One Nation under G U N S | Land of the Free, Home of the Bewildered | United States of Apathy

What could be the change? Which do you choose? Amassing stuff & money, or interacting with nature, in body and spirit, for free?

I don’t know about you, I have only my experiences from my own family life where i was raised in a small town in Pennsylvania among cats, dogs, trees and lots of exposure to arts, education and appreciation and love of nature. And every subsequent contact and influence through people i met throughout my life as well as what information I’ve been put into touch with. I know that I don’t need diamonds, gold, jewelry, shiny objects, ivory, animal heads that I’ve conquered to mount on my wall, remedies from exotic animals for this or that dysfunction…nor do i need to keep gathering objects and amass things. I don’t need a car. I love bicycling. I also continually appreciate very little things, and find amusement and delight in the natural world. I prefer to be outdoors, and fortunately, am not currently homeless > I do enjoy a stable, calm, peaceful place to prepare my two meals of the day and sleep.  

I don’t need to continually purchase, clothing. I have been wearing the same sneakers for walking, bicycling, in rain or snow. And just got a second hand pair of shoes for free, for dressy occasions, when I can wear one of my 6 dresses that I brought with me in my luggage which are classics, that don’t change with fashion circuits seasonally. I brought my cleats with me as well, which I use wherever I live, when I find the local ultimate frisbee pickup games. blah, blah, blah

I looked outside of my window from the high rise room in Berlin (extremely tight and difficult shared housing situation) last evening, and noticed how many red glowing lights were in the sky. They are all cranes, except for two smoke stacks. I counted about 16 cranes that I could see from the day, from stretching to look right and left, except for the large square office building blocking my view straight ahead. 

WTF is the need for continued building? What the fuck is the need for supporting guns? What is the need for victimizing people who are fleeing dangerous situations (political turmoil or warming climate destroying their ability to survive and eat) when in fact it is predominantly the western developed world who are energy hogs and who have intermittently and with regularity destabilized regions politically, destabilized the climate, and recklessly and relentlessly invested in oil (and coal) when they know for a fact, if they have any kind of a clue and read anything, that our climate and entire ecological environment is endangered. 

I don’t want cranes.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-24/what-i-learned-counting-cranes-in-san-francisco

I want live cranes in our beautiful world. Nothing is more precious than clean air, water and the beauty and exhilaration of interacting with the nature of our beautiful world.

What is it not to get (understand/realize), that our lifestyles and demands and insistence on endless upgrading and getting immediate satisfaction, and lack of active statements and protests and going up against the powers that be, who want nothing more than for everything to stay the same, and the consuming public to continue to consume – and subsequently their power and control and amount of money in their bank accounts forever increase? 

Endless building, endless construction, endless buying, consuming without end. Putting more and more satellites into the atmosphere to create yet more junk, thanks a lot, not, Elon.

We need a radically different economic system that is not leveraged on the artificially crafted value of money, and our complete dependency on it. 

Instead of being radically separate, we could be joining together in person, in communities; research & development, idea sharing, creating gardens, building things, crafting, talking, laughing, dancing. We really don’t need to collect and amass all this stuff. 

This blog was unplanned, a spontaneous result of reading headlines about another mass shooting in the USA and of hospitals filling up by youth harming themselves.

Did anyone of my FB friends bother to read the transcript i posted of Gabor Mate’s talk about healing through ayahuasca? Because he is clearly talking about the TRAUMA INDUCED BY THE ENVIRONMENT (FAMILY, SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ECONOMIC) and the fact that many people i the western DEVELOPED nations, and particularly the LAND OF THE FREE, are enmeshed in a web of trauma. 

Gabor Mate transcript Gabor Mate speaks the truth, eloquently. 10 years ago!!!

It is essential for the emotionally, psychologically and spiritually sick population of the Wealthy western world (derivative and export of our fine hypocritical social and economic system of Capitalism) because healing and awareness is available. 

https://theincubator.live/2016/11/15/dr-gabor-mate-on-the-healing-power-of-ayuhuasca/

this is outrageous! Let’s just keep doing the same routines and not thinking about what is wrong with a system that bails out bankers and cuts education and healthcare to the people, who have huge stresses with high housing costs…

“The portion of American hospital beds occupied by children with suicidal or self-harming behavior has soared over the course of a decade, a large study of admissions to acute care hospitals shows.”

