Home for the Holidays

Well, friends, now that the USA’s national election has been satisfactorily resolved - for me anyway - we can all turn our thoughts to important matters of concern to our nation.

In our town, that means resuming the yearly discussion about how to celebrate the holiday season with appropriate consideration for all religions, sects, creeds, and degrees of non-belief. You probably don’t recall this, but the solution our city fathers came up with last year was to have white lights, as opposed to colored lights, adorning all the trees in our quaint downtown neighborhood, Old Town. This was to celebrate the holidays without overt reference to Christianity so they wouldn't be forced to allow overt reference to some - and potentially all - other religion. I don’t know if our city mothers were involved in the decision. The city fathers (and, possibly, mothers) then backed off a bit and allowed store-owners to decorate their stores as they chose - on the inside. At that phase of this momentous debate, I sort of lost interest.

Before losing interest, I’d spent some considerable time trying to figure out why multicolored lights are religious and white lights are not. It’s important to understand the issues in a debate before weighing in on one side or the other. Now that the debate has resurfaced, I’m back to puzzling over the question of how a light bulb becomes religious. No success so far. If I come up with anything, I’ll let you know.

Meanwhile, other people in this and other towns are puzzling about other things almost as important. Things like how to keep their homes at least through the holidays and whether they have any relatives left who still own - or rent - a place that has room for extra beds. Now, being as that’s not as difficult a question, I came across what seems to me to be a good solution day before yesterday in an article by Dean Baker of the Center for Economic Policy Research. I’d like to share it with you, in case it interests you more than the lightbulb controversy.

Suppose the congress passed a temporary law that banks could not foreclose on homeowners without offering them the option to rent their home, at current market rates, for the next 10 or 20 years. Then the banks would have a choice: they could collect rent and maintain the home they acquire from the former owner(s). Or they could renegotiate the loan and let the family continue to purchase and maintain the home at a lower cost to the family. The bank would likely get payments above the rental market rate, and the family would pay for the home’s upkeep. (I think this is what’s known in the arbitration business as a not-lose – not-lose situation.) There’s even a law already running around to do this; Representative Raul Grijalva proposed such a change in the Saving Family Homes Act. At least I think it’s running around; it doesn’t seem to be doing anything else.

If we can get Congress to pass this law, then the financial wizards who got us into this mess will have something constructive to do with the money our Treasury folks seem intent on giving them. Maybe there’s a problem with the proposed law. Maybe it makes too much sense to be a law or something. If that’s the case, any number of legislators could fix it.

So what can we do? Well, since the three of you won’t email me, even to join my war on violence, I’ll just ask those of you who are citizens of the USA to email your congresspersons and ask them to support this law without changing the intent too much. Or at all, even.

Of course, I could be wrong in thinking this is a good solution. However, like most people, I don’t often entertain the possiblity that I might be wrong. And even though that possiblity entertains me pretty frequently, I think this is the best approach to handling the situation and I think you should contact your congressperson about getting this act out of the House Committee on Financial Services and into law.

LATE BREAKING NEWS: When we went grocery shopping yesterday, we saw Christmas wreaths on several buildings in Old Town.

Taken together with the election results, is this an indication that common sense can prevail and there’s a glimmer of hope for the nation’s homeowners?

Now I know what I want for Christmas. If there are any middle class homeowners left by then. I can’t wait to see Santa.

Y A A A A A A A A A Y!

The following is a translation for non-English-speaking readers and bloggers:

YAAAAAAAAAY!!!

Being Democratic

So one day before Reverend Martin Luther King’s historic “I have a dream” speech, “Senator Barack Obama, the Hawaiian-born son of a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, officially [became] the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party” (NY Times News Alert) of the United States of America (USA). On the day of the historic “dream” speech, Obama gave his acceptance speech. Wow.

Today (can you believe I’m actually blogging on the day of the event, albeit late in the day?), we hear of the Republican vice presedential nominee, and we see that the lines are drawn.

On the Republican side:

• Drill, tunnel, scrape, and plant to extract the energy Mother Earth has to offer for the benefit of citizens of the USA;
• Arm, plan, and fight for what we, in the USA, believe we have the right to seek;
• Share our bounty, developed from our free market economy and necessary USA government protection, with those less fortunate; and
• Change the USA’s healthcare system cautiously and carefully, protecting those in need within the framework of the larger economic and social needs.

On the Democratic side:

• Remove dependence on foreign energy resources by spending now on Mother Earth’s solar, wind, and geothermal resources for our energy needs;
• Use diplomacy to bring the global focus back to our shared needs so we can assure what the USA needs for our political, economic, and societal safety;
• Restore economic stability and tax equity and support free enterprise for small or start-up operations rather than for national or global corporations; and
• Improve healthcare for the most needy and make the cost of healthcare affordable for the average citizen in the USA.

I tried to sound unbiased, guys, really I did.

It’s not easy being green.

Or promoting social justice.

Or trying to stay healthy on a fixed income, for that matter.

So while I think of the speech that Martin Luther King, Jr., made so many years ago yesterday, other memories come back to swamp my little pleasure boat:

• When I was twelve or thirteen years old, I went on my annual outing to the State Fair of Texas. This year represented a first: instead of three restrooms (“men,” “women,” and “colored”), there were two (“men” and “women”). In my naïve, pubescent mind, the idea of sharing a restroom with the opposite sex was apalling, so I welcomed the change. However, the two women (generally referred to as “negro” at the time) who were there when I walked in were clearly angry with me. What had I done? Ruined their chance to use a “comfort station” comfortably by my very need to do the same. My 80 pound presence was a real threat to them. They were scared; I felt the need – but didn’t have the guts – to apologize. Silence reigned. What a world.

• Around the time of the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago – with all its chaos and drama – my friend Butch (still identified as “negro”) was reminiscing about his supposed friend who was referring to himself and some other white friends as “Americans.” Butch had pointed out that he, too, was an American, to which his “friend” had replied, “You know, real Americans.” I still couldn’t think of anything to say.

So my sense of history is that we’ve come a long way in the last half-century. And I still, all too frequently, can’t think of anything to say. And I still welcome the change. Maybe, someday, we could even do the same for women. You know, real humans…;-))

Join the War on Violence!

Here it is, friends, the Trailing Edge is proud to announce the promised – delayed, naturally – launch of the war on violence.

Action Alert: Join me in fighting violence! Follow these simple steps:

• Step 1: Remove violence from our language (unless, of course, we are really, really angry).

• Step 2: Remove violence from our language when we are really, really angry.

In the spirit of trailing, we can deal with removing violence from our actions at a later date.

That’s it.

Simple, right? Well, no, not easy. But simple.

So why, you ask, would we want to wage yet another war against one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. That answer is simple, also. Why not?

We’re prevailing valiantly against Pestulence and Famine, aren’t we?

OK, bad reasoning – we’re acutally not doing so well with those fights these days. Small farmers are working to survive by making money off food for fuel and agribusiness is cleaning up – monetarily speaking, of course. World hunger is winning that one. Sadly, the fight on the pestulence front is, in general, less than ideal. For example, in the funding vs. HIV battle, HIV is winning. The federal government here in the USA is working hard on these wars. However, not all funding seems to be on the anti-Apocalypse-Horsemen side, in my somewhat-less-than-humble opinion.

Anyway, back to the front. Our War on Violence. Maybe we can make some headway there. In my search for reasons not to have violence – restricted, of course to violent language for the moment – I’ve come up with the following:

Violent language may lead to violent thinking, which may lead to actual violence, and acutal violence is expensive.

