What Does Democracy Look Like?

What does democracy look like? This is what we chanted as 100,000 of us marched toward the Capitol Building on September 15. Democracy looks like 100,000 people coming together holding signs ranging from "Impeach Bush", "End the War Now", to "Free the Jena 6" and the ever present, yet pithy slogan "How did our oil get under their soil?"

We were led by the Iraq veterans against the war and joined by groups as varied as Christian Clergy Against the War, college activists, Buddhist monks and young mothers holding anti-war signs while pushing their babies in strollers. I followed a young man who held the United States flag high and let the writing on his tee-shirt do the talking. The words painted on his shirt were: "Just because I'm a patriot doesn't ever mean you have the right to silence me." I tend to like Camus' version,"I would like to love my country and love justice at the same time." I thought of all the times I've been silent while my rights or the rights of someone less fortunate were taken away. Do you know that if we are all silent when these things happen that means we are complicit in the wrong doing?

I want to cite a few things that really motivated me and got me on my feet and involved in this march.

1. The Bush Administration issued an executive order authorizing military commissions to secretly try and execute civilians.
2. Foreign citizens have been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay without charge or the right to counsel.
3. False evidence was used that Iraq sought yellowcake uranium from Niger to justify attacking Iraq.
4. We were all deceived about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
5. Our government launched a war of aggression against Iraq, resulting in the deaths of 5000 Americans and an estimated 1,000,000 Iraqi civilians. These civilians have been referred to a "collateral" or "collateral damage." That implies that our government regards their lives as expendable or that these people simply got in the way. What humanitarian can sit by and swallow this callous rhetoric? Don't you ever ask yourself who the terrorists really are?
6. The Iraqi prisoners were tortured at Abu Ghraib, in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
7. The Bush/Cheney administration has been involved with openly, brazenly wiretapping telephone conversations of American citizens without a court warrant.

I'm going to add one more because it is so big and speaks to the existing caste system in America. Here it is: 8) Our government failed to rescue and recover thousands of American citizens after Hurricane Katrina. Last April, when the United States submitted a report to the United Nation's International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Hurricane Katrina was omitted. The State Department mentioned Katrina nowhere in its report nor the racial disparities that turned the disaster into a humanitarian crisis.

Can you see why I am marching? Early warning signs of facism cannot be ignored either. If you sense that our government has a great disdain for human rights, the mass media is feeding you the "party line" and you know that there is a great disdain for intellectuals and the arts, then write, march, share your opinions. We are marching. Siyahamba.

--Susan Mull, writing from the peace march in Washington D.C.

Susan Mull is a teacher, writer, and human rights activist living in Quarryville, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Mull has attended international conferences on AIDS/HIV, most recently in Toronto. She has participated in forums on women living with HIV in Philadelphia. She also travels with Disaster Response teams to rebuild homes following natural disasters.

for more info and pictures from the march go to:http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8663

Corporations Are People Too

They have feelings. They really care about us, and it hurts their feelings when we pass laws to prevent them from spraying sludge (a toxic chemical sewage brew) on farm fields, building gargantuan hog processing plants in our communities, and operating limestone quarries and asphalt plants within a few hundred yards of elementary schools.

Well, OK. That's an exageration. Corporations don't really have feelings, and the only thing that matters to a corporation is profit. Anyone who says differently is selling something. However, corporations are people, according to the U.S. Constitution. Not only are they people, but they are really a "super" person with rights that can trump the will of entire communities. They have at their disposal sums of money, so vast that you and I can barely dream of, which can be used to hire the best lawyers, to lobby legislators and other public officials to alter our democratic processes, and to pay fines for breaking the law as just another cost of doing business.

What can we do in the face of such behemoths? Organize. Learn about our government and take back our rights. Here are a few resources:

http://www.celdf.org/ The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. More than just an environmental organization. CELDF helps communities organize and bring power back to the people. If the links below don't work just do a search for "Democracy School" on You Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_Nx9VxW0IA Intro to the Democracy School
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16Wwypc2Lvg Thomas Linzey of CELDF and The Democracy School Lectures in Seattle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuWf9e66K_M Richard Grossman Lectures in Seattle

Also check out the film "The Corporation." I haven't seen it yet, but apparently it addresses similar issues.