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook and music composition. The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.

Above statue at the grave of Frederick Chopin at Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris. We need less stuff, less occupation with work, and more play, laughter, togetherness, song, dance and psychedelics. Less is more. 

Bedlam US Prisons as Mental Asylums | Car Free Cities | Let’s Build Bridges, Not Walls

I was in tears as I listened to this.

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/12/27/bedlam_documentary_mental_health_criminal_justice

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.

https://www.hotcars.com/20-cities-in-the-world-where-there-are-no-cars/

Dozens more major European cities who have designated ‘no car days’; establishing the city center as pedestrian only. 

https://www.businessinsider.com/cities-going-car-free-ban-2018-12#in-paris-the-first-sunday-of-every-month-is-free-of-cars-2

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. 

Let’s build bridges, not walls, in every respect.

UN Report Millions Species Extinct | Anti-Idling Fines | 10 Things We Can Do | Strike for Climate September 20

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.

https://www.edf.org/attention-drivers-turn-your-idling-engines

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

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.

https://digesthis.wordpress.com/2019/05/18/ipcc-climate-change-report-highest-recorded-co2-levels-arctic-temperatures-bill-mckibben-discussing-significance-of-rising-co2-greta-thunberg-ted-talk-enforcing-legislation/

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

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Carol Keiter on Block Island
lens through convex lens

 

A letter to my sister | preciousness of life | Carl Sagan: freedom through scientific skepticism | Le Petit Prince

I was looking over my blog stats and saw someone read this, posted several years ago. I decided to post it again, since it’s relevant, from a moral and political standpoint – uh, yes, at one time I believe, the two were part of the same fabric. uh, now wait a minute, maybe morality and political leadership have rarely been paired, and that it is an exception! I mean, as long as royal leaders, and tyrants, and corporations have the reins, morality has little to do with the people who wish to maintain their power, control and profits.

Here’s the letter:
I am certainly happy to hear from you. Naturally I think about you every time that I enter the room to look at the lovely paper lanterns you hung for Mother’s birthday party and the teepee you constructed in the yard – which I‘m still raking! Memories of things people share and artifacts that they leave behind imbue all of these things with the spirit of the person. I am sorry that we had difficulties communicating at times. I have not been ‘above’ reacting emotionally to someone’s emotional reactions towards me. However, that doesn’t mean that I can not attempt to move beyond my reactions to reach out with more compassion and understanding.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author of Le Petit Prince
The Little Prince

Antoine de Saint-Exupery was a pilot, and author of the remarkable children’s book, for adults, Le Petit Prince/ The Little Prince. There appear to be exceptions to this formidable quote, if the person happens to be morally repugnant and arrogant!

Le Petit Prince, written by Antoine Saint-Exupery
the Phenomenon

I went out with a family friend last night and afterwards, realized that he knows even more profoundly how precious life is, as he has lost both of his parents. Certainly, if we all had an acute awareness of death (sitting on our shoulders) – Carlos Castaneda style i.e. “the Teachings of Don Juan” – in each response to every moment, we would never be anything but kind to all people and creatures, at all times.

That sounds like a pretty heavy way to live. The context is not, to be continually fearful, but rather, continually present with the fact that every moment of life is precious. People need to accept the rights of others to be and perceive as they will. It is a rather large task, to put differences and competitiveness, jealousy, envy and judgments … aside. Yet it’s the only way for everyone to get along. (I just read in Salon dot com a rather scathing article about the writer Carlos Castaneda, saying that Don Juan was not only an astounding hoax, but that Castaneda went on to form a bizarre cult.) He nevertheless had strong poetic and spiritual points to emphasize in his writings.

It’s pretty much a life-long task, given the fact that all humans have a tendency to subjectively interpret and judge other peoples’ actions. I do it, we all do it, from personal complaints, grievances, expectations, disappointments on up to community and cultural, political and religious differences of interpretation, that result in the worst cases to prolonged wars and strife between ethnic groups and neighboring countries.

