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
Friday, January 25, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
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.
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.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Our Children, Our Future
Congress passed an excellent, bi-partisan bill to fund the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). President Bush vetoed it, claiming we can't afford it. (Any guesses about how many days' funding for the president's war for oil it would take fund this bill fully?) Congress is scheduled to vote to override this veto on October 18. I just received an automated telephone call today from the US Chamber of Commerce claiming that this bill would help too many children - not just the poor ones. Balderdash! SCHIP is intended to provide healthcare coverage for children of working poor families; they and only they will benefit from this bill. Here are a few questions and answers for your consideration:
Is this SCHIP bill really necessary?
Yes. Almost one third of our children are receiving healthcare under a program paid by our taxes. This SCHIP bill offers our best hope for healthy, productive, self-supporting families.
Is this SCHIP bill really necessary?
Yes. Almost one third of our children are receiving healthcare under a program paid by our taxes. This SCHIP bill offers our best hope for healthy, productive, self-supporting families.
- Our Protection for Working Americans -- With SCHIP, parents can keep working even when their salaries and benefits can’t pay for healthcare for their children.
- * 70% of the children now enrolled in SCHIP are in families with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level (about $40,000 for a family of four).
- * This bill limits states' ability to enroll children whose family income is more than 300% of the federal poverty level. It prohibits enrolling undocumented immigrants.
- * About 45% of new enrollees will come from working families living in poverty (about $20,000 per year for a family of four).
- Our Children's Safety Net -- SCHIP helps families purchase private healthcare for their children. Four million children are eligible for SCHIP but not enrolled.
- * You do the math: aren't most, if not all, of these the 45% of expected new enrollees who are now eligible for SCHIP but for whom there is no funding? States need the federal funding this bill provides to reach out to those children, and this need is growing.
- * The percent of children younger than 18 with public health plan coverage, including SCHIP, increased from 22% in 1997 to 32% in 2006. (Source: National Health Interview Surveys, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1997 – 2006.)
- * The 2006 National Health Interview Survey results showed for children younger than 18 years are 9.3% uninsured, 59.7% with private insurance, and 32.3% with public health plan coverage at the time of interview (Source: Early release of selected estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, tables 1.1-1.2, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006.)
- Our Insurance for a Productive Future Workforce -- Regular and timely healthcare is a necessary part of development to our children's full potential as productive adults.
Is SCHIP really a good solution?
Yes. The availability of health insurance coverage continues to decline. Our children’s access to healthcare is better than for adults, but healthcare coverage for children would be worse if it were not for SCHIP.
- More than 17 million Americans younger than 65 years – almost a third of whom are middle income – have not had health insurance to help cover their medical bills for at least 4 years. (Source: “The Long-Term Uninsured in America, 2002-2005: Estimates for the U.S. Population under Age 65,” aAgency for Healthcare Research and Quality, MEPS, Statistical Brief # 183.)
- * “Had public programs such as Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) not enrolled more individuals, the number would have been higher.” (Source: State of the States, January 2006, Finding Their Own Way, Alice Burton, et al., Isabel Friedenzohn, ed., publication of AcademyHealth, national program office for State Coverage Initiatives, an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.)
Can we afford it?
We can't afford not to have SCHIP, and we can't afford to reduce funding for this critical program.
- There is no general tax increase in this bill.
- * SCHIP will be partly funded through an additional 61 cents per pack of cigarettes (federal tax).
- * Increased tobacco taxes have been shown to have the greatest impact on decreased smoking in youth.
- * The President’s Cancer Panel recently recommended imposing an excise tax on tobacco products to help discourage youth smoking.
- * This plan redirects children into privately managed plans and should increase the total number of children enrolled in private plans.
- * According to the Congressional Budget Office, this plan is “as good as it gets” when it comes to reducing the danger that families will choose SCHIP over their current health insurance program.
We owe it to our children.
Our future depends on the health and well-being of our children. Our moral and ethical values require that we help those who are working hard to help themselves. Our humanity demands that we take care of our young.
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Rising Gas Prices?
Now that summer is almost officially here, we at the Trailing Edge are thinking about getting ready for it. As it turns out, thinking about it is pretty much all we can do. For instance, we thought about taking one of our periodic treks into the uncharted (by us) vastness of the US highway system. Then we thought about the three figure gas prices. Then we thought about our failure to ever attain a three-figure salary. So we turned our thoughts to the partially-charted vastness of our back yard.
And then it struck us. There is a solution to the rising gas prices, the summertime desire to get away from it all, and the failure of the US auto industry to understand the need for vehicles that are at least slightly more fuel efficient than a European half-ton pick-up truck.
Our stellar idea:
Turn your gas guzzler into functional yard art.
For example:
** Grow an environmentally sound, organic flower garden in and around your recreational, all terrain, armored tank.
The weeding alone will keep you happily occupied all summer.
** Put your SUV up on blocks, run electricity from the house, and convert it over to a rec room for the kids.
Gone are the day camp fees and the “turn that thing off and go outside” fights.
** Remove the body, invert it, set it in the ground, and use it for a kiddie pool.
Think of it as your mechanical/hydro-electric engineering project for the summer.
** Set the chassis, engine block and seats intact, in the sunniest spot in the yard.
Your cats can sun themselves and use the seats for scratching and nesting.
We’ve just thought of these few applications, but we’re sure you can come up with many, many more. Post your ideas here! Your property line is the limit! (Together with any structure, height, and size restrictions.)
Maybe we should have a contest…
The Trailing Edge will accept decommissioned recreational tanks for use as consolation prizes, but can not be responsible for transportation costs.
If you think our energy use isn't funny, check out some sustainable living ideas, with historical perspective, here. Or look up "THE DENIAL INDUSTRY," published in The Guardian on Tuesday September 19, 2006. The article gives an edited extract from Heat, by George Monbiot, published by Allen Lane. Whatever you do, don't read about what's happening to the Kyoto accord. It will just depress you.
And then it struck us. There is a solution to the rising gas prices, the summertime desire to get away from it all, and the failure of the US auto industry to understand the need for vehicles that are at least slightly more fuel efficient than a European half-ton pick-up truck.
Our stellar idea:
Turn your gas guzzler into functional yard art.
For example:
** Grow an environmentally sound, organic flower garden in and around your recreational, all terrain, armored tank.
The weeding alone will keep you happily occupied all summer.
** Put your SUV up on blocks, run electricity from the house, and convert it over to a rec room for the kids.
Gone are the day camp fees and the “turn that thing off and go outside” fights.
