Battlefield Life

"Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!"

- Les Miserables

Thank You, Thank You All ...

Nature is worth fighting for, but after a
while some of us get tired.

Yellow Canary Steps To the Microphone

[Clears throat] To my friend Günther and to my handful of fellow bloggers on dotMac, I would like to say "THANK YOU" for reading my blog. I had hoped that my blog would become a worldwide sensation, and that people would read it, empty their pockets at the alter, and turn from their destructive ways. Nope, hasn't happened yet.

It is Saturday evening at 11:23 p.m. Just a couple of things:

• Being a good environmentalist, I moved my office into a shed behind my house. I now work in my backyard in a shed. In the evenings, I often go in my shed to do more work, to do volunteer work, to blog, exchange e-mails with Günther, and whatever. So, the point being, it's really weird back here. It's really dark, and the crickets and other creatures are much louder when you're in a shed. I feel more connected to nature, but it's also kind of strange. I am now spending about one-third of my life in front of a computer, at a desk, in a small shed, in my backyard, in a small town 20 miles west of Atlanta. I am here man. I am a little dot.

• The other freaky thing is that whenever I get involved in a volunteer-run organization I just have to dive into the middle of things, get in over my head, and take on more than I can chew. I just have to hold a leadership position. Then, it's the same old cycle. I start getting burnt out after so many years, but I force myself to continue on because the cause that I'm working for is so worthwhile. But then I start getting resentful and it festers and builds up inside me, and then there is usually a point when I really don't want to do it to begin with, and someone will rub me the wrong way, and I'll just snap. And I'll use that person who rubs me wrong as justification in my head and to others for why I am quitting. Now, this is particularly difficult for me because I, Yellow Canary, am not a quitter. But this does happen on occasion. Maybe it's normal. I also seem to have a limited attention span and after a while I just get bored with something.

Volunteer Work

All my life I've done lots of volunteer work, and from 1989 until now I've continuously held a leadership position in some organization, including churches. I have tried to start two churches (both failed), I helped start a computer club and spent many weekends tutoring the disabled, elderly, and young. I mean, for YEARS I did this. I worked in the church nursery for nine years!!! Then in 1997 I decided to save the world and joined several environmental organizations and even started a new one the following year (it's still alive). For YEARS I was working 40 hours a week and then volunteering 20 hours a week. This took a great toll on my family. By 2003 I was experiencing serious shit burnout and by 2004 I cut way back on my volunteer hours. I hung it out for 2004 and still did quite a bit, and I continued into 2005. But finally, someone rubbed me wrong and just a few weeks ago I had "the big snap." So, I'm thinking what would life be like if I only, say, did five hours of volunteer work a week, and continued to give regularly to church and good causes? Then I would be covered. I could have peace and say, "SEE, I am giving back to my world. My bases are covered. I can feel good about myself." But really, I just end up feeling absolutely miserable because there is so much to be done, and I can NEVER do enough.

What's really hard is that now that I work from home, I really dislike driving outside my little community. Most of the environmental meetings are in the city or the other side of my county — both 50 mile round trips. So, I would just rather stay home, in my comfortable shed, and in front of my little computer.

The other thing is that I'm ALWAY behind. Junk mail and important papers continually build up into piles — I can never keep up with all the paperwork of running a household, plus all the volunteer-type paperwork. And I'm always behind on car maintenance, projects around the house, dental and eye doctor visits, taking my dog to the vet for shots, etc. It's like there are so many details to running a household and for once in my life I would like to be CAUGHT UP. I know, that sounds anal, but I would just like to be anal. I'd like to get the ton of papers in my home office organized as well. Whew.

So, What's the Moral of Tonight's Painfully Boring Blog Entry?

The point is that to save the world, you need to have a lot of time. If you have a family, a house, and a full-time job, it's really hard to find a lot of volunteer time. And if you make something the focus of all your free time, well, I get burnt out on that. But the world needs me because there are activists on the other end of the political spectrum who wish to push us back into a medieval, fundamentalist state. But I want to push my country and world forward. I am not a liberal — I am a progressive, and I'm proud of it. I want to see reforms that would better harness capitalism, eliminate poverty, protect our environment, and achieve long-term sustainability. I would like to see us reinvent how we live our current unsatisfying car-based lives. I would like to see more people growing gardens and just digging their hands in the moist dirt — after all, that's where we all supposedly came from.

Maybe when my kids move out and I'm an empty nester I'll do another big push to try and save the world. But for now, I am burnt. Maybe I will keep blogging — some of my fellow activists see it as a waste of valuable time. Maybe I will just become an armchair activist — one who does the phone calls, letters, and faxes, but rarely attends meetings. Actually, I have no idea of how I will feel about all this volunteer stuff next year. Really, I have no idea.