If anyone has other resources or ideas, make a post. Some people have said they've had trouble posting comments. I think all that you have to do is to set up a user account with Google (it's free). Then you will be able to log on and make a post.

Beating the Heat

It is a little known fact that homo sapiens require a very narrow temperature range for survival. We thrive between roughly 20°C and 24°C (68°F - 75°F). A degree or two warmer or cooler and we begin to wilt like flowers in the scorching sun or enter the beginning stages of hypothermia. At least that’s what you’d believe if you examined how most homes and offices manage their heating and cooling.

There are two clear reasons why how we use our heating and air conditioning matters. The first is economic, and the other is environmental. There are a few other potentially more important reasons, but let’s start with those two. The economics is easy. Electricity costs hard-earned money. Air conditioning requires electricity. The more you use air conditioning the more of your hard-earned money goes to the electric company. The environmental impact is directly related to electricity generation. As energy demands spike, electricity generators increase their production and, therefore, pollution. Remember, power generators are among our dirtiest polluters.

My other reasons for disliking AC are related to how air conditioning may affect our culture. Before the days of central air, I remember spending Sunday evenings sitting on my grandparents’ front lawn with my family. We’d talk to neighbors and friends when they passed by. It’s only anecdotal evidence, but I suspect that air conditioning may contribute to a culture in which individuals are increasingly insulated and alienated from one another. My other concern is about what happens to a culture whose every whim is satisfied. Yes, some people with medical conditions truly need AC. For the rest of us, I think it would do us good to experience a greater diversity of temperatures. I find that when I spend too much time in the air conditioning, I have more difficulty working outside in hot weather and become more susceptible to minor illnesses that seem to be related to shifts in the weather. I also share Teddy Roosevelt’s concern that many of the comforts of modern life are making us weak and less independent.

So where do we start? Nobody (unless you’re as crazy as I am) wants to just turn off their AC. Here are the highlights from a few sites that I'll link to below.

Set your thermostat as high as is comfortable during the summer.

Use a programmable thermostat. Allow the AC to turn off or the temperature to go up when no one is home. You’ll save more than maintaining the same cool temperature 24/7.

Turn off the AC and open your windows in the evenings and mornings when it's cool outside.

Close your windows and draw the shades during the day to keep the sun from heating up your home's interior.

Drink lots of water.

Rest during the heat of the day, and plan physical activity for the cooler mornings and evenings.

Avoid caffeine and alcohol.

Eat light and eat what's in season locally. Fruits and veggies are exactly what your body needs in hot weather.

Use the stovetop or oven less.

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/consumer/tips/air_conditioners.html U.S. Dept. of Energy website.

http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/cooling.html Great website on energy conservation. This page is on cooling.

http://financialplan.about.com/od/savingmoney/a/CoolingCosts.htm?terms=save+on+cooling An about.com page on saving money on air conditioning.

Great Local Food Articles

Joel Salatin, farmer and writer, published the following article in Mother Earth News about eating locally. The article begins with a great section about eating local meat and eggs in season. Most of us non-farmers have no idea that there is even a season for meat and eggs. Mr. Salatin goes into great detail about that topic and offers tips on finding and eating local produce as well.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Whole-Foods-and-Cooking/2007-08-01/Seasonal-Eating.aspx

By the way, two easy places to get local eggs in the Chambersburg area are Trickling Springs Creamery and The Wilson/Fulton Farm CSA. I've also noticed Trickling Springs carries some local beef.

Here's another great article that Mr. Salatin linked to at the end of his article. This one describes methods of storing and preserving local foods for the winter.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Whole-Foods-and-Cooking/2007-08-01/Fresh-Local-Food-All-Year.aspx

Our Recycling Project

Over the years, I've experimented with different ways of handling my recycling. I'm sure that I've spent an inordinate amount of time and energy working on my recycling project, so, in the spirit of trying to save others some time and effort, this is what we're able to recycle and how it is organized.