** Remove the body, invert it, set it in the ground, and use it for a kiddie pool.
Think of it as your mechanical/hydro-electric engineering project for the summer.
** Set the chassis, engine block and seats intact, in the sunniest spot in the yard.
Your cats can sun themselves and use the seats for scratching and nesting.
We’ve just thought of these few applications, but we’re sure you can come up with many, many more. Post your ideas here! Your property line is the limit! (Together with any structure, height, and size restrictions.)
Maybe we should have a contest…
The Trailing Edge will accept decommissioned recreational tanks for use as consolation prizes, but can not be responsible for transportation costs.
If you think our energy use isn't funny, check out some sustainable living ideas, with historical perspective, here. Or look up "THE DENIAL INDUSTRY," published in The Guardian on Tuesday September 19, 2006. The article gives an edited extract from Heat, by George Monbiot, published by Allen Lane. Whatever you do, don't read about what's happening to the Kyoto accord. It will just depress you.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Thinking Positive
Today’s Frank & Ernest cartoon pointed out that blogs focus on the negative. Sad but true. However, back here at the Trailing Edge, we don’t have to follow the pack – at least not too closely. So we can focus on the positive:
Positively reported in today’s news:
Responding to the crisis in temporary (i.e., 18 months, for some) (and counting) child care for women in temporary (i.e., less than 19 months – so far) custody, Massachusetts, one of the states involved, sent social workers to interview incarcerated women in Texas to find out whether their children have appropriate care. These women are being held on suspicion of being in the U.S.A. illegally (remember the Swift Sweeps on December 12, 2006?), and, presumably, are up-to-date on the care status of their children.
[Oops, that was pretty negative and sarcastic – I’m just getting used to this positive stuff. Better start providing links to the news, too.]
Nearing the end of his five-day, multi-nation tour south of the border, President Bush had a favorable reception today in Guatamala City.
“The earlier-than-usual arrival of daylight-saving time confused only the odd computer and annoyed only the occasional human,” which is – I think we can all agree – far better than confusing the normal computer or annoying the frequent human.
Science News picked up the Reuters report on the use of discarded cooking oil to run your car or heat your home. The article describes “a small industry of conversion kit installers, [including]some [who] also supply the oil for their customers.”
And last, but not least, in an attempt to change its image as an uncaring and greedy giant, Wal-Mart plans to sell sustainable electronics – built and sold, no doubt, by persons enjoying the benefits of sustainable employment practices.
Which brings us back to the sweeps, doesn’t it? And to me being snide. Ah, so much of our existence is circular. In the noble (translated) words of Eugene Ionesco, “Take a circle, pet it, and it will become vicious.”
Coming soon: New Definitions for the Trailing Edge Dictionary - Reader Survey...
In keeping with today’s positive theme, I’m asking for positive feedback on this blog. I think you can now post comments without revealing personal information or joining any group (I’m almost positive about that).
Take care. Write if you get work (as they used to say during the Great Depression) that has health insurance benefits (as we say now).
Positively reported in today’s news:
Responding to the crisis in temporary (i.e., 18 months, for some) (and counting) child care for women in temporary (i.e., less than 19 months – so far) custody, Massachusetts, one of the states involved, sent social workers to interview incarcerated women in Texas to find out whether their children have appropriate care. These women are being held on suspicion of being in the U.S.A. illegally (remember the Swift Sweeps on December 12, 2006?), and, presumably, are up-to-date on the care status of their children.
[Oops, that was pretty negative and sarcastic – I’m just getting used to this positive stuff. Better start providing links to the news, too.]
Nearing the end of his five-day, multi-nation tour south of the border, President Bush had a favorable reception today in Guatamala City.
“The earlier-than-usual arrival of daylight-saving time confused only the odd computer and annoyed only the occasional human,” which is – I think we can all agree – far better than confusing the normal computer or annoying the frequent human.
Science News picked up the Reuters report on the use of discarded cooking oil to run your car or heat your home. The article describes “a small industry of conversion kit installers, [including]some [who] also supply the oil for their customers.”
And last, but not least, in an attempt to change its image as an uncaring and greedy giant, Wal-Mart plans to sell sustainable electronics – built and sold, no doubt, by persons enjoying the benefits of sustainable employment practices.
Which brings us back to the sweeps, doesn’t it? And to me being snide. Ah, so much of our existence is circular. In the noble (translated) words of Eugene Ionesco, “Take a circle, pet it, and it will become vicious.”
Coming soon: New Definitions for the Trailing Edge Dictionary - Reader Survey...
In keeping with today’s positive theme, I’m asking for positive feedback on this blog. I think you can now post comments without revealing personal information or joining any group (I’m almost positive about that).
Take care. Write if you get work (as they used to say during the Great Depression) that has health insurance benefits (as we say now).
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Global Warming – Are We Too Late?
Back here at the Trailing Edge, our guidestones for new ideas may not be what one might hope and expect. Be that as it may, since President Bush has acknowledged global warming, maybe we should start thinking about it.
Oddly enough, what started this line of thought was some good news – at least I hope it is. It seems there may be a cancer treatment in the wings. Check out:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10971-cheap-safe-drug-kills-most-cancers.h
An effective, cheap cancer treatment? Hooray! Does this mean we can all start eating like hogs, drinking like fish, and smoking like chimneys? You bet it does, except that no self-respecting hogs, fish, or – for that matter – chimneys are likely to be as self destructive as we delight in being. (Well, maybe not you, but me for sure.)
Anyway, I guess thinking about my self-destructive behavior – and the opportunity to engage in it – got me thinking about global warming. It appears that mostly all scientists in the know think that global warming is a fact. Seems they have thought so for some time. And pretty much all of them think it’s our fault. (Well, again, maybe not yours, but mine for sure.)
Released this week:
An Associated Press article by Angela Charlton, World scientists meet to finish up long-awaited global warming report, 6:30 a.m. January 29, 2007, quotes one of the report authors:
" 'We're hoping that it will convince people that climate change is real and that we have a responsibility for much of it, and that we really do have to make changes in how we live,' said Kenneth Denman, one of the report's authors and senior scientist at the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis."
However, the article goes on to say that…
"Some critics worry that the IPCC scientists did not take into account shifts in Greenland and Antarctica."
http://go.sosd.com/servlet/nrp?cmd=sty&cid=RIM&pgn=1&ino=957129&cat=Science&lno=1
So what, I ask myself (and both of you), is this about Greenland and Antarctica that didn't figure into this comprehensive report?