Brother Gore Speaketh

Yes, A Few Other People "Get It"



Yep, it's Al Gore - the guy who invented
the Internet. Okay, not really.


I, the feathery, well-groomed, Yellow Canary do herby state that I am not insane. In fact, there are a handful of other people in this world—some even famous—who see things the same way I do. Now, most people have thrown their dented cans in the food bin for Hurricane Katrina and have returned to their apathetic, indifferent, ambivalent, and meaningless lives. Now, that's okay, because Margaret Mead, the famous anthropologist, said it only takes a handful of determined people to make a difference. So, to you Joe Six Pack and to you Sally Singeth Loudest in the Choir — please continue your daily drivel while Rome burns all around you. But for those few of you who want to join me in saving Mother Earth, take my hand and let's go. I don't care if people think I'm nuts for using the term "Mother Earth." I DON'T care if some Granola Republican thinks that's a hippie term. I really, really, really don't care.

Why the Al Gore photo, Canary?

Oh yeah, the purpose of this post. Brother Al Gore is a great Canary and a great Hero for the cause. Last week he made a surprise visit at the Sierra Club national conference in San Francisco and gave a wonderful speech. The following are some excerpts with my comments. Brother Gore is the greatest, and I have seen proof with my own eyes that the 2000 Florida election was rigged. I have seen how right-wing corporate mongrels with a self-serving agenda now control U.S. elections. But anyway, here's Al ...


Excerpts from Al Gore Speech, Sept. 9, San Francisco, CA:


All of us know that our nation - all of us, the United States of America - failed the people of New Orleans and the gulf coast when this hurricane was approaching them, and when it struck. When the corpses of American citizens are floating in toxic floodwaters five days after a hurricane strikes, it is time not only to respond directly to the victims of the catastrophe but to hold the processes of our nation accountable, and the leaders of our nation accountable, for the failures that have taken place.

Yellow Canary: I agree. This has made me realize that our federal government is a listless, useless, bureaucratic monolith.

The Bible in which I believe, in my own faith tradition, says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish."

Yellow Canary: This is the best quote ever, and it comes out Proverbs. See, the cognitive dissonance tears me apart every day. Because I LOVE the church I attend every Sunday, but my church lacks vision. They refuse to address global warming, human overpopulation, pollution, and the sources of SO MANY of our problems. Instead, they respond to the short-term effects and symptoms of greater global ills. The conservative church has no vision, and when they perish, they will take all of humanity down with them. In their drive to "save souls" I really don't think they are saving anything or anyone.

In the early days of the unfolding catastrophe, the President compared our ongoing efforts in Iraq to World War Two and victory over Japan. Let me cite one difference between those two historical events: When imperial Japan attacked us at Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt did not invade Indonesia.

Yellow Canary: More classic Al Gore — I love it. Oh, by the way, Bush is a buffoon. Is it okay for me to say that here?

There are scientific warnings now of another onrushing catastrophe. We were warned of an imminent attack by Al Qaeda; we didn't respond. We were warned the levees would break in New Orleans; we didn't respond. Now, the scientific community is warning us that the average hurricane will continue to get stronger because of global warming. A scientist at MIT has published a study well before this tragedy showing that since the 1970s, hurricanes in both the Atlantic and the Pacific have increased in duration, and in intensity, by about 50%. The newscasters told us after Hurricane Katrina went over the southern tip of Florida that there was a particular danger for the Gulf Coast of the hurricanes becoming much stronger because it was passing over unusually warm waters in the gulf. The waters in the gulf have been unusually warm. The oceans generally have been getting warmer. And the pattern is exactly consistent with what scientists have predicted for twenty years. Two thousand scientists, in a hundred countries, engaged in the most elaborate, well organized scientific collaboration in the history of humankind, have produced long-since a consensus that we will face a string of terrible catastrophes unless we act to prepare ourselves and deal with the underlying causes of global warming. It is important to learn the lessons of what happens when scientific evidence and clear authoritative warnings are ignored in order to induce our leaders not to do it again and not to ignore the scientists again and not to leave us unprotected in the face of those threats that are facing us right now.

Yellow Canary: Thank you, Brother Gore. I have been trying to tell people this but no one listens. They would just rather donate some dirty old clothes and be done with it. People just want to REACT to problems that are getting worse rather than addressing root causes. Hell yeah, warmer water means stronger hurricanes. Hello? Anyone home? Exxon? George W. Bush? Hello????

Winston Churchill, when the storm was gathering on continental Europe, provided warnings of what was at stake. And he said this about the government then in power in England - which wasn't sure that the threat was real, he said, "They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent." He continued, "The era of procrastination, of half measures, of soothing and baffling expedience of delays, is coming to a close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences."