Outstanding thinking, don't you agree? Not to mention an outstanding example of a run-on sentence.

War for example, is very costly by any humane or economic measure. The National Priorities Project has been keeping track of the dollar cost of the war in Iraq for us:


click here to learn more

And even back in January 2007, some folks at the New York Times knew that there were some good non-violent things to do with that money. One thing would be health care for more than 20 million children for more than 10 years. My, my. Perhaps we could just try keeping all the kids in the US of A healthy for 5 years. Maybe longer, if we spent some of the healthcare funding on public health - you know, preventing diseases and accidents being cheaper than healing them. Maybe we could provide healthcare for everyone just by watching the overspending and misspending by government contractors in our war efforts. That is to say, by doing something about over-and mis-spending; some say we have been watching it for a while now.

So join the fight! And just to show you I'm ready for a long siege, I'll start by example right here in this blog. Here goes...

OK. So a quick re-read of the above comes up with seven violent verbs and more than 20 violent nouns (including repetitions).

So I may not be your best example of removing violence from language just yet. You sharp bloggees, you noticed that right off, didn't you? Maybe we all need to band together to fight this tendency to express ourselves violently. No. Wait. What I meant was...

Baby Step 1: Remove violent language from non-violent and/or helpful activities.

We will attack - or rather, cease using - expressions for prevention and cure of disease such as “the war on cancer.” Wanting to make - that is to say, help - people stop substance abuse will no longer be a “war on drugs.” And so on.

Let’s try this together:
Join forces... Not.
Team up to conque... Nope.
Heed the call to arm... Not even.
Email me to sign up.

One baby step for us, one giant step for non-violence. Or vice versa, perhaps. Email your acceptance of the terms of engagement, that is to say, of peaceful activity. (No offerers of purchases or large cash rewards need apply.)

We can do it.

First thing tomorrow.

Pro Life? Pro Common Sense? What’s Ap-Pro-priate Here?

Have you heard the latest rumor (for example, check out RH Reality Check)? It seems that someone in the current administration is thinking about a rule that would kill all dissenting "birds" (aka women) with two stones:

Aiming Stone: Define abortion as any prescription or procedure that seeks to eliminate a fertile egg from a uterus, before or after implantation.

Killing Stone: Require any organization receiving federal funding to allow any healthcare providing employee to let his or her conscience be his or her guide in the practice of medicine involving said prescription or procedure.

Even for people who don’t believe in killing – at least not pre-birth humans – this is pretty drastic action. Surely, this can’t be true. In the first place, there's no way medical science can tell an egg is fertile until after implantation, so this means that the provider can just decide that a patient might be pregnant and proceed accordingly. Someone, tell me it isn’t true.

Would the next logical step be locking up all post-pubescent women because they might, at any time prior to menopause, be guilty of inadvertently flushing away a fertile egg? This is an urban myth, right?

Like most who believe as I do, my position on birth control (including the “morning after” pill) and early termination of pregnancy (including the RU-whatever-the-numbers-are) is "pro-choice."

I am not “pro-abortion.” I did not want an abortion at age 36, when I had amniocentesis. I wanted to make sure my first and only biological child could survive without constant life support or constant pain. I was very lucky. I was able to have my child.

While waiting for my amniocentesis, I heard a counselor urge a couple not to have amniocentesis, since they planned have the baby in any case. They said that they understood that they were taking a risk, but – given their risks – they wanted to be prepared. I thought the couple had the right to choose the test, even if it jeopardized the pregnancy. I thought the counselor was way out of line to continue insisting they re-think their decision even after they made their position clear.

It seems to me that we post-puberty human beings who have the ability to procreate have the right to have differing opinions. Even opinions that differ from those of qualified healthcare professionals. It seems to me that healthcare providers and counselors do not have the duty – and shouldn’t have a government-protected right – to refuse to discuss anything they themselves would not do. My doctor, bless his heart, will go so far as to say, “Yes, we could do that, but I would strongly recommend against it” and explain why “that” is medically inadvisable. He doesn’t say I mustn’t do it. Just one of the many things I like about him.

But back to the present (even though it seems alarmingly like the early 1950’s). My point is that the middle ground has many cases where choice, not "kill the baby," is the issue. Except, of course, that – if the rumor is correct – the current administration seems bent (pun intended) on eliminating all real estate from the middle ground.

What do you think?

Happy Juneteenth!

We’re really hitting our stride at the Trailing Edge this month. Here it is practically the end of June, and we’re just now limping up - with hang-dog look and, as Pogo put it, “covered with rue” - to celebrate Juneteenth.

If she were trying to deflect blame, a person might say this is poetic justice. Or irony in social justice perhaps. Juneteenth being a celebration of the very belated recognition in Texas of the Emancipation Proclamation. (We used to live in Texas; maybe that’s where we learned our poor timing.)

For those of us who are still unclear about this holiday, a quick check of our trusty internet search engine - and a small typo - will bring up Junteenth and quite a good description by kzntell (who - name notwithstanding - is a better speller than we are, having titled his/her summary of the day “What is Juneteenth?”).

“Juneteenth,” writes the aforementioned kzntell, “also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, annual holiday celebrated on June 19 in the United States to commemorate the ending of slavery…. marks the day in 1865 when word reached African Americans in Texas that slavery in the United States had been abolished. More than two years earlier, on New Year’s Day, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Delivered during the American Civil War, this proclamation ordered the freeing of all slaves in states that were rebelling against Union forces. The proclamation had little effect in Texas, where there were few Union troops to enforce the order …[until] June 19, 1865, when a Union general backed by nearly 2,000 troops arrived in the city of Galveston. The general, Gordon Granger, publicly announced that slavery in the United States had ended. Reactions among newly freed slaves ranged from shock and disbelief to jubilant celebration. That day has been known ever since as Juneteenth, a name probably derived from the slang combination of the words June and nineteenth.”

Other descriptions are available from the National Black Justice Coalition and from the

Handbook of Texas. (That explains our trouble adjusting to Texas! We didn’t have a handbook.) (In case others have similar difficulties, we are currently engaged in writing a “Life Users’ Manual” as a technical guide to the living.) (Our apologies for these digressions, and now we return to the past:)

“On June 19 ("Juneteenth"), 1865,” the Handbook tells us, “Union general Gordon Granger read the Emancipation Proclamation in Galveston, thus belatedly bringing about the freeing of 250,000 slaves in Texas. The tidings of freedom reached slaves gradually as individual plantation owners read the proclamation to their bondsmen over the months following the end of the war [in keeping with the spirit of delaying ethics in favor of money which, among other things, characterized the US Civil War]. The news elicited an array of personal celebrations, some of which have been described in The Slave Narratives of Texas (1974).” And so on.

We hope you did something liberating and ethical on the 19^th.

We intended to. But we made strawberry jam. We’d like to say the jam made us think about Mark Twain’s Puddinhead Wilson. But it didn’t.

How Many Politicians

How many politicians does it take to change a lightbulb?


No, really. You may be thinking this is like the “how many programmers” lightbulb joke. (Answer: No number is sufficient; it’s a hardware problem.) That would be a reasonable thought (or a lame joke; your call). But I’m thinking this issue would call for legislative action (and another lame joke, of course).