An article on Antarctica published in Earth Island Journal’s Summer 1998 issue (Vol. 13, No. 3), Antarctica's "Deep Impact" Threat, by Andy Caffrey, covers the ice melting at both the North and South Poles (pun intended only a little bit):
"On April 17, US government scientists reported that a 75-square-mile chunk of the Larsen ice shelf had broken loose and blamed the break-up on global warming. 'This may be the beginning of the end for the Larsen ice shelf,' said US National Snow and Ice Data Center research associate Ted Scambos….
"Meanwhile the mile-thick sheet of ice covering 85 percent of Greenland is vanishing at the rate of 2.5 centimeters a year and the Bering Glacier, the world's largest temperate glacier, has been retreating at a rate of 1 kilometer per year since 1990. Over the past 30 years, Western Arctic temperatures have risen 1 degree C….
"In the August 1995 Scientific American, Christina Stock reported how 'for a geologic nanosecond - a century, in other words - some 120,000 years ago, the earth underwent climatic havoc.' New findings show that sea level records, imprinted in limestone of the Bahama Islands, rose 20 feet above that of today and then plunged to at least 30 feet below modern levels. These erratic 100 years came at the close of the last interglacial era, a time when the climate was somewhat similar to ours.”
http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/summer98/wr_sum98d.htm
Two other online articles, written this month by Catherine Brahic for the NewScientist, present a pretty exciting – and accurate as far as I know – discussion of both ice melting and global warming:
Major climate change report looks set to alarm, published 11:54 29 January 2007
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn11049-major-climate-change-report-looks-set-to-alarm.html
Melting of mountain glaciers is accelerating, published 18:36 30 January 2007 http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn11064-melting-of-mountain-glaciers-is-accelerating.html
So maybe we shouldn’t just turn over and go back to sleep – which is surely the right thing to do when it comes to most scientific reports.
What should we do instead, I ask you (or myself, if you’ve both gone on to more interesting blogs)? Should we actually think about changing the way we think about energy consumption. Should I - right now before it's too late - turn off my comput…(session interrupted)
Oddly enough, what started this line of thought was some good news – at least I hope it is. It seems there may be a cancer treatment in the wings. Check out:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10971-cheap-safe-drug-kills-most-cancers.h
An effective, cheap cancer treatment? Hooray! Does this mean we can all start eating like hogs, drinking like fish, and smoking like chimneys? You bet it does, except that no self-respecting hogs, fish, or – for that matter – chimneys are likely to be as self destructive as we delight in being. (Well, maybe not you, but me for sure.)
Anyway, I guess thinking about my self-destructive behavior – and the opportunity to engage in it – got me thinking about global warming. It appears that mostly all scientists in the know think that global warming is a fact. Seems they have thought so for some time. And pretty much all of them think it’s our fault. (Well, again, maybe not yours, but mine for sure.)
Released this week:
An Associated Press article by Angela Charlton, World scientists meet to finish up long-awaited global warming report, 6:30 a.m. January 29, 2007, quotes one of the report authors:
" 'We're hoping that it will convince people that climate change is real and that we have a responsibility for much of it, and that we really do have to make changes in how we live,' said Kenneth Denman, one of the report's authors and senior scientist at the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis."
However, the article goes on to say that…
"Some critics worry that the IPCC scientists did not take into account shifts in Greenland and Antarctica."
http://go.sosd.com/servlet/nrp?cmd=sty&cid=RIM&pgn=1&ino=957129&cat=Science&lno=1
So what, I ask myself (and both of you), is this about Greenland and Antarctica that didn't figure into this comprehensive report?
An article on Antarctica published in Earth Island Journal’s Summer 1998 issue (Vol. 13, No. 3), Antarctica's "Deep Impact" Threat, by Andy Caffrey, covers the ice melting at both the North and South Poles (pun intended only a little bit):
"On April 17, US government scientists reported that a 75-square-mile chunk of the Larsen ice shelf had broken loose and blamed the break-up on global warming. 'This may be the beginning of the end for the Larsen ice shelf,' said US National Snow and Ice Data Center research associate Ted Scambos….
"Meanwhile the mile-thick sheet of ice covering 85 percent of Greenland is vanishing at the rate of 2.5 centimeters a year and the Bering Glacier, the world's largest temperate glacier, has been retreating at a rate of 1 kilometer per year since 1990. Over the past 30 years, Western Arctic temperatures have risen 1 degree C….
"In the August 1995 Scientific American, Christina Stock reported how 'for a geologic nanosecond - a century, in other words - some 120,000 years ago, the earth underwent climatic havoc.' New findings show that sea level records, imprinted in limestone of the Bahama Islands, rose 20 feet above that of today and then plunged to at least 30 feet below modern levels. These erratic 100 years came at the close of the last interglacial era, a time when the climate was somewhat similar to ours.”
http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/summer98/wr_sum98d.htm
Two other online articles, written this month by Catherine Brahic for the NewScientist, present a pretty exciting – and accurate as far as I know – discussion of both ice melting and global warming:
Major climate change report looks set to alarm, published 11:54 29 January 2007
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn11049-major-climate-change-report-looks-set-to-alarm.html
Melting of mountain glaciers is accelerating, published 18:36 30 January 2007 http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn11064-melting-of-mountain-glaciers-is-accelerating.html
So maybe we shouldn’t just turn over and go back to sleep – which is surely the right thing to do when it comes to most scientific reports.
What should we do instead, I ask you (or myself, if you’ve both gone on to more interesting blogs)? Should we actually think about changing the way we think about energy consumption. Should I - right now before it's too late - turn off my comput…(session interrupted)
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Politically Confused
January 10, 2007.
OK (which, by the way, was how an earlier president abbreviated "all correct"), am I the only one here who didn't see any sensible statements of position this evening from anyone currently holding a political office in the federal government?
I started to use "clear" instead of "sensible," but that wasn't accurate. Democrats, Republicans, even our Commander in Chief, were frequently clear in what they said. So that's Oll more or less Korrect, as far as it goes.
However, clarity, while necessary, isn't sufficient. Foreign policy should also be sensible. Otherwise, foreign powers (like, say, European ones) might all go off and start something without us (like, say, an economic and political union that shows signs of working better than ours). (To be clear, I am not happy to worry that the US will someday soon be a lesser power, just trying to be sensible. Although I may be straying from the point a bit. Excuse me, please.)