Yellow Canary: Great quote from Churchill. Yep, everyone is in denial about global warming, or they say, "The problem is too big, so what the hell?" We are turning our planet into a really hot ball, and there's no way to get off (maybe billionaires could afford to go to the moon).

Ladies and gentlemen, the warnings about global warming have been extremely clear for a long time. We are facing a global climate crisis. It is deepening. We are entering a period of consequences. Churchill also said this, and he directed it at the people of his country who were looking for any way to avoid having to really confront the threat that he was warning of and asking them to prepare for. He said that he understood why there was a natural desire to deny the reality of the situation and to search for vain
hope that it wasn't really as serious as some claimed it was. He said they should know the truth. And after the appeasement by Neville Chamberlain, he sad, "This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This only the first sip, the first foretaste, of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year - unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigor, we rise again and take our stand for freedom."

Yellow Canary: More Churchill quotes. I just love it. Well, the speech goes on and on. But the point is made: Global warming is exacerbating the hurricanes that now plague the southeastern U.S. coast. The little yuppies will throw a handful of change into the Red Cross cup and jump back into their Hummers. But, I tell ya, serious times are ahead. Once Bush leaves office he'll go down in history along with Harrison and other nothingness presidents. But you and I, man, we are stuck with the problem, and our kids are stuck with the problem. And that stinks.


"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon him not understanding."

—Upton Sinclair

Re-thinking the American Dream (again)

Re-thinking the American Dream (again)

Hmmm. Lots of medical stuff with my daughter, sickness, and the horrific hurricane have all sobered me up. I am now seeing life in a different light. While I still want to save the world, the widespread, immediate human suffering all around me is too great. Small wonder we humans can't focus on long-term solutions — we are too busy getting bopped on the head with problems, and rather than developing an eventual solution we respond to the immediate need instead. Sometimes we have too.

So, I have given what I can to the Red Cross and plan to give more. I also signed up to be a Red Cross volunteer, and am waiting to hear back. The suffering and magnitude of the hurricane tragedy has remained on my mind day and night.

What has really hit home to me is that your life doesn't really mean anything until you are presented with these special opportunities to help. If you are not helping humans, other living things, or the Planet, then you are not contributing to the greater cause. Now, I realize that many people will never be able to "give back" because their own situations are difficult. However, I saw a lot of overweight guys drinking beer at my first tennis match today, and, well, maybe there's something more to life than a good burp.

Strangely, there's things inside me that just build up, snap, make me angry, or whatever. And suddenly I see my life going in a whole new direction, usually after some big epiphany.

One thing for certain is that if you want to "give back," a religious organization may not be most efficient. I have found with churches that almost all resources go toward perpetuating the organization. And around here they are always fighting and splitting off into more small churches, and there is a great duplication of resources. I'm not very impressed.

So, really, we all need to find the organization of our choice that is efficient and can get help to good causes fast. This business of forcing starving people to pray before getting their food is for the birds (I won't mention the relief organization that does that). All I'll say is that I'm pretty damn sure that God knows the starving people are thankful for the food, and he doesn't need to hear a 20-minute recited prayer before some emaciated child can have a bite to eat.

To the victims of Hurricane Katrina, I grieve deeply. The stories of people drowning in their attics is just too much. We want our lives to be like the Leave it to Beaver show, but then things like 9/11, the tsunami, the hurricane, and the recent gas panic serve to remind us that this whole life thing can completely fall apart in an instant.

I sometimes think about the poor folks in history who had comfy lives, nice villages, and then along would come Vikings or Mongols or some other enemy to wipe them all out. They may have had a nice community for a hundred years, and then, in an instant, all gone.

For those of you who cling to the dream of "American Utopia," maybe that's the wrong thing to cling to. Maybe the whole dream is a big lie. Maybe the American Dream really is a horrible nightmare, and we just don't know it. What will happen as our country's population continues to skyrocket and oil becomes more scarce? Our whole economy depends on cheap oil, so what will happen? I know the religious conservative types will scream in my face, "God will take care of it. He has a plan!" And they will scream that over and over until they are hoarse. But these are the same people who tell me that the world was created in seven days, so I'm thinking there is a credibility issue here.

The Yellow Canary


"Here in America everything is bought and sold, you can get anything for little bits of gold. We'll rape the earth and ruin the air, cut down every tree from here to there."

-- Donna The Buffalo "America"

The 23rd Sigh

Just to show that I'm still kicking. This comes from a Brother Canary in Southern California. I hope it doesn't make anyone think that I'm a left-wing radical or anything like that. No way, man. :-)

THE 23rd SIGH

Bush is my shepherd; I dwell in want.