First, the bipartisan committee would have to be formed and named something appropriate (say, the Committee for Bipartisan Upkeep of Legislative Lighting while Safeguarding Health and Impact…etc.). Then, the Co-BULL..etc. debate could proceed about wattage, variety (fluorescent or incandescent would be a key issue here and would probably require input from the joint legislative committee on energy policy), contracting requirements, and so on.

By that time, several days would have passed. So someone in Maintenance, who doesn’t have a healthcare plan, a retirement job lined up, or expensive advertising to help keep his or her job, has already changed the bulb. So the committee could debate whether a change of focus is necessary or the Co-BULL…etc. should continue, in anticipation of the next Lighting Fixture Maintenance Event.

In case you're wondering why yet another back-to-back post, my planned tasks for the week are to complete a peer review, work on an annotated bibiliography, clean out my files, and do bookkeeping.

Women's Health in the US of A

Well, this is something. Two blogs back to back.


We might lose our reputation as laggards. Not to worry; this is worth it.




If you are a woman, married to a woman, involved with a woman, or a citizen of the USA, this might just interest you.

If you don't care about women in the USofA, politics, my opinions, or all of the above, you are probably here by mistake. Go in good health; I wish you well.


Anybody still out there? You might be interested in the Bush-McCain challenge "to see if folks knew where John McCain stands when it comes to protecting women's health," coming to us from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Whether or not you approve of Planned Parenthood, check out this video:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3774&id=12852-635311-Vq5UZ4x&t=5


By the way, if you don't approve of planned parenthood, which one don't you like? The planned part or the parenthood part? Just wondering...

Which puts me in mind of a poem I wrote a while back (who knows why):

Our Daughters
9/6/2005

Our daughters
Sit on the mantel
Mine on the left
His on the right
Grinning
Beautiful
Young women

Our daughters
Younger
So much younger
Frame our bed
His on the left
Mine on the right
Cherubs

Our daughters

How do I greive so
For the one I never met

If there’s no flour for bread, make biscuits…

Revised - per valid, reasonable request - from blog posted 6/13/2008; please use and/or quote this version. Thanks, Sherry, ChezSherry:

So how, you may ask, have we spent our time since mid-May? And why, for that matter, didn’t we acknowledge the earthquake in China, Memorial Day in the USA, or Barak Obama’s nomination? An enormous ongoing loss, a reminder of personal loss, and the greatest cause for hope in my lifetime. They all went by without a murmur from the Trailing Edge. Now that’s trailing for you!

If you haven’t asked yourselves those questions, continuing to read this is optional – as it ever is, was, and shall be, of course...

But enough about you; this is about me.

I have been doing battle (interesting how so many of our metaphors are war-related, isn’t it? Join our soon-to-be-posted “War on Violence” campaign…). Battle has been joined with those well trained, well-intentioned voices in the ether(net) available to help us 24/7 with our electronic difficulties.

It started simply enough: we lost our electrical power and our internet services on Thursday, May 22, because of tornado-strength winds. We were so lucky not to lose more as a tornado that passed within 20 or 30 miles (30-50 km.) of us. So lucky to only watch the enormous, black cloud bank as it blew past less than 5 miles (8 km.) away in a few, frighteningly short minutes. So lucky that losing electrical services was the least we could do.

After our power was restored – but not our internet service – we called the help line, waited through the recording assuring us we could get faster service at www.helpful-service-providers.com, punched all the right buttons (mostly), said all the right words (several times), and got to an actual person. She was very nice. She said nicely that our service was indeed still interrupted by the tornado. We were so lucky after all that it seemed churlish to complain when the she asked us, helpfully, if there was any other help she could provide. Upon hearing that there was not, she reminded us sweetly that we could get service quicker and more easily just by going to www.helpful-service-providers.com.

Yes. Well. So lucky, all the same.

After we saw by the green light on our heretofore trusty modem that our internet service was restored, we tried to get on-line. “Server not available,” reported our trusty Windows browser.

We waited.

Friday morning dawned with our trusty modem cheerfully flashing its green Internet light. We mis-trusted it. Rightly so. We pressed its reset button. Once resot, light green, browser at the ready, we clicked. “Server not available,” replied the browser. We took away the modem’s power. We rebooted the computer. “Server not available,” stated the browser, the modem flashing its green internet light. Mockingly.

We did the help line tango again, got our helpful “go online” suggestions, and spoke to another nice person. She explained that while our modem could connect to the network, the internet server was down. It would be restored in two to 24 hours, she said helpfully, so we should check periodically throughout the day. And we should provide our email address so we could comment on her help. We tried unsuccessfully to keep her from adding “msn.com” to the end of our email address, and listened politely to her reminder that we could get really fast help at www.helpful-service-providers.com.

After lots of fun interaction with the “Server not available” module on our browser, we greeted a new day. Within the predicted 24 hours, give or take 4 hours for building our character, the server became available. Yay! While hopeful, we still couldn’t get on the internet. We called our trusty hot-line, executed the now-familiar dance, got to a person, and in mere hours reestablished internet connectivity on both the desktop and the laptop. We were so happy to have internet service that we didn’t even comment when the helpful person sweetly told us that if we encountered this problem in future, we could go to www.helpful-service-providers.com.

These kindly folks are so well trained.

We used our internet and tended to our garden, literally and figuratively. We began to contemplate a world in which we in the United States of America can finally, maybe, hope to get over our pre-Civil-War greed and post-Civil-War Reconstruction and see people when we look at people.

We developed a false sense of security.

One day, we left the house to run errands, being among the shrinking number of folks on this planet who can buy food whenever we like. We returned through the wind to a powerless home. We understood the feeling.

Once the power and internet were restored, we did some actual paid work, weeded our garden, and turned to maintenance of our electronic garden. Our new handheld device was not playing well with our desktop devices.

We had a new one-sided conversation with our desktop.
“! Windows – System Error
“There is an IP address conflict with another system on the network”
said the hidden icons at the bottom of our screen and refused to explain further.

Knowing what would happen if we telephoned our helpful 24/7 handheld device and cell phone service provider folks, we went online. The following exchange occurred:

Ourcellphoneservice.com: Enter your device description
Poor user: Click on handheld, find and select our handheld device.
Ourcellphoneservice.com: Enter your question
Poor user: Find list of service needs and click on “e-mail.”
Ourcellphoneservice.com: Enter your device description
Poor user: Click on handheld, find and select our handheld device.
Ourcellphoneservice.com: Enter your question
Poor user: Find list of service needs and click on “e-mail.”

We repeated this exchange from several start points on ourcellphoneservice.com.

Having now established that Poor User has met one of the criteria for insanity – repeatedly performing the same actions, getting the same results, and expecting different results – we stopped and moved on to the next cycle.

We called 1-800-ourcellphoneservice for 24/7 help. We listened to the friendly advice to go to myourcellphoneservice.com. Forearmed, we danced through the phone system to a person. He was very helpful and understanding. His accent was almost incomprehensible because he was not from our country. He was from Texas.

But he was happy to repeat himself, and we got along nicely. We didn’t solve the problem, but we did get logged into ourmycellphoneprovider.com. Of course, our computer wouldn’t display anything but the login screen where we entered our brand new password. Repeatedly. Once our helpful person made us understand that he could see we were logged in already, we stopped demonstrating our insanity in that way. He tried to talk us through setting up email on our handheld device. We worked through our language barrier and established that if the handheld is unplugged from the computer or the Wi-fi connection is deactivated there is no service on the handheld device. (We already knew that actual cell service was only possible if one went outside and stood in the county road, but our helper didn’t.) We tried, but in our cell-towerless neighborhood the signal wasn’t strong enough to connect to the internet, no matter what risky behavior we undertook.