This appears to be one of the biggest challenges and aspirations for humankind; to look beyond differences and strive for understanding, compassion and kindness. The ‘tree-hugger/environmental activist side of me’ is kicking out judgements every time I see people’s actions or material opulence (not to mention hearing about plans for more gas drilling in the arctic etc.) which I perceive as offensive. I put them into a box I label offender/perpetrator; a personal judgement which is my own way of playing in the ‘us against them’ scenario. So, I’m as guilty as anyone. The obvious extreme is the fact that people are blowing each other up in the Middle East …. and that wars and conflicts and ominous actions of manipulation continue to proliferate worldwide, despite the fact that most humans have access to rather extraordinary tools.

We are technologically light years ahead of where we are emotionally!

As Carl Sagan mentions in this interview “A Way of Thinking” in which he delivers insights into the dangers in our present culture; based on the fact that we’re a science and technology-based culture, the inner workings of which few comprehend. That puts us in a position in which we are in danger of being more easily manipulated.

Sagan points out that science is a way of skeptically interrogating the universe. And that it’s dramatically important for each of us to ask skeptical questions about everything, particularly to those in authority; otherwise we are up for grabs by the next charlatan, political or religious, that comes along. He mentions that Thomas Jefferson said that people need to be educated in order to practice their skepticism, otherwise ‘we don’t run the government, the government runs us’.

Carol Keiter the blogger

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition

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All Life Has Consciousness | Carl Safina | Are Humans Capable of Letting Other Life Continue?

There is Love on Earth Besides Humans

Carl Safina, PhD in ecology, conservationist and writer

I am very grateful to have discovered Carl Safina’s work and this TED talk just a day previous to posting this. Tears ran down my cheeks as I watched and listened to this scientist’s portrayal of animals, and of humans. Tears continued to stream from my eyes after I listened to his last words. I am so disappointed and basically frustrated with what humans deem as important.

I was about to write a blog about Borders? Why are Human Beings ‘Not Allowed’ to Walk Around on the Earth? However, to me, putting this concept out there of recognizing the importance of all other life forms besides humans, is far more important than the absurd political scenarios that humans impose on one another. What we are doing to the natural world and to other life forms, with our over-population, degradation of the environment, human-induced global warming and inciting a mass extinction, to me, far outweighs any of the absurd things that humans are doing to each other. Carl Safina does not by any means bypass this subject in his talk. He says, what humans do to other empathetic creatures is also what they do to one another.

Animals Carl Safina Empathy Sympathy Compassion

I felt an urgent need to immediately post this to both blogs. I feel very sorry for those humans who do not feel compassion and awe with nature and all of life. I thank my parents that nature and an appreciation for all life forms was revered. I grew up with National Geographic and Smithsonian magazines in the home, and was curated to think way beyond my immediate vicinity.

I recently lauded friends who regularly inform and urge people to think about the protection of animals and wilderness. I mention this in association with a concept that is part of a new mode of thinking, systems thinking, seeing all life forms as interrelated. Human beings should prioritize protecting all other life forms, rather than destroying them and wiping out their habitats without any consideration whatsoever. The various bloody traditions of various cultures that consider it ‘sport’ to kill wolves, whales, bulls is disgraceful. The massive consumption of cows, pigs, chickens and use of land to feed these animals needs to be stopped. Wiping out wild horses and donkeys and other creatures because some believe that by eating particular speciality foods that they somehow will maintain their health or erections, also are dramatically mis-informed. Creatures penned in horrible conditions, blood baths and slaughters because of tradition, must all be reconsidered. People need to be educated. It begins with all of us communicating to one another.

The concept of actually recognizing that we share the same genetics and similar brains and spinal cords with other creatures perhaps will bring about a different sense of empathy.

It is the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh who introduces the concept of inter-being; all life is intricately related.

With a PhD in ecology, conservationist and writer Carl Safina has written several books and papers and has studied various species in their habitat. He was invited by Greenpeace to witness the changing climate in the Arctic and the impacts of industrial fishing on the marine environment.

Human brain exact replica of Chimpanzee brain, merely larger

Dolphin brain larger than human brain, with more convolutions

In his TED talk Safina asks:

“What’s going on inside the brains of animals? Can we know what, or if, they’re thinking and feeling? Carl Safina thinks we can. Using discoveries and anecdotes that span ecology, biology and behavioral science, he weaves together stories of whales, wolves, elephants and albatrosses to argue that just as we think, feel, use tools and express emotions, so too do the other creatures – and minds – that share the Earth with us.”