He maketh logs to be cut down in national forests.

He leadeth trucks into the still wilderness.

He restoreth my fears.

He leadeth me in the paths of international disgrace
for his ego's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of pollution and
war,

I will find no exit, for thou art in office.

Thy tax cuts for the rich and thy media control, they
discomfort me.

Thou preparest an agenda of deception in the presence
of thy religion.

Thou anointest my head with foreign oil.

My health insurance runneth out.

Surely megalomania and false patriotism shall follow
me all the days of thy term,

And my jobless child shall dwell in my basement
forever.

Okay, Some Positive Things

How Do I Feel Today?

I feel like the Space Shuttle Columbia as it re-entered the atmosphere in 2003. I feel that what little I have is falling apart — much to the joy of the neocons, who are probably at a bar right now raising their mugs of draft beer, proposing toasts, and proclaiming, "We really nailed that little Canary."

Okay, man, think of something POSITIVE

Well, the picture below is something positive. This is sister canary Patty, one of the greatest environmentalists in the state of Georgia. Like me, she got into this because she got tired of seeing all the tree loss in her county. She got involved and did great things in Forsyth County, and then she turned to full time environmentalism by working for a conservation organization, and then more recently, for a much larger, statewide organization.




My hope and dream is that more individuals like Sister Patty will wake up around the world and say, "ENOUGH," and really start giving their all to protect the natural world. It seems like many of us, including myself, would like to do so much more, but Mother Life keeps kicking us in the face and keeps us down.

But really, Patty is making a difference in my state. Since meeting her a few years ago, she has really gained in perspective and understanding of the greater issues. Her increased insight is probably due to the fact that she is an avid reader — that is so important. This country I live in is so utterly uneducated and uninformed.

So, today, I thank you Patty for helping to keep me going.

A few individuals CAN make a difference

If someone came up to me and said, "Well, Canary, what accomplishment are you most proud of this year?" I would have to smile and say, "I helped promote the statewide smoking ban."

The smoking ban was passed by the Georgia legislature this year and went into effect July 1. I'm telling you, it is now so wonderful to go into a restaurant. The air is so cleaner, and I can now more greatly enjoy the aroma of the foods. And the food tastes better, everything is better!I mean, come on, while nearly all restaurants put smokers in a separate area, the smoke was still everywhere in the building.



I really didn't do a lot to promote the new law, but I like to think that I helped make a difference. I went to a political forum and raised the issue, I sent an action alert, I left a message for my state representative. I also encouraged the Georgia Sierra Club lobbyists to take on this issue, and even though it was already on their list, I think my interest likely encouraged them. Even though the final version of the bill was watered down, it passed and was signed by the governor. So, I'm not saying that I singlehandedly made a difference, but I do think I played a small part in a really positive collective effort.

At this point, I would like to give a "shout out" to Brother Canary Gordon, who is president of GASP (Georgians Against Smoking Pollution). He is the one who really did the hard work in getting the smoking ban passed. He is a great hero of the movement and someone I deeply respect.

A quick diatribe

Now, as for smokers, I have one thing to say. Every time I see a tobacco addict stuffing a lit paper stick into his or her mouth, I'm thinking, "Wow, this is the greatest corporate coup of our time." Even with all the lawsuits and settlements, a whole industry is getting rich by addicting people to a drug, poisoning them, and then murdering one third of them. Now, that is free market capitalism at its finest. I'm so damn proud to be an American!

Yellow Canary
"The Troubled Bird"

Quote of the Week

Where do I begin? Last week Governor Pataki (R-NY) vetoes a bill to make the "Morning After Pill" over-the-counter. He does this because he's posturing for the 2008 presidential race. Then, everyday I'm hearing about all the soldiers getting killed in Iraq, including 11 from Georgia. And the President twists things around by saying they died in the War Against Terror. Yes, that would be noble, but the fact is that the Iraq war is a neocon oil war.

And then, last Friday I'm at the oil change place sitting in the lobby and I pick up a magazine called "Citizen," which is put out by James Dobson's Focus on the Family organization. The first thing I noticed is that the mailing label had been carefully torn off the cover. So, if some right-winger is going to be spreading propaganda at QuickLube stores, the least they should do is have the balls to leave their name on it. So, I'm flipping through the magazine and I'm thinking that it's not all that bad because the articles are talking about all the filth on TV and in Hollywood, and, well, I'm in full agreement. But then I turn to an article that's attacking environmental "extremism." My GOD, who are these people to talk about extremism? The article is going on about how "liberals" are using scare tactics for some unclear motive. Of course, the article had to say that Global Warming is just a MYTH (they should know all about MYTHS!).