After following various other instructions, we got our handheld device to the point that it would do even less than before, even when re-Wi-fi’ed. Without, of course, setting up email. Our help person had a suggestion: we should drive to the cell phone service provider nearest us and they’d help us restore the menu options we need and add email service, for which he assured we are already paying. Because he understood our frustration, repeatedly, our helpful trouble-shooter offered us 50 free minutes. When we pointed out that we couldn’t currently use our cell phone’s existing minutes, he understood our frustration and awarded us 50 free minutes.

After a few more attempts at fixing things, which he did at our request because they hadn’t worked so well the first time, we agreed to stop repeating this activity. Our helpful person said once again that he understood our frustration at not getting either the handheld device or myourcellphoneservice.com to work. He forbore reminders about our free minutes and asked if there was anything else he could do for us today. We thought that he had done enough. Before wishing us a great day, he reminded us that we could get fast, easy service at www.myourcellphoneservice.com.

I recounted these woes to my husband.

“If there’s no flour for bread, make pancakes,” he said.

So, being – as has previously been established – insane, I waited a day before trying again. Oddly enough, the login to myourcellphoneservice.com worked, and the first attempt to select help with email setup on the selected handheld device yielded a new result! It was:

“It appears that the page you have requested no longer exists. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you.”

And the hidden icons added,
“! Windows – System Error
“There is an IP address conflict with another system on the network”

I am not going to telephone anyone.
I am not going to go anywhere else on the internet.
I am going to stay home (ChezSherry) and make pancakes.
Or maybe biscuits.

Quiet Neighbors

We have two Colorado Blue Spruce trees in our front yard.

One, a taller, sparer tree lives slightly West of the best water. She’s the Mama tree, producing Spruce-cones, protecting the Papa tree from the harsh West wind, and giving of herself – to the point that she almost died of thirst one summer while her mate prospered.

The shorter, plumper, fuller Papa tree to her east provides a home for birds of many species. His many branches hide them so well that we can’t find the nest if a chick falls in the spring or summer. He is very prosperous, our Papa tree, and grows out, not up, so Mama can catch the early morning sun on her cone-laden upper branches.

Respecting their natures, we put the bird-seed in the Mama tree and stay away from the Papa tree, so as not to disturb the many families.

When we did a bit of decorative landscaping last spring, laying down fabric and bark in a newly-created aluminum circle, Papa was careful not to scratch my back with his low branches. He kept his sharp needles away. Mama, on the other hand, was much more interested in protecting her babies and wasn’t so worried about my back – or the weeds and grass we removed from around her trunk. Her needles were sharp, although not hurtful. I do think she was grateful that we’d noticed how thirsty she was and remedied the situation. Grateful, but wary.

So far from their mountain home, and such good neighbors. It would be heartless not to be thankful for the pleasure of their company.

If It Looks Like a Duck...

and talks like an ultra-conservative, maybe it's Bruce Tinsley's Mallard Fillmore. But when it comes to his views on what's racist, maybeee...

The Trailing Edge version of "What's Racist Today" says:

Number One: Endlessly calling attention to the race of one of the leading candidates for President when there are so many real issues we need to consider...

That would be racist.

Or do you object to what Senator Obama and Senator Clinton are really doing - calling attention to those serious issues when your favorite party wants us to ignore them and keep hiding under our beds?

You know. Access to healthcare, the state of our economy, a break for the working poor, the US standing in the world... Stuff like that.

Or is that left wing liberal thinking?

Hi you two. How have you been this last month or two? Did you miss me? Me neither.

But I missed you.

Somebody told me last week that Lent has been over for a while, so I can be as righteously indignant as I want.

How about that? Lent ends when Easter Sunday celebrates a new way of thinking about God.

Hoodathunkit?

Speaking of new ways of thinking, I’ve been thinking about the revolution in politics in the good ol’ US of A.

We Democrats are actually registering to vote.

Try a browser search on Voter Registration if you don’t believe me.

Of course you’ll have to wade through the statistics state by state, so don’t blame me if you miss the next 47 appointments and commitments you have.

If you get to page 12 of your search engine choices, let me know what’s there.

In any case, Democrats can't possibly win according to recent press releases.

Perhaps the unbiased free press thinks this is because we are contemplating electing a woman or a member of a minority group. Senator Clinton is not a member of a minority, by the way, because "in 2005, women and girls outnumbered men and boys by 4.4 million—150.4 million compared with 146.0 million" according to the US Census. Minority is an accurate designation for Senator Obama, according to same source; about 67% of US residents say they're white, not any other race and not Hispanic, and Senator Obama says he's not in that group. (These are admittedly old statistics, but not the sort that change very fast, so let's proceed.)

But that's probably all beside the point anyway - or at least it's beside the pressing point, to coin a pun. The point is that Obama and Clinton are arguing over details, as candidates in the same party do, and methods, as everyone does, and our independent, unbiased reporters think this is dangerous to their success.

Personally, I have a preference. And I'll bet it's just as well justified as yours. If we disagree, is that dangerous to our success?

Meanwhile, back at the Republican election campaign:

According to Roger Hickey as posted on Our Future Community aka Campaign for America’s Future, Arizona Senator John McCain “…wants voters to think he is going after health care cost inflation. In reality, he wants to dismantle the employer-provided system that now covers over 60 percent (or about 158 million) of non-elderly Americans, forcing millions of us who now get fairly decent health insurance on the job to instead buy whatever they can find on the individual market controlled by unregulated and predatory insurance companies. And he would drive health care costs upward, not downward."

Speaking as an ex-employee who has had to pay first about $680, now more than $800, per month (yes, I did mean PER MONTH) for health insurance ever since health issues forced me to take early retirement, I don’t think McCain has a very good idea. I had the luxury of paying that amount for health insurance only because COBRA required my employer’s insurer to make that insurance available to me. Otherwise, my insurance would have been whole dollars cheaper. But then, of course, my existing conditions – those pesky ones that forced me to leave my job – would not have been covered for the first year. Or at all. An insurer can always exclude them altogether if not a COBRA or employer-provided insurer, you see.

Does either of you live outside the US of A? I forget. If so, please enjoy your healthcare. And contact me for an explanation of all this insanity if you'd like to have a headache.

Or if you might reconsider trying to emigrate to our wonderful land.

None of this applies to you if you plan to remain in perfect health for the forseeable future.

Oops. That sounded a lot like righteous indignation, didn’t it?

So glad that Lent is over.

Eschewing Dignation

I'm giving up righteous indignation for Lent.

Oh, I know what you're going to say. We're over half-way through Lent and besides you're supposed to give up something you really enjoy. Like chocolate. Or pleasant activities that we used to suppose didn't involve children or domesticated animals.

Well, that's as may be, but I maintain that giving up something halfway through Lent is better for two reasons. First, I do really enjoy being righteously indignant, especially in this blog, so I am following the spirit of the season, even if belatedly. Second, it's much easier to stick to the give-something-up resolution if you don't have to do it for very long. So I am following the practice of the season.

And my timing befits one at the foreback (antonym of forefront). This is the Trailing Edge, after all.

OK. Three reasons. I was slow at arithmetic. No surprise there.

For clarification, I offer the following:

• "Indignation," according to my 3 volume Webster means, "typically intense deep-felt resentment or anger aroused by annoyance at or displeasure with or scorn over something that actually is or is felt to be unjust or unworthy or mean."
• "Dignation," according to the same dictionary, means, "the act of showing esteem, especially to an inferior."