Animals Carl Safina Albatross nest on most remote islands Full of Plastic

6 month fledgling Albatross Death packed with cigarette lighters

Of the 22 species of albatross recognized by the IUCN, all are listed as at some level of concern; 3 species are Critically Endangered, 5 species are Endangered, 7 species are Near Threatened, and 7 species are Vulnerable.

Welcome Human Life with pics of Animals – Shared Lifes in the World

Since humans tend to adorn the rooms of their new born babies with images of the other creatures with which we share our planet, in which every animal of Noah’s Ark is now in mortal danger, instead of asking the question Do animals love us?, We need to ask, Are human beings capable of letting other life continue?

Carl Safina states, “From all I’ve seen, my main conclusion is that at this point in history, nature and human dignity require each other. Where wild places are destroyed, wild animals lost, and the world degraded and polluted, not only is that itself a great loss for the world, but for people in degraded places it becomes almost impossible to maintain a dignified existence.”

This article in the USA Today describes that global warming continues, with each year breaking record temperatures of the previous.”NOAA’s analysis does not include data from the Arctic, while NASA’s does, NOAA climate scientist Deke Arndt said. The Arctic has been warming faster than any part of the world.”

“This announcement should shock no one,” said Lou Leonard of the World Wildlife Fund. “The key question is what we do about it. With the costs of inaction piling up, Washington, D.C., is largely looking the other way. So it is up to a new class of leaders from American businesses, universities, cities and states to pick up the slack.”

Elephants as in every other species, become who they are

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition

I Believe in the People’s Climate March Washington D.C. On My Way

Within this blog are links to 340 pictures that I took of peoples’ clever signs from all over the country – young, old, humorous, cheeky. I’m proud of the insightful and thoughtful signs.

And since the Climate March, this is current. Here’s a link for you to sign to send a message to Trump about how important it is to be a leader in the movement towards a healthy climate, and to specifically honor the Paris Agreement. http://act.350.org/sign/paris-response “The Paris Agreement is the backbone of international action to tackle climate change. Donald Trump is considering withdrawing, standing with the fossil fuel millionaires and billionaires. Stand with us to show that political momentum for climate action is unstoppable.”

Make America Cool Again

This guy’s tiny, tiny sign said “reduce” LOL

Together with the Sierra Club, WWF, Defenders of Wildlife and all of the other groups and the masses of people who have the will to make the effort to stand up and out (worldwide), I will be marching in Washington D.C. For those who wish to see a dramatic exodus and transformation from the Profit-Over-Everything-Else attitude of our Oil Oligarchy and Corpocrisy run government >

People’s Climate March April 29th, 2017

NRDC National Resource Defense Council says, “It’s time to stop the backsliding on climate change; it’s time to meet the most urgent challenge of our generation.”

On Saturday, 300,000 people came together for the Peoples Climate March in our nation’s capital, and in communities around America and the world.

Here’s a link http://act.350.org/sign/local-action for what we can do to continue local action towards a movement of sustainability rather than oil dominated environmental futility.

Here’s 350.org’s Facebook page of pics. facebook pics of march

Below are the pics I took en route hitchhiking from Santa Fe, New Mexico and many of the signs at the march.

Peoples Climate March Washington D.C._2

I’m in! Peoples Climate March April 29th, Washington D.C. >
Packing up my residence in the next hours to move May 1st (from an apt to a yurt), with help from a friend with a pickup and dentist appt in Santa Fe. I’ve booked a flight one-way from DC to ABQ Albuquerque {not knowing until after paying} when precisely it was going to depart that day. Calculating the earliest DC Metro Rail to the airport only arrives at 6am, I breathed a sigh of relief when seeing that the flight was leaves late afternoon. Ran into a friend yesterday I hadn’t seen for many years, who spontaneously gave me the money today to cover the flight. I only realized two days ago looking at the calendar, that there was another day, the 30th, between the March and my move-out day. Anything’s possible. I merely have to get to DC hitching, leaving uh, mañana?

– 27 h 1,877 miles according to google maps.

google directions Santa fe, NM to Washington D.C.

I just spent the afternoon, boxing, packing, organizing so that I’m ready upon my return to move to a yurt, since working 6 to 7 days a week still hasn’t afforded any kind of saved nest egg.

I then worked on creating my newest song which I just started yesterday. Streamlined and packed with beats.

