The Geese

Ode To the Geese

Every time I see a formation of geese or any birds my heart is broken. I always wonder if their habitat will still be waiting for them at the end of their migration. Then I wonder if they will still have a home when they return.

Humans are destroying nature around the world at a dizzying pace. There is no longer a balance between humanity and nature. This has become the greatest grief of my life. I know life is a daily crap shoot and at any time I could lose a loved one or I could face a terminal disease. But I don't think even my greatest personal pain can equal the pain I feel for the death of nature. Humans kill, destroy, pillage, and rape the natural world with an unimaginable frenzy. This is all done for comfort, or sometimes survival, and mainly to accommodate our skyrocketing human population. When I see the limitless humans everywhere I turn, I don't see life, I just see death.

After hitting a real low in August, I promised myself I would no longer waste time in despair, defeat, withdraw, depression, or cynicism — but gosh, it's so much easier that way. It's so easy to just do nothing, and say to myself, "Nothing can be done." I will always remember my first Earth Day as an environmental activist. I was tabling for the Sierra Club's Sprawl Campaign, and a passing bypasser said, "There's nothing you can do about it." So, I've spent years, especially this year, reflecting and trying to figure out if he is right or wrong.

I believe he is wrong, because every week I meet and learn about environmental, social, and peace activists who are coming out to try and make a difference. I just read about another guy in today's newspaper. I don't know if something is getting triggered internally to make more people take action, or if there's always been activists like this. All I know is that I think I'm seeing the early beginnings of a Movement, and I have to believe it will take off. As for the Establishment that opposes us, they are powerful, but they are also cocky, sloppy, arrogant, vulnerable, and prone to make huge mistakes. The forces who oppose us at every turn can be turned into our partners. While there are many bad, greedy, and indifferent corporations, there are also many good companies capable of great good. There are also a few good, progressive, and visionary leaders in Congress. There is hope.

So, anyway, getting back to the geese. I cried for them last night. I don't know why, I just did. I just suddenly realized that I had an incredible love for them, and for my world, and for babies, and for Muslims, and African Americans, and Mexicans, and every one of my fellow humans. I read another article today about how a guy is running a peace ministry, where he gets Jews and Palestinian kids to play basketball together. It was mentioned in the article that people have to be "taught" to get along. This has really stayed in my mind. Perhaps, too, people must be "taught" to respect the environment. Maybe people must be "taught" to recognize their own bigotry and hypocrisy.

I have hope. I don't know why, but I just do.

Guest Message





My friend Snail Darter has been a great influence in my life. A great environmentalist who has held some impressive titles and positions, I respect and think about everything he says. He recently changed his name from Alan to Snail Darter and wrote the following beautiful ode to this famous endangered fish:

Since I have taken his name, I've been thinking about the little guy and his importance.

First a quick history lesson: The Snaildarter was placed on the endangered species list in 1977 and the Supreme Court ruled in his favor in 1978 saying that even though the fish, being only 3/5 inches long and mainly just eating snails in clean water, had no economic or cultural valve to humans his habitat must be spared and the huge dam project/land grab/boondoggle on the Telco River must be abandoned. This sweet victory turned to defeat when Congress responded by making his home exempt from the Endangered Species Act, and the beautiful Tellico River, its valley, plus the farms and villages along her were drowned so people could water sky and make a little electricity. Still the Snaildarter shall ever be a symbol of the earth's struggle against human excesses.

Dear little fish, how quickly you scurry along the river's floor. I see you crawling on your leg like fins. Were your ancestors the first to come on land? Are you the seed that we dry walkers sprung from.

You're colored like the rainbow, so quick, so confident that you can elude bigger fish, while you dine on snails. I weep for the death of your home, clean, cold waters flowing over rocks now replaced by a dead lake where they throw hatchery fish so humans can have something to catch in a place devoid of natural life.

You still exist in a few special places and someday when humans fail to maintain their power beast it will fall and the river shall flow again clear and pure while you hunt snails as before. You are God and we are despoilers of God.

I apologize for my kind, for we know not what we do and I take up your name as my own. Snaildarter.

Happy Winter Solstice

We little evolution monkeys jumped out of de
text book so we can dance to Christmas music.

So There I Was...

Last night I attended my first Winter Solstice event and you know what, I LOVED it! When you celebrate the Winter Solstice you connect with nature and the very essence of your being. When you celebrate Christmas, you connect with malls, maxed out credit cards, and happy go-lucky shoppers who will fight you to the death for a parking spot.

