plant sitting for my friend and he had given me some cash up front). Then as I went inside to order my usual cheapest beer on the menu, as I was about to get it, a man standing next to me with his boyfriend, who joked to me that they were the only gay couple there, bought my beer, because he said he saw my portrait and liked my energy – i guess that i had the enthusiasm to even try this exchange and that i was happy.
The crowd was going wild, not students but people in their 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, all going wild with the great band that had the place packed. The band were not only fantastic musicians, with almost each member singing and harmonizing, but their energy, positive messages, were fantastic. I danced, people were having a fabulous time. Then when it ended and I was leaving, i somehow met a man on the street and we exchanged a few words and he said to join them. I said how far, and the others were hopping in a car. I said, i have a bicycle, he said, i’ll walk with you. It was a boat! And when we got there, 2 other woman were on board, 2 other men, then another. And the guy Chris who i walked with started playing guitar. The other guy is the house musician who plays as a prof. guitar singer at a bar, 4 docked boats away. He played and sang with a fabulous octave range.
The 7 of us, sat singing loudly on the boat, the songs that Chris chose to play, were one’s which everyone knew the words to. It was a dream. Then i was invited to stay over. Declined a bed with another guy, but said yes to a single bed to myself in the captain’s room. Really quite amazing.
I bicycled and swam, and biked more and swam more the next day, cycling again to each side of the island, until taking the early ferry back, only because i was concerned that if i waited till later, there might not be a bus back to PVD, or more importantly, there might be bikes in front of me, and the rack accommodates only 2 bicycles! I went back to Providence thinking there would be Bastille Day celebrations, ready to celebrate, but there weren’t (the American way, to coordinate something on weekends, rather than the actual day of the anniversary, to accommodate the work/life balance rather than life/work. That’s okay, i met a couple with whom I talked about Berlin after asking them if they knew of any Bastille Day festivities in Providence. She answered, know, but we know people who are in Europe. Their son lives in Berlin, a writer, his French wife, a food stylist photographer. Ahhh, life’s synchronicities, and listening to one’s ‘gut’ intuition.
I curiously looked at Rob Brezny’s Freewillastrology horoscope. I looked at my moon in Scorpio sign and it was this. It couldn’t have been more accurate. Because I was making little decisions that ushered in dramatically unexpected experiences.
Rob Brezsny Free Will Astrology with humor and spiritual insights
It was amazingly lovely weather and just quite magical synchronicity of timing. A turn, an intuition, minute decisions that made tremendous differences in my experience.
Fabulous, unrepeatable 48 hours!
Now I’m back in Providence, delighting in providing water and wild bird seed to the flurry of birds that come.
If you have ever loved or lost anyone, you will value Benjamin Zander’s TED talk über musik und leidenschaft / about music and passion. It’s an emotionally charged and humorous talk full of wisdom & life lessons, woven into a lecture and performance about classical music. The talk is in English with German subtitles.
I just listened to Benjamin Zander’s emotionally charged and profound TED talk a second time in the space of a few weeks, and have tears streaming down my face. The first time I felt it was formidable. I realize now, that it’s one of the most profound lectures and performances, packed with humor and life-lessons, that anyone could deliver in 20 minutes.
Benjamin Zander’s Quiet Performance and Deafening Messages TED talk
It is about much, much more than classical music and perhaps should be something that one could turn into a course for a whole semester. I believe that we all could gain very much, listening to his lessons again and again. Wow! There’s so much to contemplate from the nuggets of wisdom that he weaves into it. It’s quite a challenge actually.
I hadn’t known, had I not gone on the internet, that the United Nations declared a World Environment Day of June 5th. Fabulous that there is a designated day to be aware of the environment.
On World Environment Day, and every day, we should all be thinking creatively about how to accommodate wildlife in our own lives. Trees, bushes, waterways, clean air and water, highway animal bridges and tunnels, bee highways with plants attracting pollinators, with a consciousness Promoting Smarter Wildlife Management.
World Environment Day June 5th
I’d like to point out what I learned, walking around in neighborhoods that I love, because of their fabulous properties of trees and beautiful adornment of living plants, that naturally attract and welcome living animals.
To me, nothing, nothing is more spectacular than the natural world. And the properties with old money on this hill adjacent to where i live demonstrate their wisdom, in adorning and conserving as much nature as possible. You hear birds, see rabbits and other life hopping about.
This property with the yellow circle around it, is a disgrace. They wiped out thickly forested lot, to build a sprawling mansion, with not one tree left behind. I’d spray paint my feelings, except that it won’t bring the trees or life back that the owners destroyed, in order to build their outrageous sprawl, a desolate prison, with no life to regard.
It is an example of unethical behavior.
An ethical consumer looks for products which are both friendly to the environment and for the people who produce them.