Well, imagine my surprise when I was doing the usual extensive (i.e., "minimal") research for this blog. "Dignation" is an actual word, although obsolete (but, then, so am I). And the opposite of its meaning is closer to what I intend when saying "indignation."

You can see my dilemma right off. On the other hand, if what you saw right off is that my dictionary is out-of-date and the definition of "indignation" is far too complicated, perhaps I should explain. My point is that I was going to try to stop with all these holier-than-thou, public diatribes against those who disagree with my well-informed and/or firmly-held opinions. My thought was to give up the superior tone.

But it turns out I also gave up being really irate about legitimate ills.

So what do I blog about?

Ideas lentenly accepted...
No sunshine and puppies, please. I love them, but don't seem able to expound on that theme. Perhpas it's the allergy to puppies.

Another Day Breaks

Good morning, friends. Out here in cold, overcast Northern Colorado (or back here on the Trailing Edge; take your pick) I’ve been busily reviewing my email SPAM filter and unearthing gems from the muck. Yes, it’s true. Hidden among the wonderful, plentiful, rejected offers that I enhance anatomical features I don’t have, is my notification of having signed up to join the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Bravely overcoming the fact that my only advanced degree is in French Literature, as well as other errors of my youth, I forged ahead. (The head was needed for scientific endeavor and the forging was necessary because of my aforementioned lack of appropriate training papers.)

While busily updating my profile, dutifully changing my password, and responsibly reviewing possible courses of action, I discovered that the deputy administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Marcus Peacock, has a blog. Can you imagine? Here he was putting his career on the line, and I didn’t even know it. Check it out and let him know how you appreciate the EPA’s efforts – and his willingness to go out on a limb over troubled waters, as it were, to describe them to you.

Luckily, this risk-taking behavior got Peacock an invite to the White House, so all is well. For him. Not so sure about how well all will be for his grandchildren when his daughter grows up, has children, and wants to find a nice planet for them to live and play drums on.

By then, under the gentle leadership of our apolitical, science-biased, US federal government agencies, the only thing on this planet fit for human consumption may be the corn… But wait, that will be fuel for the rich folks’ vehicles…

Well, let’s hope the career choices of bureaucratic offspring assure they are as well off and well connected as their parents. I’m sure there will be someplace safe right here on earth. Think of them, our future leaders and followers, living and working in safe havens while developing programs to feed, clothe, and provide dangerously inadequate shelter for others less fortunate. Who knows? Perhaps these havens of leadership will be known, in those distant future days, as Environmentally Protected Asylums, or EPAs…

Eenyhoo, the sun has started to shine, and life as we know it continues unabated…

Be well if you can and write if you find work.
Or solutions.

Achieving Equity – November, 2007 and February, 2008

I was thinking about equity one evening last November as I was washing the last of the winter lettuce from our small garden. Thinking about talented, beautiful women who call themselves actors. My mother was an actress. That’s what she called herself. And she was. A talented, beautiful actress. Now that they are likely to wear a great deal less than my mother ever wore on stage (or film or videotape), they are actors.

From what I have been allowed to see that’s not accurate. Which is OK, but I wonder if it’s the best way to go. Oh, I understand the idea – talent is not gender-specific. Males, females, and other genders should all be subject to the same criteria when it comes to performing arts (or anything else, of course).

But where is the right to glory in the differences? If I am seeing the movie – not to mention TV – screens clearly, someone certainly wants us to glory in the differences. So what does our speech seek to hide? When did the quest for equity – fair treatment without regard for irrelevant differences – become a quest for uniformity – treatment of all persons as though they were exactly the same without regard for skill, interest, personality, biology, preference, intelligence, talent, training…

Does all this political correctness really help us accomplish anything other than learn to pronounce and perhaps even spell increasingly longer words?

Don't get me wrong; I think we must bend over backwards to give people a chance to prove themselves if they have historically been deprived of the chance to even try. But that's a search for equity, not uniformity.

I know two Letties. One is a classic beauty. She has the style, spirit, and grace of a queen. The other Lettie is imminently huggable. Comfortable and unruffled are adjectives that fit her well. Both Letties project a clear sense of who they are. They are equal in their value as friends. In all other things, they are very different. And I think they deserve to be treated differently. I can ask plain-dealing Lettie for her opinion if I really want the unvarnished truth. I can ask smart Lettie if I have a question requiring brain power.

Of course, this dissimilar-but-equitable treatment rashly assumes that I’m able to figure out which one really has which characteristic. (Or that either Lettie will straighten me out if I’m not smart enough to get it right – which, luckily, she will.)

But my point is that they should be treated differently; they’re different people. But they shouldn’t be treated inequitably. From each other or anyone else. Beautiful Lettie shouldn’t get better job opportunities because she is better looking or worse health care because she is African American. Comfortable Lettie shouldn’t get better job opportunities because she is less imposing or worse health care because she is less assertive. And so on.

So here we are, shortly after celebrating the life and works of Martin Luther King, Jr. The lettuce is long gone (but not, fortunately, the Letties), and I’m again thinking about equity. But speaking (or writing) of my thought processes leads me to think about them. How can I tell when I’m not assuming a difference that doesn’t exist? Being human assures that I’m never unbiased. For instance, if I’d be inclined to ask the thinner, more physically fit Lettie for advice on diet and exercise, what am I – the overweight and under-muscled I who knows quite a bit about nutrition and physical activity – assuming about knowledge and behavior? I’m interpreting the data available according to my preconceived notions, which I know to be erroneous.

And I’m not alone in that. Although…
“…scientists have repeatedly reported that whites have larger brains than blacks. [Stephen Jay] Gould shows that when the preserved brain is measured before the race of its former owner is revealed, this difference disappears completely…What is important about [Gould’s] essay is not that it reveals what we already know to be true about the existence of racism and sexism, but that it shows how any claim that something is ‘scientifically demonstrated’ should be treated with the same skepticism that we invoke when there is any reason to think that the investigator has something to gain, either ideologically or professionally, as we do when financial gain is involved…” (excerpted from The Triumph of Stephen Jay Gould by Richard C. Lewontin, Volume 55, Number 2 · February 14, 2008.)

But don’t we all have something to gain, either ideologically or professionally, whenever we state an opinion? Especially if it’s supported by science? I certainly do. I want you to believe me and be over- (rather than under-) whelmed by the incisiveness of my thinking and the scientificity of my method. And oblivious to my biases.

So how do we achieve equity?

I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure we don’t get there by pretending we’re all carbon copies of one another. It should be OK for us to delight in the differences. They keep us from getting bored. It should be OK for us to call persons with evident feminine traits – and talent – actresses.

What should not be OK is using the differences to justify inequities.

After all, one of the actors’ unions is Equity.

P.S. According to my mother, you could join Actors’ Equity only if you were cast in an Equity show. And you couldn’t be cast in an Equity show unless you were already a member of Equity. You couldn’t get Equity unless you already had Equity. It’s probably still that way. It is everywhere else.

Global Warming and Our Health

Now that we've accepted that 2008 is really here, we turn our attention to global warming. And social justice. Again.

What we Trailing Edge enthusiasts lack in promptness, we make up for in repetition and sloth.

So we want to urge you to join us in observing Global Action Day - January 26...
[Nota Bene: Trailing Edge Significant First! Announcement of an event about 8 hours before the fact. Significance: p=.0001 (that is, the probability that this prior notification is a random event, likely to occur any old time is vanishingly small).]
...by not doing stuff.