I’m on my way to the Peoples Climate March April 29th in DC. peoplesclimate.org There’s a whole niche of my music all about animal rights, wildlife protection, creating animal bridges and preserving animal corridors…So I’m passionate about making not just Trump, but the Oil Oligarchy listen.

And I went.

Here are another page of pics I took at the march.

Peoples Climate March Washington D.C.

I’ll be playing at the Flycatcher in Tucson, Arizona, Saturday May 6th for their monthly music producers showcase ‘Pushing Buttons‘. This next month features all women producers.

And releasing much more music as it flows.

Soundcloud Playlists More_NomadbeatZ Eco Echo

The Flycatcher
340 E. 6th St.
Tucson, AZ, 85705
Phone: (520) 207-9251

https://soundcloud.com/you/collection
PayPal: carolkeiter@gmail.com

People’s Climate March April 29th, 2017 WWF

Looks like I’m in!

Race to Save the World Dump Trump and Oil Oligarchy

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook & music composition

Carol Keiter the blogger with a selfie prior to getting the ride on return hitch from skiing in Taos

What Humans Currently Do | Excerpt from “The Universe Story”

Our Solar System arose 4.5 Billion years ago. The Earth has evolved – through a series of transformations – to even enable life to form.

From the beginning, as our universe continues to evolve in its cosmogenesis, intelligent intent is present – at all levels > towards differentiation, autopoiesis and communion.

NASA image Cygnus Loop Supernova Stellar Explosion 15,000 years ago

 

Excerpts from the authors

Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry of “The Universe Story”

Ecological Buddhism – A Buddhist Response to Global Warming

Presently, the human race enters the The Ecozoic Era.

Brian Swimme is one of the main people with whom to study, to understand the cosmological shift necessary to a new cosmology.

 

 

“As the natural world recedes in its diversity and abundance, so the human finds itself impoverished in its economic resources, its imaginative powers, its human sensitivities and in significant aspects of its intellectual intuitions.”

Davastation of a Rainforest

 

Here’s a link to the footage of Forest Heroes from a drone of the devastation of a rainforest: Astra’s forest destruction in Indonesia.

 

“The pathos is that we are presently deliberately terminating the most awesome splendor that the planet has yet attained. We are extinguishing the rainforests, the most luxuriant life system of the entire planet, at the rate of an acre each second of each day. Each year we are destroying a rainforest area the size of Oklahoma.

Throughout the planet we are not only extinguishing present forms of life, yet also eliminating the very conditions for the renewal of life in some of its more elaborate forms.

We have moved from such evils as suicide, homicide, and genocide, to biocide and geocide, the killing of the life systems of the planet and the severe degradation if not the killing of the planet itself. We have moved from simple physical assault on the planet, to disturbance of the chemical balance of the planet through our petrochemical industries, to questionable manipulation of the genetic constitution of the living being of the planet by our genetic engineering, to the radioactive wasting of the planet through our nuclear industries.”

Bird sanctuary at Gulf Petrochemicals Industries Co.

 

Ironically, this image of a bird sanctuary at Gulf Petrochemicals Industries Co., is courtesy of the president of the Petro company. A public relations blog on how hunky dory everything is, with the company sitting on top of a fragile ecosystem.

 

 

“That human well-being could be achieved by diminishing the well being of the Earth, that a rising Gross Domestic Product could ignore the declining Gross Earth Product, is the basic flaw in the Wonderland Myth.”

momgoesgreen.com:my-thoughts-on-the-gulf-oil-spill

 

 

“These centuries of “progress” are now ending with increasing stress for the human is final evidence that;

what humans do to the outer world they do to their own interior world.

 

! Next Blog ¡ What we humans need to do in our emerging Echoic Era, to allow the paradigm shift in our conscious awareness to emerge.

We are Earth> Occupy the Planet!