The ecological footprint measures human demand on nature, i.e., the quantity of nature it takes to support people or an economy.
“An ‘ethical consumer’ looks for products which, above all, are both friendly to the environment and also the people who produce them. An ethical consumer is therefore aware of the consequences of production, consumption and disposal.”
Let the pictures do the talking. I avoid going down this street because i feel annoyance at the nouveau riche lack of heart and insight and sadness, knowing that all of these lovely trees were wiped out, affecting so many different creatures. An elderly man whom I chatted with one evening 5 months or so ago, told me when I mentioned this reckless building, that the property had several hundred year old trees on it, in fact, from the looks of googlemaps before it was updated, dozens of trees.
I discovered recently with delight this property within a frisbee throw, catecornered across the street. As one approaches from several angles, all you see is a mini forest.
thickly forested green plot, before picture
And what they did to the once forested property. This home could have been a third the size, and maintained a profoundly beautiful plot that their children could play in an that invites wonder and habitation by many species.
unethical_building_trees gone
This builder, knocked down, gutted, every single tree, every single one of them, to make this sprawling property with a tiny bit of lawn and a lot of asphalt to accommodate their cars. It is revolting. And the property across the street with the green ring, as you approach you only see, feel and hear the silence of a forest with birds. It is breathtakingly beautiful. So that the actual construction is engulfed, ringed by trees, except in the front. And the new building in the yellow, is what the builders created, destroying all life that was there, and making sure none of it will come back. They did not even plant bushes – very necessary for cover and a humane yard – and other plants with the intention to accommodate birds and animals – a Humane Backyard.
ethical_vs_unethical_building
All life that had been there or could walk or fly by, has no place to go, no life, no green, no water source, no tree for life, no butterfly or pollinator by-way, nothing. Just me, me, me and my big property that is hollow of life and nature’s delight.
Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition
The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.
A year ago the Swedish 15 year old student, Greta Thunberg, began striking her school and sitting before the Swedish Parliament. Her demand was for her government and the press to be honest about the issue of climate change and to inform the public. She was initially prompted to strike after wondering why there had been silence on the issue? Why had it not been foremost on everyone’s agenda and in every news story?
In her present speech at the Austrian World Summit in Vienna, Greta Thunberg has yet another powerful delivery. She mentions that millions of students were inspired around the world to strike school for the climate. Yet students can’t do what all of you adults can. This needs to be declared an emergency and made top priority.
Greta Thunberg captive audience speaking at the Austrian World Summit in Vienna
She reprimands the audience that they haven’t been living up to their responsibility. Reminding them in her straightforward tone that, ‘humans are capable of so much, yet, still, hardly anyone is aware of the gravity of the situation. Most of the world is uninformed that it is even an issue at all.’ She admonishes them, ‘we need to know’.
Greta Thunberg’s captive audience speaking at the Austrian World Summit in Vienna
Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition
carol_may25_selfie_smile
The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.
I fortunately left just enough white area and took pictures of this Crabapple white blossoming tree on the first sitting. She had already lost her blossoms by my second sitting in the Swan Point cemetery on Memorial Day. I just completed it at home – I usually always sit before my subject live. – just completed it May 29, 2019.
Crabapple white blossoms photo progression google
carol_may25_selfie_smile
Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition
The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.
Young adult educational eBook for public, private, magnet, charter, cyber, home-schools, autism spectrum, experiential and expeditionary learning.