To be sensible, the various positions of our newly and previously elected leaders' would have had to be grounded in reality - at least to some extent. So let's test that:
Position A: We should get out of Iraq as soon as feasible and commit no more troups or funds to the effort of bringing peace and democracy to that region, because that's what the Iraq government wants and what will safeguard American lives.
This position is OK, except that there doesn't seem to be a general political will in Iraq with a clear "want" when it comes to American troups. The people in Iraq seem to want the mass killings and chaos to diminish, which only happens when American troups are around. The government in Iraq wants to be left alone to run things. Each faction and sect appears to want that.
Also, it could be that refusing to send troups to help the troups currently in Iraq may not be the best way to protect the Americans there. Being understaffed, underfunded, and underprotected is a difficult position from which to succeed at pretty much anything. Even getting out alive.
Position B: We should increase our efforts to bring peace and democracy to Iraq by increasing troups and costs, because that's what the government of Iraq wants and what will secure a lasting peace in the region.
That position is OK except that the government in Iraq doesn't want us there, nor does pretty much anyone in power in that region. That may be the single thing that all the many factions and sects agree on. Oh, and the lasting peace thing. Well, really. Anyone know how to erase the last 40 years or so and handle the whole thing sensibly?
Now, I've said before that, back here on the trailing edge, we're used to being confused, but this is a new high (low?). We may not have the answers back here, in fact, we rarely do. But at least we can recognize when no one is asking the right questions. That's probably why our version of PC is "politically confused."
OK (which, by the way, was how an earlier president abbreviated "all correct"), am I the only one here who didn't see any sensible statements of position this evening from anyone currently holding a political office in the federal government?
I started to use "clear" instead of "sensible," but that wasn't accurate. Democrats, Republicans, even our Commander in Chief, were frequently clear in what they said. So that's Oll more or less Korrect, as far as it goes.
However, clarity, while necessary, isn't sufficient. Foreign policy should also be sensible. Otherwise, foreign powers (like, say, European ones) might all go off and start something without us (like, say, an economic and political union that shows signs of working better than ours). (To be clear, I am not happy to worry that the US will someday soon be a lesser power, just trying to be sensible. Although I may be straying from the point a bit. Excuse me, please.)
To be sensible, the various positions of our newly and previously elected leaders' would have had to be grounded in reality - at least to some extent. So let's test that:
Position A: We should get out of Iraq as soon as feasible and commit no more troups or funds to the effort of bringing peace and democracy to that region, because that's what the Iraq government wants and what will safeguard American lives.
This position is OK, except that there doesn't seem to be a general political will in Iraq with a clear "want" when it comes to American troups. The people in Iraq seem to want the mass killings and chaos to diminish, which only happens when American troups are around. The government in Iraq wants to be left alone to run things. Each faction and sect appears to want that.
Also, it could be that refusing to send troups to help the troups currently in Iraq may not be the best way to protect the Americans there. Being understaffed, underfunded, and underprotected is a difficult position from which to succeed at pretty much anything. Even getting out alive.
Position B: We should increase our efforts to bring peace and democracy to Iraq by increasing troups and costs, because that's what the government of Iraq wants and what will secure a lasting peace in the region.
That position is OK except that the government in Iraq doesn't want us there, nor does pretty much anyone in power in that region. That may be the single thing that all the many factions and sects agree on. Oh, and the lasting peace thing. Well, really. Anyone know how to erase the last 40 years or so and handle the whole thing sensibly?
Now, I've said before that, back here on the trailing edge, we're used to being confused, but this is a new high (low?). We may not have the answers back here, in fact, we rarely do. But at least we can recognize when no one is asking the right questions. That's probably why our version of PC is "politically confused."
Friday, December 29, 2006
Early Christmas Present
Early Christmas morning I saw a deer in the neighbor’s back yard. Quietly, seemingly comfortably, browsing under a spruce tree pruned just high enough to serve as an umbrella. The neighbor – away recovering from knee surgery – could not have left a better guest, or provided one with a more comfortable shelter. While the snow was still three or four feet deep in places, the wind had blown it away from the grass under the two, carefully pruned spruces. The yard is large enough for a bit of wandering and well enough fenced to keep out the neighborhood dogs – who were strangely silent about the deer. And there was the large, covered patio where the dear could rest between snacks and ruminate. (Puns intended.)
As long as we didn’t stare too long or make any really loud noises, the deer was content with having us for neighbors. And we were content to watch from the kitchen or bathroom window as our living Christmas card, peaceful and beautiful, enjoyed the day. At times, the deer seemed more at home in its surroundings than we did in ours – gazing around from its nest on the patio as we bumped and rushed to finish preparing our Christmas feast.
I keep saying “it” because it could have been a doe or a buck. Our ignorance of its gender didn’t stop me from calling her “she” nor my husband from calling him “he.”
Apart from gender bias, we didn’t really read anything into this Christmas vision. It was just a deer. With the blizzard nipping at her heels and ears, she had found this temporary housing. Just a lucky fluke that the neighbor was away – also safe, warm, and well fed, but away. Just chance that let an unexpected silence fall on the neighborhood which, the day before, had been the scene of our digging noisily out as we emerged from the storm-covered houses, manned our four-wheelers, and shoveled and cleared paths for our larger vehicles. We, on our street at the edge of town, were all too well tucked into our homes to bother scaring off a stray deer.
What could we have read into it? It was just a deer. The day after Christmas, it left as silently and peacefully as it had come. I miss her.
As long as we didn’t stare too long or make any really loud noises, the deer was content with having us for neighbors. And we were content to watch from the kitchen or bathroom window as our living Christmas card, peaceful and beautiful, enjoyed the day. At times, the deer seemed more at home in its surroundings than we did in ours – gazing around from its nest on the patio as we bumped and rushed to finish preparing our Christmas feast.
I keep saying “it” because it could have been a doe or a buck. Our ignorance of its gender didn’t stop me from calling her “she” nor my husband from calling him “he.”
Apart from gender bias, we didn’t really read anything into this Christmas vision. It was just a deer. With the blizzard nipping at her heels and ears, she had found this temporary housing. Just a lucky fluke that the neighbor was away – also safe, warm, and well fed, but away. Just chance that let an unexpected silence fall on the neighborhood which, the day before, had been the scene of our digging noisily out as we emerged from the storm-covered houses, manned our four-wheelers, and shoveled and cleared paths for our larger vehicles. We, on our street at the edge of town, were all too well tucked into our homes to bother scaring off a stray deer.