So, I'm looking at this Christian magazine that's viciously attacking the environment and I'm stunned. Why do conservative Christians hate the environment so much? Are they that firmly in bed with Corporate America? Maybe it's troubling to them that we environmentalists are predicting that MAN will destroy the Earth, when they believe that GOD is supposed to destroy it. Or maybe they just associate the environment with evil, heathen LIBERALS. Gosh, I really don't know.

But anyway, all these events have put me in a mild depression, which seems to be more and more like my common state. I just feel a great sense of hopelessness in trying to resist THE MACHINE. I mean, this afternoon I'm standing in the parking lot of a Chinese restaurant, and I just look around at the surrounding houses and cars and strip shopping centers, and I say to myself, "What have we done?" What kind of world have we created for ourselves? It's all nuts.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Other than telling us how to live, think, marry, pray, vote, invest, educate our children and, now, die, I think the Republicans have done a fine job of getting government out of our personal lives."

-Editorial Page, Sunday, June 19, 2005 Portland Oregonian

Christian Taliban: Foot Soldiers for the Corporate Profiteers

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., one
of the greatest contemporary
Canaries.

Help Me ...

I was feeling glum today until I came across this interview with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which was published a year ago at this time in Grist Magazine. What a joy it was to see that there are other people out there who "get it." This gives me great hope and joy.

As for the Christian Taliban, this is what I call the Christian fundamentalists in the U.S. The Christian Hard Right is just as heretical as the Afghanistan Taliban regime that our country toppled in 2001.

Anyway, Mr. Kennedy's comments on capitalism and religion are extremely enlightening. The following interview is so extremely important that I've placed quotes on my blog. I am doing this to remind myself that maybe I'm not crazy after all, since there are some really respectable people who see things as I do. I encourage everyone to read this interview in its entirety on the Grist website .

Great quotes from Robert F. Kennedy:

"We've got to get the money out of politics. It's overwhelming the Democratic process. Campaign finance reform is hands-down the most important environmental bill."

"We are living in a science-fiction nightmare where children are gasping for breath on bad-air days because somebody gave money to a politician. And my children and the kids of millions of other Americans can no longer go fishing and eat their catch because somebody gave money to a politician. And where the oldest wilderness area on the face of the Earth -- the Adirondack Mountains -- has acidified lakes with sterilized fish because somebody gave money to politicians. And the Appalachian Mountains -- the birthplace of American democracy, the landscapes where Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone roamed, the source of our values, our virtues, our character as a people -- are being cut to the ground so somebody can make money."

"The payback far outstrips the contributions. The Bush administration got a record-breaking $100 million in contributions in 2000, largely from corporations that are now reaping billions of dollars of relief. But you and I -- the federal taxpayer and the American citizens -- for generations are going to be paying that campaign debt and that is a civil-rights and a human-rights issue."

"The best thing that could happen to the environment is free-market capitalism. In a true free-market economy, you can't make yourself rich without making your neighbors rich and without enriching your community. In a true free-market economy, you get efficiencies and efficiency means the elimination of waste. Waste is pollution. So in true free-market capitalism, you eliminate pollution and you properly value our natural resources so you won't cut them down. What polluters do is escape the discipline of the free market. You show me a polluter, I'll show you a subsidy -- a fat cat who's using political clout to escape the discipline of the free market."

"Laissez-faire capitalism does not work, particularly in the commons. Individuals pursuing their own self-interest will devour the commons very quickly. That's the economic law -- the tragedy of the commons. You have to force companies to internalize costs. All of the federal environmental laws are designed to restore free-market capitalism in America in this regard."

"I don't even consider myself an environmentalist anymore. I'm a free-marketeer. I go out into the marketplace and I catch the polluters who are cheating the free market and I say, 'We are going to force you to internalize your costs the same way you are internalizing your profit.' That's what the federal environmental laws allow us to do: restore real property rights in America. You cannot get sustained environmental protection under any system but a democracy. There's a direct correlation around the planet between the level of tyranny in various countries and the level of environmental degradation."

"There's a history since 1980 of a link between [anti-environmentalism] and the fundamental Christian right (which I don't even consider Christianity but Christian heresy) called dominion theology. It's driven by people like James Watt, who claimed that the Bible justified environmental destruction in the same way that white people in the South used to claim that the Bible justified slavery. God gave man dominion over nature, and that means man should dominate and destroy nature. But of course other people read in the Bible myriad mandates that we care for nature. It is not ours to own but ours to keep as a gardener would keep for the owner, who is God."