You can visit the World Social Forum 2008 website and find out about lots of things we can stop doing.

We will start stopping by quoting - rather than rewriting - all the good information that Lanny Smith (the excellent Dr. Clyde Lanford Smith, that is, not the excellent basketball player) posted to the Spirit of 1848 Group.

But in the interest of sloth, we will first summarize the stuff we can all stop doing. (Of course, as mentioned, we can wait until tomorrow, January 26, 2008, to start stopping.) (Although if you’re too lazy to wait, that’s OK, too.) (We certainly are.) As of whenever, we can:
· Take a break from doing all sorts of things that keep on costing: quit using not-so-extra energy, stop throwing reuseable stuff away, forget to plug things in or turn on the electronics, give ourselves a rest from toxic products, delay buying until we find local and/or green stuff, and like that;
· Don’t bite our tongues when we see Environmental Racism – defined as dumping our dregs on those of our neighbors who have plenty of dregs already;
· Quit worrying about the difference between home and abroad when it comes to environmental or social justice issues, so we don’t have to bother keeping track of how fast the world is shrinking; and
· Stop closing our minds’ eyes to the link between our health and what we breathe, sip, munch, float in, and snooze on.

And we quote [although we added hyperlinks, dropping the related web address text, and shortened and reformatted a bit]:

Global Action Toward Environmental Health and Social Justice 26 Jan…
Posted by: LANNY SMITH
Posting Date: Sun Jan 20, 2008 4:34 pm (PST)

Dear Members, Supporters, AND Everyone dedicated to Environmental Health and Social Justice, here is an invitation to be with the People's Health Movement-US and Global, 26 January 2008 on World Social Forum Global Action Day:
Global Action Day is this year’s World Social Forum Global Action toward “Another World Is Possible,” and will be held around the world on 26 January 2008 (and during the following week).

We hope that each of you will join either this specific activity (put together initially by Doctors for Global Health [DGH] Board Members Emily Rosenberg, Maureen McCue and Lanny Smith—in view of the DGH Board Meeting on 26 January 2008--and inviting your input) or another of your making or choice. In some places around the world (for example Egypt and Lebanon), the People’s Health Movement is having day-long conferences around a specific Social Justice topic. Whatever you do for Social Justice on a daily basis, try to educate other persons about it (including all of us) always but specifically this day, focus and join together with others, look for ways to synergize expertise.
...
Please consider [sharing this blog with] your local activist, student and educational groups and list-serves. We would like for them to invite the People’s Health Movement to become a partner in solidarity with their daily Health and Social Justice activities.

Proposed Activities (see below for details):
Promote Environmental Health and Social Justice;
Expose Environmental Racism being done near you;
Expose pseudo-pro-environmental anti-immigrant policies and what environmental destruction does to people’s health world-wide;
Promote your personal awareness toward Environmental Health
…
Special thanks to Jennifer Cox of the PPEHRC (Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign - a Member of the International Council of the World Social Forum) and Kensington Welfare Rights Union for her encouragement that “Another World is Possible” in the United States of America…

1. Promote Environmental Health and Social Justice. Another Way
Many people who have seen The Story of Stuff have asked what they can do to address the problems identified in the film. Each of us can promote sustainability and justice at multiple levels: as an individual, as a teacher or parent, a community member, a national citizen, and as a global citizen. As Annie says in the film, “the good thing about such an all pervasive problem is that there are so many points of intervention.” That means that there are lots and lots of places to plug in, to get involved, and to make a difference. There is no single simple thing to do, because the set of problems we’re addressing just isn’t simple. But everyone can make a difference, but the bigger your action the bigger the difference you’ll make. Here are some ideas:
10 Little and Big Things You Can Do
1. Power down! A great deal of the resources we use and the waste we create is in the energy we consume. Look for opportunities in your life to significantly reduce energy use: drive less, fly less, turn off lights, buy local seasonal food (food takes energy to grow, package, store and transport), wear a sweater instead of turning up the heat, use a clothesline instead of a dryer, vacation closer to home, buy used or borrow things before buying new, recycle. All these things save energy and save you money. And, if you can switch to alternative energy by supporting a company that sells green energy to the grid or by installing solar panels on your home, bravo!
2. Waste less. Per capita waste production in the U.S. just keeps growing. There are hundreds of opportunities each day to nurture a Zero Waste culture in your home, school, workplace, church, community. This takes developing new habits which soon become second nature. Use both sides of the paper, carry your own mugs and shopping bags, get printer cartridges refilled instead of replaced, compost food scraps, avoid bottled water and other over packaged products, upgrade computers rather than buying new ones, repair and mend rather than replace….the list is endless! The more we visibly engage in re-use over wasting, the more we cultivate a new cultural norm, or actually, reclaim an old one!
3. Talk to everyone about these issues. At school, your neighbors, in line at the supermarket, on the bus…A student once asked Cesar Chavez how he organized. He said, “First, I talk to one person. Then I talk to another person.” “No,” said the student, “how do you organize?” Chavez answered, “First I talk to one person. Then I talk to another person.” You get the point. Talking about these issues raises awareness, builds community and can inspire others to action.
4. Make Your Voice Heard. Write letters to the editor and submit articles to local press. In the last two years, and especially with Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the media has been forced to write about Climate Change. As individuals, we can influence the media to better represent other important issues as well. Letters to the editor are a great way to help newspaper readers make connections they might not make without your help. Also local papers are often willing to print book and film reviews, interviews and articles by community members. Let’s get the issues we care about in the news.
5. DeTox your body, DeTox your home, and DeTox the Economy. Many of today’s consumer products – from children’s pajamas to lipstick – contain toxic chemical additives that simply aren’t necessary. Research online (for example, Skin Deep) before you buy to be sure you’re not inadvertently introducing toxics into your home and body. Then tell your friends about toxics in consumer products. Together, ask the businesses why they’re using toxic chemicals without any warning labels. And ask your elected officials why they are permitting this practice. The European Union has adopted strong policies that require toxics to be removed from many products. So, while our electronic gadgets and cosmetics have toxics in them, people in Europe can buy the same things toxics-free. Let’s demand the same thing here. Getting the toxics out of production at the source is the best way to ensure they don’t get into any home and body.
6. Unplug (the TV and internet) and Plug In (the community). The average person in the U.S. watches T.V. over 4 hours a day. Four hours per day filled with messages about stuff we should buy. That is four hours a day that could be spent with family, friends and in our community. On-line activism is a good start, but spending time in face-to-face civic or community activities strengthens the community and many studies show that a stronger community is a source of social and logistical support, greater security and happiness. A strong community is also critical to having a strong, active democracy.
7. Park your car and walk…and when necessary MARCH! Car-centric land use policies and life styles lead to more greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel extraction, conversion of agricultural and wildlands to roads and parking lots. Driving less and walking more is good for the climate, the planet, your health, and your wallet. But sometimes we don’t have an option to leave the car home because of inadequate bike lanes or public transportation options. Then, we may need to march, to join with others to demand sustainable transportation options. Throughout U.S. history, peaceful non-violent marches have played a powerful role in raising awareness about issues, mobilizing people, and sending messages to decision makers.
8. Change your lightbulbs…and then, change your paradigm. Changing lightbulbs is quick and easy. Energy efficient lightbulbs use 75% less energy and last 10 times longer than conventional ones. That’s a no-brainer. But changing lightbulbs is just tinkering at the margins of a fundamentally flawed system unless we also change our paradigm. A paradigm is a collection of assumptions, concepts, believes and values that together make up a community’s way of viewing reality. Our current paradigm dictates that more stuff is better, that infinite economic growth is desirable and possible, and that pollution is the price of progress. To really turn things around, we need to nurture a different paradigm based on the values of sustainability, justice, health, and community.
9. Recycle your trash…and, recycle your elected officials. Recycling saves energy and reduces both waste and the pressure to harvest and mine new stuff. Unfortunately, many cities still don’t have adequate recycling systems in place. In that case you can usually find some recycling options in the phone book to start recycling while you’re pressuring your local government to support recycling city-wide. Also, many products – for example, most electronics - are designed not to be recycled or contain toxics so recycling is hazardous. In these cases, we need to lobby government to prohibit toxics in consumer products and to enact Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws, as is happening in Europe. EPR is a policy which holds producers responsible for the entire lifecycle of their products, so that electronics company who use toxics in their products, have to take them back. That is a great incentive for them to get the toxics out!
10. Buy Green, Buy Fair, Buy Local, Buy Used, and most importantly, Buy Less. Shopping is not the solution to the environmental problems we currently face because the real changes we need just aren’t for sale in even the greenest shop. But, when we do shop, we should ensure our dollars support businesses that protect the environment and worker rights. Look beyond vague claims on packages like “all natural” to find hard facts. Is it organic? Is it free of super-toxic PVC plastic? When you can, buy local products from local stores, which keeps more of our hard earned money in the community. Buying used items keeps them out of the trash and avoids the upstream waste created during extraction and production. But, buying less may be the best option of all. Less pollution. Less Waste. Less time working to pay for the stuff. Sometimes, less really is more.