What could we have read into it? It was just a deer. The day after Christmas, it left as silently and peacefully as it had come. I miss her.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
The Future Just Ain’t What It Used to Be
Back when I was young (which was probably not before there was dirt; I’m only saying I don’t remember seeing any), I thought that all problems could be solved and everybody could be nice. That was before I decided I shouldn’t be an inventor, because everything had already been invented, and after I decided I could do anything if I just tried hard enough.
You might think I became depressed upon learning that all of these things I’d decided were false. However, being mostly wrong did not dampen my optimism. (Fortunately. I’m wrong about as often as you get heads when you flip a coin an infinite number of times.) (Roughly 50% of the time, I'm told, although I've never checked it.) In fact, it took a lot more than being wrong to depress me. (Unfortunately, the “lot more” has happened, but I digress.) (Again.)
Now that I am older (than dirt, possibly), I no longer think that solutions are easy or that people, given half a chance, are nice. On the other hand, I now think that some solutions are a lot easier than anyone suspects – just not profitable. And that many people are nice even when not given half a chance. Which really says a lot for humanity when you think about it.
Nonetheless, I am still depressed about our future. This is at least in part because I am, and it seems our species is, locked into the notion that profitability is the measure of success. And that it’s a “good” measure. I don’t know much about other religious leaders, but I’m pretty sure that Jesus didn’t think that. Almost as sure as I am that many (most?) Christians do think that. Along with pretty much all of us other believers and non-believers, as near as I can tell.
What if we’re wrong about that? What if there isn't a general lack of things to invent?
What if we’re just suffering from a narrowing of the arterial thought channels?
What could we invent after we invented a different measure of success?
If we just tried hard enough.
You might think I became depressed upon learning that all of these things I’d decided were false. However, being mostly wrong did not dampen my optimism. (Fortunately. I’m wrong about as often as you get heads when you flip a coin an infinite number of times.) (Roughly 50% of the time, I'm told, although I've never checked it.) In fact, it took a lot more than being wrong to depress me. (Unfortunately, the “lot more” has happened, but I digress.) (Again.)
Now that I am older (than dirt, possibly), I no longer think that solutions are easy or that people, given half a chance, are nice. On the other hand, I now think that some solutions are a lot easier than anyone suspects – just not profitable. And that many people are nice even when not given half a chance. Which really says a lot for humanity when you think about it.
Nonetheless, I am still depressed about our future. This is at least in part because I am, and it seems our species is, locked into the notion that profitability is the measure of success. And that it’s a “good” measure. I don’t know much about other religious leaders, but I’m pretty sure that Jesus didn’t think that. Almost as sure as I am that many (most?) Christians do think that. Along with pretty much all of us other believers and non-believers, as near as I can tell.
What if we’re wrong about that? What if there isn't a general lack of things to invent?
What if we’re just suffering from a narrowing of the arterial thought channels?
What could we invent after we invented a different measure of success?
If we just tried hard enough.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Voting and Thinking: Do They Mix?
Seems I have so many thoughts about the upcoming U.S. election and so little talent to do them justice…
Perhaps a look at what’s already out there is best. The following are three perspectives on current politics and the upcoming election:
http://theferrett.livejournal.com/804454.html
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=128588
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1019-25.htm
And a quote, courtesy of A.Word.A.Day
(http://wordsmith.org/awad/):
“We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” -Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), third US president, architect and author.
So remember, VOTE WITH YOUR VOTE.
(I know, this is yet another sound bite even though, dear readers, both of you were too polite to call me on my anti-sound-bite sound bite. In the words of the immortal Pogo, “I am covered with rue.”)
Speaking of other web pages: In a week when the stock market is reaching new heights, it might be well to look back at a commentary on other changes in the U.S. economic scene:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/08/29/
poverty.health/index.html
And another: To the exhortation for a World Day to End Extreme Poverty, Chuck Levenstein offers: “Perhaps we should ask for a World Day to End Extreme Wealth? Since inequality is linked to health, we should work away at both ends of the problem.”
Now there’s a thought.
And a final few thoughts, mostly my very own, brought to you by the Trailing Edge Dictionary of Modern American, which proudly announces two additions – the Politically Correct Section, 21st Century Bush Era, and the Neo-Conservative Section. (NB: While seeming redundant, these sections are, in fact, wholly and completely similar-but-different.)
The Politically Correct Section, 21st Century Bush Era, offers the following new definitions:
preventive war (idiom, adjective+noun) – war of aggression against a nation that holds an opposing socio-political view
NB: Not to be confused with imperial hegemony, please.
Sample Sentence: Upon reflection, President Bush declared a preventive war against the heinous dictator sitting on top of the most oil available in a non-Christian country.
homeland (noun) – geopolitical territory, constituted as a republic, in which no one may object to any word, activity, or legislation undertaken or contemplated by the Executive Branch on pain of being labeled “pro-terrorist” and/or having all available evidence of one’s free enterprise activity crushed under the wheels of large, low-mileage vehicles.
NB: Not, we trust, to be confused with the Politically Correct Section, Stalin Era, definition of dictatorship of the proletariat in which an entire political party was exempt from objection and more harmful means were used to quiet the citizenry.
Sample Sentence: Having made the homeland safe from an increasingly large number of terrorists and other dissidents abroad, the President, Cabinet, and key advisers moved on to the homeland’s internal issues, giving the same skilled attention to natural disasters, immigration, interpersonal relations, and so on.
The Neo-Conservative Section has the following new definition:
moral high-ground (phrase, adjective+compound noun) – the territory occupied by right thinkers (and far right thinkers), from which vantage point all unlike thinking is seen to be a sign of evil.
Sample Sentence: Having reached the moral high-ground, the pro-Creationists and procreationists determined that “evidence” and “faith” are indeed synonyms.
These additions put us in mind of the much older Missing Positives Section, which brought us the following definition:
munity (noun) – lack of protection, resistance, or exemption; political or legal vulnerability
Sample Sentence: Upon reflection, President Nixon granted munity to his entire staff.
And a final bit of free advice: If your logic isn’t circular, who can follow it?
And worth every penny, too.
Perhaps a look at what’s already out there is best. The following are three perspectives on current politics and the upcoming election:
http://theferrett.livejournal.com/804454.html
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=128588
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1019-25.htm
And a quote, courtesy of A.Word.A.Day
(http://wordsmith.org/awad/):
“We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” -Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), third US president, architect and author.
So remember, VOTE WITH YOUR VOTE.
(I know, this is yet another sound bite even though, dear readers, both of you were too polite to call me on my anti-sound-bite sound bite. In the words of the immortal Pogo, “I am covered with rue.”)