"There's a link between Christian fundamentalist evangelist leaders like Pat Robertson and Sun Myung Moon, who owns the Washington Times and funded the "wise-use" movement -- originally called the Sagebrush Rebellion -- which ultimately propelled both Reagan and Newt Gingrich. There was an unholy marriage during the '80s between the paranoid right, including the fundamentalist Christians, and industrial polluters, who basically began funding the fundamentalist right because it was in their interest to use that movement as foot soldiers in the battle to retain their giant subsidies."

"I think the environmental issue has ultimately got to be a spiritual issue and a moral issue. I believe we are hardwired to destroy the planet. We are hardwired to compete, to consume, and ultimately that biological urge can only be transcended with a spiritual fire. People have got to recognize that the obligation to the rest of the planet is a moral issue and it demands self-sacrifice and it demands sublimating our biological drives, which otherwise guide most of our decision making."

How Do I Feel Right Now?

"The things that will destroy us are: Politics without principle; Pleasure without conscience; Wealth without work; Knowledge without character; Business without morality; Science without humanity, And worship without sacrifice."

— Mahatma Gandhi, Indian spiritual/political leader.

How Do I Feel?

Right now I feel a lot of worry about my two daughters — what kind of future will they face? Is it fair for our generation to totally screw everything up and then bring children into the world?

I am also eaten up with guilt because there is so much to do and I never have time enough to do it all. Saving the world is really hard work because society is so resistant to change. Whenever someone comes up with an idea that's really innovative, it seems like it is argued into the ground, and if a government entity actually tries to implement the innovative idea, then the lawsuits start. All this has a chilling effect — it keeps government bodies from trying to introduce anything that's very revolutionary.

It seems like with jobs, families, and tons of driving, our minds are all turned into numbness. Over the years I have personally met dozens of people who WANT to help the Cause, but their work, health problems, and children's activities all keep them tied down. In fact, as I think of my friends in the environmental movement, many of the super activists don't have jobs and/or families, which frees up more time.

Earlier this week I met a wonderful new environmental volunteer. She wants to help, but she is a single mom and has a child in the band, so most of her time is committed. I strongly commend her for putting her son first — that's always how it should be.

Yet, while most of our energy and time is sucked away, our opponents are able to hire full-time staff and handsomely paid consultants to ram through their polluting or greenspace-destroying agendas. They have it all, and all we have is a small citizen's group of overworked, overburdened, and stressed out volunteers. Yet, we have the things that my hero Gandhi points out above. We have: principle, conscience, character, morality, a sense of humanity, and sacrifice. These are attributes that our avarice corporate opponents, with their slick alligator shoes, alligator briefcases, and alligator underwear, WILL NEVER HAVE!



Daah, of course my company
will pollute the air and foul the
water, but the important thing
is that we'll be bringing in four more
minimum wage jobs to your community.

YOU CAN STEAL EVERYTHING FROM US AS YOUR PURSUE YOUR CORPORATE WEALTH-BUILDING AGENDAS, BUT YOU CAN NEVER HAVE WHAT IS RIGHT.

The following is my number one favorite quote. I do see examples of this all the time, and it gives me hope:

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

— Margaret Mead

Vanguard of Capitalism and the Right?

John G. Roberts Jr., the guardian of
capitalism?

The Fun Begins

President Bush made his nomination for the Supreme Court last night and now the fun begins. Both political sides will begin their intense lobbying and arguing, and the Senate will have their chance to grill him.

At first glance, it appears that Judge Roberts is a good friend of Big Business. Unrestrained capitalism is like a cancer consuming and destroying everything in its path, and there will be Justice Roberts serving as a guardian for the very machine that's annihilating us.

Yes, it's true, capitalism is like cancer. To survive, we will need to either keep it on a tight leash, socialize it, or destroy it. But people like Roberts will fight to preserve it, and he will likely say that the boardroom is no place for government (although the bedroom apparently is).

From a Sierra Club statement released today:

“Upon initial review, we are particularly concerned about his decisions in the following cases: his opinion in Rancho Viejo LLC v. Norton, 343 F.3d 1158 (D.C. Cir. 2003) where he strongly implied that Congress does not have the Constitutional authority to protect certain species under the Endangered Species Act, and Sierra Club v. EPA, 353 F.3d 976 (D.C. Cir. 2004), where he upheld a decision by the Bush administration to ignore the public health impacts of toxic pollution from copper smelters.”

So, maybe the corporatization of America is continuing. Those with the money and power control the Executive and Legislative branches, and now they are going after the Judicial branch. It seems that the Capitalist Machine we've unleashed years ago just keeps growing stronger, and will soon own everything. They already control and influence the media, they can strongly influence universities, and with their dollars they can even manipulate environmental organizations. Who can stand in the way of these great locusts as they continue leading us to our ultimate end?