2. Expose Environmental Racism being done near you.
What is Environmental Racism? “Intentional or unintentional racial discrimination in the enforcement of environmental rules and regulations, the intentional or unintentional targeting of minority communities for the siting of polluting industries, or the exclusion of minority groups from public and private boards, commissions, and regulatory bodies. The term was coined and defined in 1987 by Reverend Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. Executive Director and CEO of the United Churce of Christ Commission for Racial Justice. (wikipedia) Look around you for signs of Environmental Racism, and write or call your local elected officials (they may know already, and may well be receiving campaign donations from whichever entity is doing the oppression), write an Op-Ed, make a noise, make a stink, find community action groups and work with them to amplify their voices). Ex: As I write from El Salvador now, I contemplate the destruction of entire communities of Native Salvadorans as the World Bank plans to build a series of dams on the Torola River in Morazan. Ex: near where I live in the Bronx (end of the #4 train), the City of New York is building a “water-treatment plant” over the protests of community members, most of whom are people of color, in what used to be part of Van Courtland park. Signs warn us not to use cell phones because blasting caps may go off. Signs warn us not to drink the water in the ugly fountains built to appease the community, stating that the water is not fit to drink. These are recipes for some serious creative anger action. Look around you and see what you can see. Then “Observe, Reflect, Act and Evaluate” toward Liberation Environmentalism.

3. Expose pseudo-pro-environmental anti-immigrant policies.
Realize what Environmental destruction does to people’s health world-wide.
Support the People's Health Movement (PHM) Right to Health Campaign
…
Note: Some Presidential Candidates have already signed a position of oppression concerning undocumented persons (put them in jail; send them back to their countries; make it impossible for them ever to become US Citizens). Try and make those candidates regret their declared position. Try to keep other candidates from joining the fascist way.

Infamous Sierra Club motion: Remember that in 2004 some members of the Sierra Club decided that undocumented immigrants coming to the US were an environmental problem, and urged curbing immigration. Write the Sierra Club to thank them for no longer supporting that motion. Their official stand on Migration now includes the following:
As Americans progress in promoting conservation laws here at home, we inadvertently export much of the environmental burden [we created] to developing countries. These countries—and the communities within them—are often less capable of resisting such exploitation…The North American Free Trade Agreement, for example,…has been blamed for pushing more than one million small-scale Mexican farmers off their land since its 1994 implementation…As a result, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of former corn growers from Mexico are now in this country, some illegally, harvesting our crops. The Sierra Club wants a trading system different from the corporate “free trade” model, which is destroying lives and livelihoods around the world… Recently, the Sierra Club teamed up with Amnesty International to…help ease the plight of people who might otherwise become environmental refugees…

Earth Day and Nixon: Remember that the original Earth Day was made in 1971, under the eyes of Richard Nixon, in what some believe was an attempt to divide the left (then fighting to stop the American War in Vietnam) and divert a significant percentage of activist energy toward potentially less radical endeavors (and probably not counting on the likes of the Greenpeace that was then, when its founders tried to stop a US nuclear test on Amchitka island, off Alaska’s coast). The Earth Day buttons and chants said “Give Earth a Chance,” echoing the rallies of “Give Peace a Chance” from the Anti-War Marches. Turn the clock and educate toward an Environmental Justice perspective, “Justicia, Tierra y Libertad,” (Emiliano Zapata, viva!)

Environmental Refugees A Cause for Concern
Made by: Jenna Armstrong, Amanda Lee, Chelsea Butler, and Amanda Irish-Key.

Definition: People who can no longer gain a secure livelihood in their homelands because of drought, soil erosion, desertification, deforestation and other environmental problems of population pressures and profound poverty (1).

· Scholars are predicting that 50 million people worldwide will be displaced by 2010 because of rising sea levels, desertification, dried up aquifers, weather-induced flooding and other serious environmental changes(2).
· The environmental refugees total may very well double by the year of 2010. An estimated 200 million people could be affected by global warming by refugees of water-related disasters alone.(3) Some Examples:
o 530 residents of displaced persons camps in northern Kosovo face the lead poisoning health effects from lead pollution in an abandoned lead-smelting site. This was well-known in 1999, when the camps were set up by the UN, but to this day many local people have not been informed(4).
o Reoccurrences of history are a fact. 3 million “Okies” from the southern Great Plains left during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Failing crops moved forced them to seek homes in California. Recently, the 1999-2002 national drought was one of the three most extensive droughts in the last 40 years(5).
o Heat waves have been more frequent and intense. In 2003, heat waves were the cause of more than 35,000 deaths in Europe and India (5).
o Rising seas is a source of huge refugees. For example, a just a 1-meter rise could wipe out half of Bangladesh’s Riceland. 40 million people will be displaced in an already densely populated country (3)
o Nutritional concerns could be immense. In sub-Saharan Africa, 80 million people may be starving, and this is primarily due to environmental factors (1). Could it be agriculture-related? In Nigeria, 3,500 square kilometers of land become desert every year. Farmers and herdsmen are forced to leave and share land or live in cities. In Kenya, nomadic tribes that were formerly enemies now share water and pastures(3). Sana’a, Yemen’s water table is falling by an overwhelming 6 meters a year, and the World Bank is predicting it will exhaust its water supply by 2010. Yemen already houses 66,000 refugees. How can we measure the possible health consequences of such an event?
o The ILO estimates that the tsunami of Sri Lanka in 2005 forced half a million men and women from their homes, taking the lives of an estimated 31,000 and injuring 24,000 individuals (6). This shows how one event caused by climate change can be a health emergency. What can we do? We all play a part.
· World Refugee Day, on June 20th, is a great time to promote awareness and educate the general public about the cause for environmental refugees in particular.
· Lobby for more about global migration policies that transcend national boundaries, and the establishment of rights for these displaced persons.
· Educate your own community about the presence of environmental refugees worldwide.
· No longer the “Not in My Backyard” problem. By concentrating on sustainable living and doing our part to lower our impact on global climate changes, perhaps we can save others’ lives by saving our own.
[Pictures included in the original text – websites or pictures may not currently be available:] Comparable maps showing water scarcity and deaths attributed to climate change; map from BBC world news, Humans 'affect global rainfall,’ July 23 2007; and map from World Health Organization.