Speaking of other web pages: In a week when the stock market is reaching new heights, it might be well to look back at a commentary on other changes in the U.S. economic scene:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/08/29/
poverty.health/index.html
And another: To the exhortation for a World Day to End Extreme Poverty, Chuck Levenstein offers: “Perhaps we should ask for a World Day to End Extreme Wealth? Since inequality is linked to health, we should work away at both ends of the problem.”
Now there’s a thought.
And a final few thoughts, mostly my very own, brought to you by the Trailing Edge Dictionary of Modern American, which proudly announces two additions – the Politically Correct Section, 21st Century Bush Era, and the Neo-Conservative Section. (NB: While seeming redundant, these sections are, in fact, wholly and completely similar-but-different.)
The Politically Correct Section, 21st Century Bush Era, offers the following new definitions:
preventive war (idiom, adjective+noun) – war of aggression against a nation that holds an opposing socio-political view
NB: Not to be confused with imperial hegemony, please.
Sample Sentence: Upon reflection, President Bush declared a preventive war against the heinous dictator sitting on top of the most oil available in a non-Christian country.
homeland (noun) – geopolitical territory, constituted as a republic, in which no one may object to any word, activity, or legislation undertaken or contemplated by the Executive Branch on pain of being labeled “pro-terrorist” and/or having all available evidence of one’s free enterprise activity crushed under the wheels of large, low-mileage vehicles.
NB: Not, we trust, to be confused with the Politically Correct Section, Stalin Era, definition of dictatorship of the proletariat in which an entire political party was exempt from objection and more harmful means were used to quiet the citizenry.
Sample Sentence: Having made the homeland safe from an increasingly large number of terrorists and other dissidents abroad, the President, Cabinet, and key advisers moved on to the homeland’s internal issues, giving the same skilled attention to natural disasters, immigration, interpersonal relations, and so on.
The Neo-Conservative Section has the following new definition:
moral high-ground (phrase, adjective+compound noun) – the territory occupied by right thinkers (and far right thinkers), from which vantage point all unlike thinking is seen to be a sign of evil.
Sample Sentence: Having reached the moral high-ground, the pro-Creationists and procreationists determined that “evidence” and “faith” are indeed synonyms.
These additions put us in mind of the much older Missing Positives Section, which brought us the following definition:
munity (noun) – lack of protection, resistance, or exemption; political or legal vulnerability
Sample Sentence: Upon reflection, President Nixon granted munity to his entire staff.
And a final bit of free advice: If your logic isn’t circular, who can follow it?
And worth every penny, too.
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Sound Bites, Healthy Bites, and Other Things that Bite
I am an avid reader of cereal boxes. Always have been. Always will be.
Our cereals are all healthy, nutritious, and all natural. (One wonders what an unnatural cereal would be like, but I digress.)
However, faced with a cereal box that is trying to inspire me to better myself, I am bemused. Nay, affronted. And it’s not even my cereal box. It’s my husband’s. It urges me to complete the sentence, “ I will…” – with several examples of exemplary, life-improving behavior. I supress the impulse to shout, “I will buy an expensive sportscar and use it to snub all my friends and neighbors!” This is not a difficult impulse to suppress, because my arthritis prevents me from getting into a sportscar, regardless of its cost. Besides, my husband, peacefully eating his cereal, would worry.
Nonetheless, I resent the cereal box’s presumption. Am I not in charge of what I will or will not do? Do I need the assistance of cardboard and grainy consumables? That I can’t even consume? (Arthritis is less painful if I don’t eat wheat, don’t you know.) Am I prey to the whims of market researchers and advertising copywriters? Probably. But do I need my milk and soupspoon rubbed in it? Not on your Betty Crocker coupon I don’t!
And breakfast food is not the only thing that presumes to guide my behavior. What about television shows that pretend to purvey news? What about politically-motivated science that is neither scientific nor accurate? But is truly believed and consistent with some religious doctrine? What about Internet exchanges of would-be truth that are based on urban myth? What about a whole culture that depends upon reduction of complex problems and difficult ideas to a thirty-second summary?
Sound bites bite! Don’t you know it. Sound bites bite! Shout it out, now. Sound bites bite! A little louder. Sound Bites Bite!
You know, it’s amazing how ego-centric and irritable a little constant pain makes you. I imagine psychic or emotional pain is just as bad. Worse, maybe. Luckily, the physical therapy is working and I’ll be better soon.
But I won’t be improved by a slogan on a carton! Sound Bites Bite.
Our cereals are all healthy, nutritious, and all natural. (One wonders what an unnatural cereal would be like, but I digress.)
However, faced with a cereal box that is trying to inspire me to better myself, I am bemused. Nay, affronted. And it’s not even my cereal box. It’s my husband’s. It urges me to complete the sentence, “ I will…” – with several examples of exemplary, life-improving behavior. I supress the impulse to shout, “I will buy an expensive sportscar and use it to snub all my friends and neighbors!” This is not a difficult impulse to suppress, because my arthritis prevents me from getting into a sportscar, regardless of its cost. Besides, my husband, peacefully eating his cereal, would worry.
Nonetheless, I resent the cereal box’s presumption. Am I not in charge of what I will or will not do? Do I need the assistance of cardboard and grainy consumables? That I can’t even consume? (Arthritis is less painful if I don’t eat wheat, don’t you know.) Am I prey to the whims of market researchers and advertising copywriters? Probably. But do I need my milk and soupspoon rubbed in it? Not on your Betty Crocker coupon I don’t!
And breakfast food is not the only thing that presumes to guide my behavior. What about television shows that pretend to purvey news? What about politically-motivated science that is neither scientific nor accurate? But is truly believed and consistent with some religious doctrine? What about Internet exchanges of would-be truth that are based on urban myth? What about a whole culture that depends upon reduction of complex problems and difficult ideas to a thirty-second summary?
Sound bites bite! Don’t you know it. Sound bites bite! Shout it out, now. Sound bites bite! A little louder. Sound Bites Bite!
You know, it’s amazing how ego-centric and irritable a little constant pain makes you. I imagine psychic or emotional pain is just as bad. Worse, maybe. Luckily, the physical therapy is working and I’ll be better soon.
But I won’t be improved by a slogan on a carton! Sound Bites Bite.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Slow Viewing and Moving Experiences
Well, the view from the trailing edge is farther out of focus than usual. The Spence family moved a distance of several miles from temporary (leased) to permanent (bank-owned) housing-with-office-space. Theoretically, the move occurred on June 29. In point of actual fact, the move began in mid-June and is still under way. Naturally, the usual conditions apply:
- Dates on the calendar are closer than they appear.