Abortion Will Surely Come Up

No doubt "abortion" will come up during Roberts' confirmation hearings. Now my good friends on the Right seem to strongly support the "sanctity of life" by vigorously opposing abortion, stem cell research, and euthanasia. However, it's odd how they ignore far greater threats to life like global warming, pollution, and the poisoning of our environment. But that's okay, because those things are done by companies, and Corporate America should never be touched or challenged!

I, too, find abortions troubling but I disagree with my Right Wing friends on how to address the problem. The difference is that I would like to see abortions eliminated through education and access to family planning resources, while righteous conservatives would like to legislate it. Thus, they want a person like Roberts who will hopefully say, "The courts have no business ruling on abortion, so go ahead and ban it with your state laws!"

This raises many questions that my Righest friends have yet to answer, like who is going to take care of all these unwanted children? And what if these unwanted children grow up to be criminals and even murderers? Plus, with America's population already skyrocketing, what is gained by forcing women to have children they don't want? Couldn't we just focus on prevention?

At this point it is too early to have an opinion on Roberts. But suffice to say, the Right wants a good holy man that will leave Business alone, and will instead go after desperate young pregnant girls, gays, labor, environmentalists, and all those other villians who stand in the way of their hypocritical morality and lust for profits.

God bless America!

Balancing My time

We are only on Earth a short while, and we might as well try
to make something out of our lives.


So, the Story Goes On....

Up until two years ago I did not have exact clarity on my life's mission, but in 2003 I realized that my purpose is to help start a worldwide Sustainability Movement. One of the biggest challenges of my life is trying to do more things than I have time for. What I found is that if I give all my time to The Cause I start getting burnout, so I've had to balance my life with other activities. After having a bad burnout at the end of 2003, I spent most of last year trying to figure out how to manage my time and determining how I could still contribute to my mission and "giving back" to the Planet. The answer, I have decided, is to continue on with the mission, but to take it more slowly and to take some time out to enjoy life.

For six years I was spending at least 20 hours a week on my environmental and population work, while holding a full time job and raising a family. This was making me crazy. In 2004, I came up with a plan that provides more balance in my life. Unfortunately, it leaves less time for front line activism, which is really the work that counts. However, I do hope that in some small way I am helping to lay the groundwork for a great Movement that will continue long after I am gone.

What is the Sustainability Movement?: All people will learn to change the way they live so that their activities do not harm the Earth or reduce quality of life for future generations. In other words, the Sustainability Movement is teaching people how to leave the Earth in as good or better condition than when they came here. I'm not only talking about environmentally, but also socially, culturally, and in every other aspect.

The Plan for 2005 and Beyond....

So, here are my priorities, which really haven't changed much:

God - The top priority is to always put God first, and to live my life in a way that I feel is honorable to Him. This is a personal thing, and quite separate from human-made religion and the corrupt institutions that claim to operate under the Father's name.

Family - My wife, my widowed mother, my extended family, and especially my two daughters must always come first. Children MUST ALWAYS be the top priority, no exceptions. In my opinion, raising, helping, coaching, and unconditionally loving the next generation is our NUMBER ONE reason for being here.

Planet - I've always rooted for the underdog, and in this case it is Earth. Our Planet gives us life, yet we abuse it, neglect it, and disrespect it. My third greatest loyalty is to the third Planet from the sun, which is blessed with incredible beauty and an amazing variety of animal life. Human overpopulation, species destruction, pollution, and global climate change are all horrible plagues on the Planet. I have a passionate desire to defend the Planet because, well, it doesn't appear that many people are.



Time Management

Rather than spending all my time going full speed trying to save the world, I've now broken my personal time up a little more. This is how I divide the limited time I have when not with my family or at my job:

Deep Thinking — I spend a lot of time blogging, which helps me sort out my thoughts, and I participate in several e-mail discussion lists. In addition, I dedicate time for reading the newspaper, online articles, listening to public radio, and watching educational TV. I used to feel guilty about this, since it takes me away from activism. But all of this is important because the New Movement requires tons of time to hash out the details. And the more I learn, the more perspective I gain, and this helps me to better define the Movement. I guess you could say that I am donating my brain to serve as an incubator for new ideas.

Activism — To keep from going crazy, I've cut back on my volunteer hours to 10 hours a week instead of 20. I also try to only attend one meeting a week (it used to be 3 and 4).

Hobby — In 2003 I got back into my computer hobby. I love piddling on my Macintosh computer and reading computer books and magazines. The tinkering and reading totally relaxes me (and gets my mind off the daily sadness of species extinction, green space loss, and global climate change).