Body and the Brain | Expeditionary Learning | Montessori ‘Hands-on’ Learning

Back when I was on my way hitchhiking to San Francisco in 2012, I encountered some teachers who had just attended a conference on the subject of Expeditionary Learning. I wrote about it. https://carolkeiter.wordpress.com/2012/05/17/hitchabout-san-francisco_expeditionary_learning/

Several days ago the subject of Montessori schools and hands-on learning popped up. I had to investigate if these are in fact, two ways of saying the same thing. I have a feeling that they are. Well, ‘jein’ as a German would say, ja und nein (yes and no) together! They are and they aren’t the same. They are two distinct schools of learning, yet, quite parallel and sort of extensions or facets of one another – in that they are each rigorously proponents of hands-on, getting intimately involved in the entire scope of learning about a subject, interdisciplinary and relying on your own curiosity to motivate you to further investigation. Both involve exploring cooperatively as a group and diving into the whole scope, rather than slicing off disparate parts.

what is Expeditionary Learning?

The area of study is called embodied learning.

As young children move and explore their worlds, they are learning through touch. Early bimanual training correlates with the robustness of the corpus callosum, a part of the brain that facilitates quick communication between the left and right brain hemispheres.

 

 

Just as body movement and involvement can have a huge impact on learning, so too can the spaces where we learn.

 

Corpus Callosum neural fibers connecting two cerebral hemispheres of the brain

Mind Shift – Why Kids Need to Move, Touch and Experience to Learn

 

 

This article featured on KQED news written by Katrina Schwartz March 26th, 2015 “Why Kids Need to Move, Touch and Experience to Learn” describes how Maria Montessori, founder of Montessori Schools, highlighted the connection between minds and bodies in her 1936 book The Secret of Childhood “Movement, or physical activity, is thus an essential factor in intellectual growth, which depends upon the impressions received from outside.

 

 

Through movement we come in contact with external reality, and it is through these contacts that we eventually acquire even abstract ideas.”

Maria Montessori was best known for her philosophy of education that bears her name. It is an educational approach based on the model of human development.

I see that yes, Expeditionary Learning is an extension of what the Montessori school education is for children at a younger age. The Montessori Method are classes which consist of children of different ages together in what resembles more of a real world environment. The younger children (age 3 to 5) focus their ‘work’ on materials that develop cognition through seeing, tasting, smelling and touch through direct experience. Elementary-age children in the upper grades shift away from the concrete (sensory) to focus more on abstract tasks. The materials and curriculum are inter-disciplinary, and children begin to apply their knowledge to the real world. For example, students may study a map of Europe, and not only learn about it in terms of geography, but also incorporate learning about art and history of the continent; a process which allows the topic to be studied from the whole, not merely discrete separate parts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expeditionary_learning_schools (ELS) are models of comprehensive school reform based on the educational ideas of German educator Kurt Hahn, the founder of Outward Bound. There are more than 150 expeditionary learning schools in 30 states and the District of Columbia. They are exemplified by project-based learning expeditions, where students engage in interdisciplinary, in-depth study of compelling topics, in groups and in their community in which the students become involved with real topics, in real communities, involving the various different subjects that otherwise would be isolated and sliced out of the entire picture. The emphasis is on people working together and involvement in the whole picture.

History class ELS NY students create projects suggested by their own curiosity

Open World Learning http://open.spps.org/expeditionary_learning informs us that Expeditionary Learning is built on ten design principles that reflect the educational values and beliefs of Outward Bound. These principles also reflect the design’s connection to other related thinking about teaching, learning, and the culture of schools.

1. Primacy of self-discovery – Learning happens best with emotion, challenges and support…students undertake tasks that require perseverance, fitness, craftsmanship, imagination, self-discipline, and significant achievement. A teacher’s primary task is to help students overcome their fears and discover they can do more than they think they can.

2. Having wonderful ideas – Fostering curiosity about the world and giving students something important to think about, experiment and make sense of what they are observing.

3. Responsibility for Learning – Learning is both a personal process of discovery and social activity. It encourages both children and adults to become increasingly responsible for directing their own personal and collective learning.

4. Empathy and Caring – Students’ and teachers’ ideas are respected and where there’s mutual trust. Out of the hierarchy, into having an adult being an advocate and older students mentoring younger ones.

5. Success and Failure – Students need to be successful to build confidence and the capacity to take risks and meet increasingly difficult challenges. Yet students must learn from their failures and learn how to turn obstacles into opportunities.

6. Collaboration and Competition – Students are encouraged to compete against their personal best, not against each other. Individual and group development are encouraged and integrated towards valuing friendship, trust and group action.

7. Diversity and Inclusion – Students investigate and value their different histories and talents as well as those of other communities and cultures. They recognize that diversity and inclusion increase the richness of ideas, creative thinking and problem solving.