- Contents of boxes trade places in the night.
- Keys, power cords, and other critical items step briefly into the Twilight Zone only to re-appear when someone else is looking for them.
- Important events such as the birthdays of yours truly and of our nation get mired in the maze of boxes.
- Much is owed to the kindness of strangers - especially the telephone and cable installation techs who went above and beyond the call of duty.
All sentient life consists of having experiences and learning lessons from them. Yep, we always learn from experience. The trouble comes from learning the wrong lesson. So you be the judge (because the learner is incapable of guessing the appropriateness of the lesson learned) - this is what Sam and Sherry have learned so far:
- No matter how tired you get, you can still muster up enough energy to blame the other person for the current source of your irritation.
- When exhausted and hungry, it is better to leave and go to a restaurant for an hour or so than to reaffirm the truth of lesson 1.
- Before leaving for a restaurant - other than a cardiac-condition-enhancing-drive-through - check each other over for cuts, rips, and unusually large or strategically placed stains.
- Do not tease your partner about any slip-up, breakage, or strategically placed stain; these are not laughing matters.
- There is a place for everything, and if you look everywhere, you will find it.
- "Everywhere" is an area that exceeds the square footage of your new home by some unknown and variable amount.
- Make frequent stops for hugs and back-rubs.
- All agreements on furniture placement or item storage are subject to change without notice.
- Time estimates are the work of the devil; do not heed them.
- Keep your sense of humor with you at all times; otherwise, it'll take months to find it.
I would say more, but we're leaving for a restaurant.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Back here on the trailing edge, some may be slow to react to the ever changing pattern of news. So forgive me if it's a bit late in the day (as it were) for commenting on immigration to the USA. I won't bore you with all the facts that demonstrate – and theories that postulate – that everyone in any of the Americas is an immigrant. Let's take that as a given. But let's not take as a given that the USA was built without opportunism and imperialism, OK? The French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, Dutch, all fought each other and themselves for the spoils. And many of the earlier immigrants, from the North American plains tribes to the Incas, used the imperialist Europeans to help them fight each other (poor choice of allies, but oh well...).
So nobody was any rose, OK? At least not when it comes to opportunism and imperialism. And I can't see that – since then – any of us has learned much from our own experience or that of our forebears. Scratch that, we appear to have learned a lot, but maybe mostly the wrong lessons. At least, I can't see that I've studied up very much on what our religions and ethical belief systems appear to value of human behavior. At least not when it comes to practicing what those systems say about human rights or free enterprise economy. I reject human slavery while buying products made in sweat shops in countries where workers earn pennies a day – and buying them from US transportation and retail sales enterprises that cheat their employees out of the basic worker rights, which U.S. laws are supposed to assure. I buy – and tout – healthy, organically grown food while realizing that, if the whole world produced food that way, half the world would starve even faster than it is now. I whine about having to pay more than $1,000 per month for health insurance for a family of two while most of the U.S. population has little or no access to that care. And while we argue about the small percentage of illegal aliens who should or shouldn't have access to healthcare, instead of arguing about whether U.S. citizens should have that access.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world seems divided into the more-healthy-than-the-average-US-citizen (case in point: all other things being equal, a baby born in Cuba is more likely to survive its first year of life than a baby born in the USA) and the mortally unhealthy. I could go on, but it's too depressing. The readership would dwindle. (What readership?) Perhaps this all goes without saying anyway, given that our ancestors were all human...up to a point...and so are we.
It just seems to me that it's pretty cheeky of some of us to decide that our rights, morals, or antecedents are any better than those of any of the rest of us. Or that we have a right to refuse something of someone who snuck across a barren, dangerous piece of ground (and whose ancestors may have been on this continent the longest – or not) based on the idea that our desire to own and acquire more than that sneaking someone has is more "right" than that someone's desire to own and acquire more than another someone who didn't try a risky exodus. This kind of thinking is not only cheeky, it's confusing. Which someone was I?
Never mind, here's a new definition for the Trailing Edge Dictionary, used with permission of the email author, origin uncertain:
'From: Cat Bieber
'Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--erg
'Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/erg.html
'This word [erg] spawned a great one-line joke that I heard often while in school at MIT: the lesser known "arg" which is "the unit of work done incorrectly"...'
Another comment on that week's words (see http://wordsmith.org/) had to do with standardization, which the Trailing Edge Dictionary defines as, "the practice of forcing everyone in a given discipline to use the terminology, processes, and basic concepts that I learned in Graduate School." One query was whether the use of "erg" is acceptable when there is a standard, the Joule ("a rose by any other name...," said Jouliet, but I digress, and I have no energy left to ergue about it).
So nobody was any rose, OK? At least not when it comes to opportunism and imperialism. And I can't see that – since then – any of us has learned much from our own experience or that of our forebears. Scratch that, we appear to have learned a lot, but maybe mostly the wrong lessons. At least, I can't see that I've studied up very much on what our religions and ethical belief systems appear to value of human behavior. At least not when it comes to practicing what those systems say about human rights or free enterprise economy. I reject human slavery while buying products made in sweat shops in countries where workers earn pennies a day – and buying them from US transportation and retail sales enterprises that cheat their employees out of the basic worker rights, which U.S. laws are supposed to assure. I buy – and tout – healthy, organically grown food while realizing that, if the whole world produced food that way, half the world would starve even faster than it is now. I whine about having to pay more than $1,000 per month for health insurance for a family of two while most of the U.S. population has little or no access to that care. And while we argue about the small percentage of illegal aliens who should or shouldn't have access to healthcare, instead of arguing about whether U.S. citizens should have that access.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world seems divided into the more-healthy-than-the-average-US-citizen (case in point: all other things being equal, a baby born in Cuba is more likely to survive its first year of life than a baby born in the USA) and the mortally unhealthy. I could go on, but it's too depressing. The readership would dwindle. (What readership?) Perhaps this all goes without saying anyway, given that our ancestors were all human...up to a point...and so are we.
It just seems to me that it's pretty cheeky of some of us to decide that our rights, morals, or antecedents are any better than those of any of the rest of us. Or that we have a right to refuse something of someone who snuck across a barren, dangerous piece of ground (and whose ancestors may have been on this continent the longest – or not) based on the idea that our desire to own and acquire more than that sneaking someone has is more "right" than that someone's desire to own and acquire more than another someone who didn't try a risky exodus. This kind of thinking is not only cheeky, it's confusing. Which someone was I?