I suggested that it was the Final metamorphosis of the ‘eBook Trailer’ for “Adora & Vitali: A Spin on the Matter of Motion” – however a new name was born, through the brilliant perception of a mentor who appeared November 15th, 2019
The biologist E O Wilson, upon seeing the mass extinction taking place on the Earth due to human spoilage and encroachment on habitats, decided to implement Half-Earth > to set aside half of the earth and water in the most biodiverse regions, to ensure the survival, rather than extinction of species. It will take all […]
My daddy, James Marcus Keiter, was born on October 19th, so I’m putting out this tribute to his life. He was kind, very responsible and a devoted husband and father. He was a musician, a clarinetist, throughout high school, college and medical school. He decided not to pursue this career however. He also was a […]
“Esteemed naturalist and biologist E.O. Wilson and co-founder of the Half-Earth Project appeared at the 2021 Global Live Concert at Central Park, NY as the guest of legendary singer-songwriter Paul Simon Simon, who is also a Member of the Board of Directors of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, also performed at the Global Live Concert, […]
Today is the 4th of September. It is the day my father died, in 2012. I paid attention to this date when I saw a street with its name in Aix-en-Provence, France. When i googled in English, i found no reference, until I wrote quatre septembre and then it appeared. http://parisisinvisible.blogspot.com/2011/09/what-happened-on-quatre-septembre.html “This particular September 4th […]
I was astounded to listen to this last night. New Rule: Growth At Any Cost | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO). No network news will EVER address this; NEVER address the business as usual, Profit for each Quarter status quo. What if we just stopped buying and buying into it? New and improved, just […]
I am super distressed about this. Sure, it’s complicated. Yet when they die, the fabric of our ecosystem also dies. Songbirds are mysteriously dying across the eastern U.S. Scientists are scrambling to find out why It’s allegedly still a mystery. It’s affecting mostly baby birds, with symptoms of their eyes being blinded and neurological disorders. […]
I previously contacted a sanctuary inquiring about working or volunteering there and learned that they only hire local people. They want people to be available for years for the benefit of the animals. When they are locals, they can receive a long term commitment by people, with whom the elephants can establish a relationship with […]
Landed! in a good way. Absolutely love various features of ‘my’ new small room that I moved into today; the lack of a hint of a smoke smell, the lack of an air conditioner perched in the window blocking opening it for fresh air, the style of the second door with nice character and the […]
I drove a rental car from Asheville, North Carolina on the 14th and 15th of July to the central PA car drop off point. I went out of my way via Pittsburg, to drop off a guy who drove with me, who also was trying to book a one-way rental to Pennsylvania. We discovered the […]
I first learned of the term anthropocentrism through Eileen Crist’s articulate and powerful speech ‘Confronting Anthropocentrism’. concerning human self indulgence without any consideration for other living creatures, and wrote about it in this blog. The term comes to mind as I watched this documentary film by Andrew Morgan, about the immense pollution, waste and indulgence […]
The biologist E O Wilson upon seeing the mass extinction taking place on the Earth due to human spoilage and encroachment on habitats, decided to implement Half-Earth > to set aside half of the earth and water in the most biodiverse regions, to ensure the survival, rather than extinction of species. It will take all […]
https://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/health-sapping.htmlSatellite Maps created by NASA documenting the unseen air pollution killer. I was reading this article in the New York Times about the massive oil that has leaked in the Gulf of Mexico after hurricane Ida, and the regularity of leaks springing from both active and inactive/abandoned oil pipelines and platforms there. After Hurricane Ida, […]
In 1970, the Canadian singer Joni Mitchell wrote and performed Big Yellow Taxi. She had that creative insight 51 years ago. “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. They paved paradise, put up a parking lot.” The first United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP1) took place in Berlin, Germany in 1995. That’s 26 years […]
I was astounded to listen to this last night for the first time. New Rule: Growth At Any Cost | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO). No network news will EVER address this; NEVER address the business as usual, Profit for each Quarter status quo. What if we just stopped buying and buying into it? […]
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee – Sufi teacher in the Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya Sufi Order – writes for Parabola Magazine Fire Season – A Sufi master looks at—and beyond—the approaching flames “Will the fires and floods finally awaken us, turn our attention back to the living Earth? Or have we lost that connection, that place of belonging? How long before […]
I previously contacted a sanctuary inquiring about working or volunteering there and learned that they only hire local people. They want people to be available for years for the benefit of the animals. When they are locals, they can receive a long term commitment by people, with whom the elephants can establish a relationship with […]
And the results are in, the current AR6 Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis Here is the link to the full 3,949 pages of the report. And though this was leading up to the Climate Strike in 2019, the information is nevertheless relevant. The fusion of We’re fucked and Get Fucked. All the science […]
Enchanting Summer Sounds Take 5 Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz
Starting from scratch in a new place without furniture and the first use of my new used kitchenware that I acquired through a local online buyers and sellers market http://offerup.com I was able to obtain these minimal pots and pans in reasonably good condition – for $20 bucks – to cook my first meal. What […]
The Bell pepper was the first option, before I had a pan. After borrowing a shallow baking pan, I halved an acorn squash, scooped out the seeds, put it face down on a slightly oiled (olive oil) pan, and halved an onion, and plucked a few garlic cloves, leaving their skin on to retain moisture. […]
Posting a ‘job/home/community relocation’ info ad for myself! I, Carol Keiter, blogger, writer, musician, composer, environmental and nature enthusiast and animal activist need to relocate within weeks. I need to hone into> the right location, community and sources for work that will fulfill the job description which has evolved, as I’ve been writing this! I […]
Here’s the audio podcast of last night’s meal: a Spanish tortilla tapas spinoff I went through the whole process of making a Spanish tortilla, except without the added egg & milk mixture at the end. I ate it instead in bites together with pasta. I added to the sliced potatoes, onion, garlic, cayenne pepper, (ground […]
I had a series of magical moments after I had moved from a cafe to a waterfront area. I was looking over the Table of Contents (TOC) of this book I’m writing and realized several pages were not ‘recognized’. I was doing the quick and assured fix of formatting the title text and making sure there were page breaks, and this one page simply would not allow itself to be recognized. It would not appear in the TOC.