8. Natural World – A direct and respectful relationship with the natural world refreshes the human spirit and teaches the important ideas of recurring cycles and cause and effect. Students learn to become stewards of the earth and of future generations.

9. Solitude and Reflection – Students and teachers need time alone to explore their own thoughts, make their own connections and foster their own ideas and thinking, They can then exchange these reflections with others.

10. Service and Compassion – We are crew, not passengers. Students and teachers are strengthened by acts of consequential service to others, and one of an Expeditionary Learning school’s primary functions is to prepare students with the attitudes and skills to learn from and be of service.

A letter to my sister | preciousness of life | Carl Sagan: freedom through scientific skepticism

I was looking over my blog stats and saw someone read this, a very early blog. I decided to post it, since it’s relevant, from a moral and political standpoint – uh, yes, at one time I believe, the two were part of the same fabric. uh, now wait a minute, maybe morality and political leadership, have rarely been paired, and that it is an exception! I mean, as long as royal leaders, and tyrants, and corporations have the reins, morality has not a fucking thing to do with the people who wish to maintain their power, control and profits.

I am certainly happy to hear from you. Naturally I think about you every time that I enter the room to look at the lovely paper lanterns you hung for Mother’s birthday party and the teepee you constructed in the yard – which I‘m still raking! Memories of things people share and artifacts that they leave behind imbue all of these things with the spirit of the person. I am sorry that we had difficulties communicating at times. I have not been ‘above’ reacting emotionally to someone’s emotional reactions towards me. However, that doesn’t mean that I can not attempt to move beyond my reactions to reach out with more compassion and understanding.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery author Le Petit Prince
The Little Prince

I went out with a family friend last night and afterwards, realized that he knows even more profoundly how precious life is, as he has lost both of his parents. Certainly, if we all had an acute awareness of death (sitting on our shoulders) – Carlos Castaneda style i.e. “the Teachings of Don Juan” – in each response to every moment, we would never be anything but kind to all people and creatures, at all times.

That sounds like a pretty heavy way to live. The context is not, to be continually fearful, but rather, continually present with the fact that every moment of life is precious. People need to accept the rights of others to be and perceive as they will. It is a rather large task, to put differences and competitiveness, jealousy, envy and judgments … aside. Yet it’s the only way for everyone to get along. (I just read in Salon dot com a rather scathing article about the writer Carlos Castaneda, saying that Don Juan was not only an astounding hoax, but that Castaneda went on to form a bizarre cult.) He nevertheless had strong poetic and spiritual points to emphasize in his writings.

It’s pretty much a life-long task, given the fact that all humans have a tendency to subjectively interpret and judge other peoples’ actions. I do it, we all do it, from personal complaints, grievances, expectations, disappointments on up to community and cultural, political and religious differences of interpretation, that result in the worst cases to prolonged wars and strife between ethnic groups and neighboring countries.

This appears to be one of the biggest challenges and aspirations for humankind; to look beyond differences and strive for understanding, compassion and kindness. The ‘tree-hugger/environmental activist side of me’ is kicking out judgements every time I see people’s actions or material opulence (not to mention hearing about plans for more gas drilling in the arctic etc.) which I perceive as offensive. I put them into a box I label offender/perpetrator; a personal judgement which is my own way of playing in the ‘us against them’ scenario. So, I’m as guilty as anyone. The obvious extreme is the fact that people are blowing each other up in the Middle East …. and that wars and conflicts and ominous actions of manipulation continue to proliferate worldwide, despite the fact that most humans have access to rather extraordinary tools.

We are technologically light years ahead of where we are emotionally!

As Carl Sagan mentions in this interview “A Way of Thinking” in which he delivers insights into the dangers in our present culture; based on the fact that we’re a science and technology-based culture, the inner workings of which few comprehend. That puts us in a position in which we are in danger of being more easily manipulated.

Sagan points out that science is a way of skeptically interrogating the universe. And that it’s dramatically important for each of us to ask skeptical questions about everything, particularly to those in authority; otherwise we are up for grabs by the next charlatan, political or religious, that comes along. He mentions that Thomas Jefferson said that people need to be educated in order to practice their skepticism, otherwise ‘we don’t run the government, the government runs us’.