Never mind, here's a new definition for the Trailing Edge Dictionary, used with permission of the email author, origin uncertain:
'From: Cat Bieber
'Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--erg
'Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/erg.html
'This word [erg] spawned a great one-line joke that I heard often while in school at MIT: the lesser known "arg" which is "the unit of work done incorrectly"...'
Another comment on that week's words (see http://wordsmith.org/) had to do with standardization, which the Trailing Edge Dictionary defines as, "the practice of forcing everyone in a given discipline to use the terminology, processes, and basic concepts that I learned in Graduate School." One query was whether the use of "erg" is acceptable when there is a standard, the Joule ("a rose by any other name...," said Jouliet, but I digress, and I have no energy left to ergue about it).
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Memorial Day - for Real
Today is really Memorial Day (as compared with yesterday, which was "Memorial Day Observed" according to my trusty Canadian-born calendar purchased at Rocky Mountain National Park (in Colorado, USA). So I want to really puzzle, today, over the loss of lives expended in the seeking of national (or political) objectives. It's my country, right or wrong, and I honor those who died defending its right to exist, including its right to behave as a republic run by elected officials. Even while I regret, and am sometimes ashamed of, the decisions of my country's elected officials. (Who said that citizens of the USA "get precisely the government they deserve"? A Frenchman, I think.) I honor their willingness to risk themselves for causes they probably did not originate and possibly do not support, their commitment to set aside their personal lives for an unknown period of time to face an unpredictable series of sometimes unfathomable events, and their willingness to suspend feelings and see through what has begun. If the behavior of some is sometimes abhorrent, I will try, today, to remember that what they face is frequently abhorrent and mostly unpredictable. And to remember that, for most, their behavior is heroic. And that I am, every day, so sorry that the fallen warriors had to die when and where they did. Regardless of their nationality.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Debut: A View from the Trailing Edge
Well, now that I've gone and done it, here it is - what every writer fears - the blank page.
Life here on the trailing edge of the information highway is filled with mystery. You'd think that by the time the ideas got to me, they'd be all worked out - all clear - but it's not so. By the time they get to me, they aren't even ideas, so far as I can tell. They're a group of acronyms hooked together with the most unlikely verbs you ever saw: "You can't run that JAVA using XP" and "Email me the URL for my wiki." And those are the easy ones.
And I work with computers. Of course, anymore, that's a bit like saying, "I work with telephones." Anyhow, since I work with computers, either to manipulate and analyze data or to help public health professionals define what systems they want to work for them and how they should work, you'd think I know how they work, but I don't (you'd also think I could have fit one more "work" into that run-on sentence, but I couldn't - not without the help of my trusty parenthetical expressions). But, come to think of it, I don't know how the telephone works either, so I guess it's OK. It's all magic. (According to the Trailing Edge Dictionary of Modern America - copyrighted and unpublished - magic is defined as "improperly understood technology."
Back to the blank page. Coming toward the middle of my sixth decade, I have many comments on many things, some of which are shareable. So I'll start this blog out with my favorite form of expression - poetry - about some of my most deeply felt issues. There is no conceit in my not naming the issue. If you have a different name for it than I, it means both/all, doesn't it?
South San Francisco Haiku
Lock-step houses climb
The hill - look out to
See if there are any trees
Cobwebs
Caught in cobwebs,
Silver cobwebs,
Sparkling, shining, silver cobwebs.
For one problem on solution -
Shining, silver, sorry cobwebs.
Each solution traps a problem -
Shining cobwebs,
Trapped in cobwebs.
Major problems, easy answers -
No attempt to stop the deathmarch.
Silver cobwebs, shining, cobwebs,
Pretty answers, all are cobwebs.
Now, weighted down with snow the trees
Hold out their arms with heavy pride
With lacy cotton fingers pointing down
In green and white they reach
The blue white sky
Christmas card beautiful
They struggle to survive
The cold the windy beetled pestulence
Of life
Once taken in and offered back
All shelter food and warmth
Of living lives in them
Enduring all
They dure
In beauty unimaginable
If you made it this far, you'll be happy to know this will be a weekly or monthly event, not daily. P.S. Please don't copy or publish the poetry without checking with me - feel free to tag, link, comment, or critique....
Life here on the trailing edge of the information highway is filled with mystery. You'd think that by the time the ideas got to me, they'd be all worked out - all clear - but it's not so. By the time they get to me, they aren't even ideas, so far as I can tell. They're a group of acronyms hooked together with the most unlikely verbs you ever saw: "You can't run that JAVA using XP" and "Email me the URL for my wiki." And those are the easy ones.
And I work with computers. Of course, anymore, that's a bit like saying, "I work with telephones." Anyhow, since I work with computers, either to manipulate and analyze data or to help public health professionals define what systems they want to work for them and how they should work, you'd think I know how they work, but I don't (you'd also think I could have fit one more "work" into that run-on sentence, but I couldn't - not without the help of my trusty parenthetical expressions). But, come to think of it, I don't know how the telephone works either, so I guess it's OK. It's all magic. (According to the Trailing Edge Dictionary of Modern America - copyrighted and unpublished - magic is defined as "improperly understood technology."
Back to the blank page. Coming toward the middle of my sixth decade, I have many comments on many things, some of which are shareable. So I'll start this blog out with my favorite form of expression - poetry - about some of my most deeply felt issues. There is no conceit in my not naming the issue. If you have a different name for it than I, it means both/all, doesn't it?
South San Francisco Haiku
Lock-step houses climb
The hill - look out to
See if there are any trees
Cobwebs
Caught in cobwebs,
Silver cobwebs,
Sparkling, shining, silver cobwebs.
For one problem on solution -
Shining, silver, sorry cobwebs.
Each solution traps a problem -
Shining cobwebs,
Trapped in cobwebs.
Major problems, easy answers -
No attempt to stop the deathmarch.
Silver cobwebs, shining, cobwebs,
Pretty answers, all are cobwebs.
Now, weighted down with snow the trees
Hold out their arms with heavy pride
With lacy cotton fingers pointing down
In green and white they reach
The blue white sky
Christmas card beautiful
They struggle to survive
The cold the windy beetled pestulence
Of life
Once taken in and offered back
All shelter food and warmth
Of living lives in them
Enduring all
They dure
In beauty unimaginable
If you made it this far, you'll be happy to know this will be a weekly or monthly event, not daily. P.S. Please don't copy or publish the poetry without checking with me - feel free to tag, link, comment, or critique....
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