Under our kitchen sink we have 7 separate containers (from left to right) for compost, mixed recyclables (glass, plastic, and metal), corrugated cardboard, paper, newspaper, grayboard (paperboard), and magazines.

In case you were wondering, those are milk boxes. I just took three half gallon boxes, washed them thoroughly, cut out some sides, and taped them together with gorilla tape. The containers under the sink provide a convenient location to sort recyclables without having to take everything to our larger recycling bins in the garage everyday. (Our trash can for what can't be recycled is separate and located elsewhere in the kitchen.) I empty these small containers into our larger recycling bins in our garage once each week where they stay until we take them to our community recycling program once each month.

This is about a month's worth of recycling.

In addition to the categories I mentioned above, I also have separate containers/bags for batteries, electronics, grocery bags, telephone books, and printer cartridges that I keep in the garage.

The key to successful recycling is finding a system that works for you. It must be simple, clean, and out-of-the-way. This system only requires a few minutes every week. I've never actually weighed our trash, but I'd say we recycle roughly 75% of our household waste.

Drug-makers recall AIDS drugs from Africa

Summary: Swiss pharmacy company Roche recalled a low-cost drug used to fight AIDS due to contamination. The drugs were contaminated with a chemical known to cause cancer in high doses and genetic mutations in low doses. Therefore, the relatively small number of people in the developing world who had access to life-saving pharmaceuticals just had them taken away. The same drug is manufactured by Pfizer and is sold in wealthier countries. Due to licensing and regulatory issues Pfizer will not release this life-saving drug to the undeveloped world. In other words, Pfizer doesn't find it profitable to provide the drug at an affordable cost to people who are dying in the developing world. By the way, Pfizer raked in 48.4 billion dollars last year.

Write your congress person. Ask for meaningful healthcare reform, access to life-saving pharmaceuticals, and access to medical procedures for this country's poor and working class and for meaningful solutions to the healthcare crisis in developing countries. Pharmaceutical companies are making hundreds of billions of dollars by inflating the cost of medications here and denying life-saving medications to the poor worldwide.

Here's the story from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/health/23recall.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Action: Carbon Offsets

You've done everything you can possibly do to reduce the amount of pollution that you're responsible for pumping into the environment, but you are bothered by what's left. Face it. Unless you are willing to live a primitive lifestyle, you will be responsible for some environmental degradation and human rights abuses.

That's it, right? We've done everything we can do. Time to go on about our merry way.

Maybe not. There's another idea that has been gaining support recently. They are called Carbon Offsets. The idea is that you can balance (or offset, if you like) the carbon dioxide you release into the atmosphere by supporting the production of clean energy.

Initially, I had reservations. It sounded an awful lot like the Catholic Church's practice of selling indulgences in the Middle Ages; in this case, a license to pollute. After doing some research though, I think carbon offsets can be used wisely. For example, my family does everything we can to reduce our negative impacts on other people and the environment. We change the way we drive and walk to work to conserve gas. We rarely use the air conditioning at home. We use sunlight to illuminate our house during the day and compact flourescent lightbulbs the rest of the time. We buy most of our food locally. We recycle. The list could go on, but in the end we still use some electricity, natural gas, and gasoline.

Until our society catches up to our ethics, carbon offsets appear to be the best way to close the gap. By purchasing carbon offsets, we help new windmills, solar arrays, and farm methane projects come to realization, and we support the generation of sustainable energy from already existing producers. Most importantly, we reduce the demand for energy from some of our heaviest polluters like coal-fired powerplants.

Native Energy http://www.nativeenergy.com/ is a company in which the majority of the shareholders are Native American. From their website: "NativeEnergy helps you help build Native American, farmer-owned, community based renewable energy projects that create social, economic, and environmental benefits." Most of their projects help build windmills on Native American lands that will then be owned and operated by the local community. The rest of their projects direct funds toward sustainable energy projects on family farms across the U.S. (There are several projects in Pennsylvania.)

Check out their website. Even if you don't decide to purchase any offsets, it's very informative.