Sports — After 30 years I started playing tennis again. The mental and physical discipline, added to the joy of being outside on a warm summer evening, is exhilarating. I also love running, and I got a crazy idea this weekend to run in a marathon (maybe!).

Lifestyle Improvement — It's important to practice what you preach. Changing your lifestyle in a way that reduces your environmental footprint and is more sustainable is very difficult. While trying to save the world on a global level, it is difficult to find time to make the changes needed on a personal level. Living sustainability means spending more time finding and preparing organic food, avoiding fast food joints, and tending to a garden. I just started a small garden again after many years, and I intend to expand it each year. Another important lifestyle change is avoiding cars, but walking and public transportation take more time. So, all of this personal change is a big adjustment. One day I would like to live in an intentional community, where I would grow my own food. Other than having a decent computer, I have no interest in anything material, so I think I'd fit in well with such a community.

In Summary ...

Changing the world is far more difficult than I ever imagined because society is extremely resistant to change. It just likes to move forward in the only way it knows, regardless of the long term consequences. And trying to change the thinking and tenets behind capitalism is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT. Capitalism is like cancer, in that it continually grows, adapts, and prospers. That is, until it kills its host. It is difficult and overwhelming to stand up against this force, and, maybe we will lose. However, just as I believe there is a cure for cancer, I also believe there is a cure for capitalism. The way we do business in the Sustainable World will be far different.

The second point is that I spend a lot of time trying to change the world through writing articles, public education, and lobbying to change public policy. But changing the world also requires changes at the personal level. The so-called "American lifestyle" is the most soul-less, hypocritical, and corrupt thing I've ever seen. The goal is to move quickly away from the rotten values that define lazy and spoiled America. Again, this isn't easy. For instance, just trying to find something decent to eat in a grocery store is difficult. If you go into a Kroger the food is 90 percent junk and you can hardly find the organic and vegetarian sections. That's because capitalism doesn't care what you eat — they only care about profit. And apparently, most Americans don't care either (as you can tell from the massive obesity in the U.S.).

The third point is what a great local Sierra Club leader once said, "If it's not fun, it's not sustainable." While saving the World is important, it's essential that you enjoy it in the process. My advice to fellow Canaries is don't become obsessed with saving the World to the point where you neglect yourself. You're only on this Earth once, so take some time to enjoy nature (or at least what's left of it).

Respectfully,

The Yellow Canary

I dedicate today's post to my dear friend Günther, who is one of the greatest Canaries I have ever met.

Infinity & Life

First of all ...

I would like to say that our brains seem far too powerful for our feeble carbon-based bodies. It's like every day people are dying with all this incredible knowledge and insight in their heads. In general, I would say that only a small percentage of one's knowledge is effectively transferred to the next generation. But the fact that we aren't using stone tools anymore is proof that some of the knowledge is sticking.

But there is something beautiful about the vainness of life. It's like the person you passionately love but can never have, or the dreams you always had but never materialized.

Life is vain

But for us writers and poets, vanity is beautiful stuff. Great leaders, scholars, scientists, all die every day. This week we lost Senator Gaylord Nelson, a wonderful environmentalist. And we lost Bessie Smith - an aspiring blues singer of the 1930s who died in a car accident. How beautiful. It's as if we are all charging forward in a great battle, and we all get mowed down one by one.




Just for a Moment ...

Now when we watch aliens on the sci-fi channel we imagine they are a few hundred years more advanced than us. But what if there is a society out there that is a MILLION years ahead of us?

Here is my prediction. Let's say there is a race on another planet that's a few thousand years ahead of us. By then, I believe, they will have entered the "mechanical age." By that, I mean this advanced species will have replaced organics with mechanics. In other words, advanced creatures will dump their fragile bodies and move their consciousness into machines. They will live for hundreds of years, never get sick, and just enjoy being conscious. After a few thousand years, or tens of thousands of years, these beings will find a way to even dump their mechanical life support systems. Then all they will be is "consciousness." See, consciousness is the essence of the Universe. These creatures are already out there, some call them God.

Canary, have you been sniffing glue????

One of the great mysteries is why we have so much of our brain that is unused, or that we seem to have a truly infinite ability to learn. I'm sure some scientist will say that our brain IS COMPLETELY USED, we just haven't figured out what for yet.

In Conclusion

I will have to say that my short stint as an organic creature has been quite a trip. Every day I feel like I'm just watching a video out of my eyes — like all of life is a long movie. There are so many mysteries about life, and to really make things confusing, you have all these religious folks and theorists throwing ideas at you, and you are stuck with the job of sorting them all out. I can see why it's so much easier to just grab on to whatever story your parents tell you and stick with it.

The Canary


Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.

—Sir Arthur Eddington (1882 - 1944)