References:
(1) Myers, Norman. Environmental Refugees: An Emergent Security Issue. 13th Economic Forum, Prague 23-27 May 2005.
(2) Simms, Andrew. “Environmental Refugees,” The Guardian. New Economics Foundation 2003.
(3) Statistics from Earth Policy Institute. www.earth-policy .org
(4) Statistics from Amnesty USA at www.amnestyusa.org
(5) Natural Resources Defense Council, Jan. 9th, 2006.
(6) International Labor Organization, www.ilo.org
…

4. Promote your personal awareness toward Environmental Health.
Low Carbon Diet: a 30 day program to lose 5000 pounds [describes] actions: Drive Earth Smart; Scrub-a-Dub Tub; [and] Wear It Again Sam.
(The book has a whole lot more actions to take, but these three are available for free and in an email-able format. I [Lanny Smith, that is] particularly like the drive earth smart one as an awareness-raiser.)

Call for Day(s) of Action and Mobilization - January 26th 2008
We are millions of women and men, organizations, networks, movements, trade unions from all parts of the world; we come from villages, regions, rural zones, urban centers; we are of all ages, peoples, cultures, beliefs; but we are united by the strong conviction that ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE! With all the richness of our plurality and diversity and our alternatives and proposals, we struggle against neo-liberalism, war, colonialism, racism and patriarchy which produce violence, exploitation, exclusion, poverty, hunger and ecological disaster and deprive people of human rights. For many years we have been resisting and constructing innovative processes, new cultures of organization and action from the local to the global, in particular within the processes and Charter of Principle of the World Social Forum from which this call emerges. Aware of the need to set our own agenda and to increase the impact of these thousands of expressions and manifestations, we are committed to strengthening the solidarity and convergence among our struggles, campaigns, and constructions of alternatives and alliances. We commit ourselves to a week of action which will culminate in a Global Day of Mobilization and Action on January 26, 2008. With our diversity which is our strength, we invite all men and women to undertake throughout this week creative actions, activities, events and convergences focusing on the issues and expressed in the ways they choose.
ACT TOGETHER FOR ANOTHER WORLD!!
See: WORLD SOCIAL FORUM 2008 - another world is possible [to add your voice of support].

So let’s hear it for the 8-page quote (and hope he doesn’t mind my shortening and editing it a bit). Not to go on at length or anything, but we could all trail along and stop doing things that will get us poor health, grumpy neighbors, limited visibility, costly tomorrows, and – if we live in any of the world’s real population centers and manage to survive for another 20 or 30 years – wet feet.

I’ve not done enough today; think I’ll take a nap.
Lengthily and respectfully submitted,
Sherry

January, 2008

Greetings, dear readers, and Happy New Year to both of you.

Here on the trailing edge, we’re all set to greet the new year in our typical fashion.

A little late and looking backward.

So read on, and, like the man said, try not to take seriously what is poked at you in fun.

In January of 2007, we were worried. If people didn’t accept the reality of Global Warming, we couldn’t begin to reverse the process. Silly us. Virtually everyone agrees that Global Warming is at least partially our fault. Now, we can worry that the world-wide efforts to do something about global warming are being successfully thwarted by US procrastination. Ain’t progress grand?

In February of last year, we were worried. We were afraid the cost of war would exceed our capacity to pay (and pay, and pay, and …). Silly us. Now, we see that if we just collected one dollar from every man, woman, and child on the planet, we could almost pay for the cost of war to the US. Of course, we better get the collection folks on it pretty soon, or we won’t have enough. And we have to figure out how to collect from people who only earn a dollar a week and have five kids under the age of nine. And don’t live in the US, so we’ll have to cover travel and per diem.

In March, 2007, we were hopeful. Spring was just around the corner, to coin a phrase. We hoped the children of incarcerated parents (forget Swift boats and think Swift meat processing) were OK. Silly us.

In April, we were so filled with the spirit of Spring that we didn’t even post a blog. April, April… Wasn’t that when author Ray Bradbury and jazz saxophonist John Coltrane receive special Pulitzer Prize citations, and the White House had a bunch of upbeat press releases, and we thought all was right with the world? According to Greenpeace, on the other hand, “Glaciers in the Himalayas are receding faster than in any other part of the world as a result of global warming.” Silly, silly us.

In May of 2007, we were still slacking. Not for nothing have we named ourselves The Trailing Edge…Actually, we were working hard on our organic garden – planting them seeds and setting them pots on the enclosed back porch. We felt so righteous, planting organic seeds, one packet of which costs more than that half the starving world makes in a day… “When will they ever learn?” to coin another phrase.

In June, Post that blog! Lift that bale! Get a little drunk and…
At the Trailing Edge, we were nothing if not self-righteous.
Fortunately, we have never landed in jail…
We do suffer mightily from mixed metaphor syndrome, however.
So cut us a little slack.
Very little.

In July of 2007, everything was coming up roses, organic vegetables, and bio-identical weeds. We Trailers were so busy harvesting and weeding that we rested on our bloggy laurels. Meanwhile, back in the world, car bombs exploded, cocaine was confiscated, President Bush commuted Scooter Libby’s sentence. And that was just in the first few days. How is a person expected to keep track? I ask you. Both.

In August and September, it was too warm and pleasant to do a blog. We went fishing. And procrastinated. Actually (our new favorite word), we caught one fish. But it got away.
That’s OK. Nobody else believed us either.

In October 2007, we awoke to the fact that the US national health situation is in critical need of repair. Especially for our children. Others had awoken to that fact several decades earlier, but – once again – we remind you two that this is the Trailing Edge. Do try to keep up. On this site it really isn’t that difficult.

November and December were, once again, months for slacking. We will try to do better in the coming year, but you know how it is…
Actually, the last months of 2007 were very interesting. In the US, it’s clear to one an all that change is necessary. Candidate Obama has said so. And it’s clear that women have a role in politics. Candidates Clinton and Bhut.. Pardon us. Candidate Clinton says so.
Oops. We’re slipping over into 2008, and that’s not calendrically correct.

Perhaps we can be forgiven for looking forward, just a bit. After all, we will turn 65 this year, so looking forward has a short half-life.

For 2008, here are our predictions – trailing behind the others as befits our station in cyberspace:

· President (George W.) Bush will leave office having bested President (Bill) Clinton in every way:
o Impact on the national debt – greater (especially if you sum the absolute value of Pres. Clinton’s positive impact and Pres. Bush’s negative one)
o Embarrassment of spouse – greater (admittedly, for different reasons)
o Foreign affairs – far different (get your minds out of the gutter)
o Impact on world peace – far greater (wandering into another gutter?)
· The US presidential campaigns will reassure citizens of the world (just kidding)
· Citizens of the world will move on to more important topics (still kidding)
· Global warming will become a thing of the past
· The Trailing Edge will be revamped, revitalized, and renovated

The likelihood of the last several predictions actually happening are somewhat diminished by reality. Hopefully, dear readers, you are not.