If you do a search on "The Grist" you'll find a plethora of articles and discussions about carbon offsets. Perhaps surprisingly, not all of the opinions are on the side of offsetting. http://www.grist.org/

NPRs Scott Simon recently interviewed Al Gore and quized him about carbon offsets. This was the interview that got me interested in researching the topic. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11789919

Great website from the Stockholm Environment Institute and the Tufts Climate Initiative. They have many resources about the practices of carbon offseting and carbon trading, and they have a review/rating of the major companies who sell carbon offsets worldwide. http://www.tufts.edu/tie/tci/carbonoffsets/ratings.htm

"If you think you're too small to have an impact try going to bed with a mosquito in the room." -- Anita Koddick

"The begining is the most important part of the work." -- Plato

Swim a little out from the mainstream

Every news outlet has a bias: liberal, conservative, pro-big business, pro-status quo… etc. The most popular media outlets are notorious for their biases, and most people aren’t even aware of them. (Most of our usual news sources are extremely conservative and sensationalist -- lacking in any real content or analysis.) The other danger of our mainstream media is that they are all reporting from the same point of view. That is the American point of view. There’s nothing wrong with the American point of view, but it is only one of many. Sometimes it helps to see the world and events through someone else’s eyes.

National Public Radio: http://www.npr.org/ You can listen on-line to current and archived programs. I often listen on-line as I'm cooking, washing dishes, or working on my blog. If you do listen please make a pledge to your local station. Our recent republican congress made an effort to chip away at their funding. Some say that NPR is liberal biased. I find their reporting even-handed and thorough in contrast to the typically vapid headlines and soundbites of most other outlets.

WITF 89.5 is Harrisburg PA's NPR station. http://www.witf.org/
WAMU 88.5 is American University's NPR station out of Washington D.C.
WVEP 88.9 Martinsburg, West Virginia's NPR station
WNYC New York City's NPR station has a lot of great programming accessible on-line http://www.wnyc.org/

The Christian Science Monitor http://www.csmonitor.com/ is recognized for the quality of its reporting around the world.

Grist, Environmental News and Commentary. http://www.grist.org/ No bias there right? If you're into environmental issues like me and like a little bit of dry humor to boot, you'll love it.

C-span http://www.c-span.org/ the inner workings of our federal government on cable T.V. and on-line.

Mother Jones http://www.motherjones.com/ Good reporting and analysis. Liberal bias.

The BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ Internationally recognized for the quality of its journalism.

Please post if you have any other good news outlets or comments about the ones I've listed.

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell

"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." -- Hermann Goering

"In true democracy every man and women is taught to think for himself or herself." -- Mohandas K. Gandhi

Action: Make Democracy Work

Write, e-mail, and call your elected officials about issues you care about. Let them know you are aware of the decisions they make. Democracy only works when we all speak up.

Many of our problems today were created or at least helped along by our silence. Successful democracy requires all of us to be involved.

Most social justice and environmental organizations have letter writing campaigns on a regular basis. Take advantage of these opportunities to add your voice to the voices of others.

Here's a government website that will help you find out who your elected officials are and how to contact them: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." Plato

What can I do?

Ever since I was a kid "50 Simple Things You Can Do To Save the Earth" has been one of my favorite books. Direct. Hopeful. It's message is fundamentally democratic: we all can make a difference.

I'm glad that issues like global warming, AIDS, poverty, and health care have been getting so much attention lately. The attention is long overdue. Before addressing any problem we first have to know that the problem exists. It's the next step that's often missing from most of the reporting done on these topics: what you can do. Without knowing what we can do to help, we are often left with vague feelings of sympathy that never result in positive action. What good does it do to know that millions are dying of AIDS without knowing what you can do to help? It does no good whatsoever.

I spend a lot of time researching topics that I care about so that I can find out what I can do. The primary goal of this blog, really, is to empower others to take action as well. In that spirit, I'll post actions we all can take to promote peace and preserve the environment (which, by the way, are inextricably intertwined).

"Change only takes place through action. Frankly speaking, not through prayer or meditation, but through action." -- The Dalai Lama