As I was talking to this Buddhist girl and enjoying the Solstice party, I realized just how far I've come since I broke away from my old life eight years ago. Now, I am free. Now, I have real peace in my heart. I hate to say it but it's mind-numbing and demoralizing to sit in a pew year after year and listen to sermons that always have the same central theme — you must do more and give more. In a Baptist church, I know full well why no one sits in the first three rows. It's not just to humiliate the late people. Nosiree, it's to avoid getting sprayed by the preacher as he goes on and on about tithing, repenting, not skipping services, and so on. I mean it, one day we arrived late at my sister's church and lo and behold, that meant walking up to the front row in the middle of the service. My wife was so mad that she kept monkey-pinching me, and every time she did it I would let out a squeal of pain, and the pastor just thought I was getting into the message. And man, he screamed LOUD about if I didn't get saved right then, I could get killed in an auto accident on the way home and go straight to hell. Shit, there I'd be all alone with Hitler, serial killers (except for Ted Bundy, who went to heaven), and a billion Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and all the other folks who were born into the wrong religion. So in addition to giving me a second shower, all of this really had the net effect of scaring the crap out of me, especially that part about the lake of fire. See, you burn and feel the pain, but you really don't die (maybe because you're already dead), and just whither in pain for billions and trillions of years. Yes, all this makes perfect sense to me, but I'm just glad I'm free of it.

So, the point being, the switch from nature-based religions to anthropocentric religion has really been horrible for Western humanity because we've lost touch with who we are. In the United States, we have millions upon millions of people who have no environmental ethic and no connection to the moon and stars and the beauty of nature. When I began questioning these things in 1997, my Sunday School teacher said I should "worship the Creator and not the Creation." But I'm not trying to worship nature, only connect with it — and become a part of it again. But in the world of conservative Christianity, any celebration of nature is still connected with Paganism, and that word still has bad connotations. When your grandma used to grab a switch from the yard and start whacking you silly for stepping in her flower bed, didn't she used to scream, "You naughty little Pagan?" Yeah, Pagans have a bad reputation, still. But our ancestors and indigenous people today have and had something special that we've lost. They have a sense of "connection" — the beautiful feeling of being a part of some massive organism that reaches out to the stars. It's really much more beautiful and satisfying than the fear-based religion I was raised in.

Don't be afraid to be free, and to study different religious ideas. Don't be afraid to break out. It will be the most rewarding step that you ever take.

The Yellow Canary

Changing the World

Smile For Zee Camera

Wow, my dear friend Bro. G sent me an article tonight about a relatively new phenomenon — video podcasting. First, there was audio podcasting, which is suddenly giving millions of people a voice, and now, even better, there is video casting. Now, anyone in the world can create a short video, and you can view it on your computer or iPod. It's really neat how companies like Apple Computer are quietly changing the world. The whole podcast movement is just in time, since corporations and government are controlling the media more and more. Fox TV has become the official news agency for the U.S. government, just like TASS was for the Soviet Union.

I'd love to turn my little shed office into a studio and make little broadcasts for video iPod owners around the world to download and watch. This is a great source of alternative media, and yes, it gives me hope!!!!

New Perspective (Or Not New)

After spending several months thinking about the "next step" in my activism, I've gone full circle. I mean, in the last few weeks I played with the "just do nothing" idea to "let's approach this on some mysterious deeper level" approach, and now I'm back to my original premise: Making the world better will simply take a lot of love, a lot of positive energy, grassroots organizing, and dogged persistence. After really feeling sick during August and September, I have my energy and drive back. I feel good — I can swim, take long walks, do yardwork. God has blessed me with energy, which is the most precious resource there is. It is up to me, and to all of us, to use our limited time and energy in the way we are felt called. I wish it were all that simple, but the problem is that there is some other goober out there who feels "called" to work against me. As I struggle to get the Sustainability Movement going, some fundamentalist is going to be working to make America a strong theocracy, and there won't be room for folks like me in this new religious order. But, yeah, that's the one thing I've learned about life: nothing is black and white, and nothing is simple. There is always the dreaded "X" element - the law of unintended consequences, the big freaking "what if."

The following was on the signature line from an email that I received from an activist leader. I just thought it was interesting, and have no idea who Paulo Freire is. Oh, I just Googled him — he is a famous Brazilian educator, and said to be the most influential thinker about education in the late 20th Century. Wow.

"Leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the people--they manipulate them. They do not liberate, nor are they liberated: they oppress."
- Paulo Freire

My Take on Christmas

Damn..

Okay, the so-called Right Wing backlash on Christmas this season is totally nuts. For the record, Christmas was hijacked from a Pagan holiday called Saturnalia by the Romans. The Romans, in turn, stole the holiday idea from various ancient European traditions. In recent years the corporations stole the holiday and turned it into a profit center. Now, mass media blitzes try to get you to buy LOTS of junk and they don't care if you run up your credit card in the process.

For a long time I've ranted about the perverse relationship between industry and religion, and there is no greater example of this than Christmas. This is a holiday about materialism, consumerism, excess, indulgence, and extreme narcissism.

Yes, this holiday has NOTHING to do with the teachings of Christ. So, don't get pissy when a store clerk says, "Happy holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." See, it's their holiday now, but they don't want to just confine it to Christmas because if they offend other religions they might lose sales. It's not about political correctness, it's about BUSINESS.

So, if you are one of those fundamentalist Christians involved in the great Christmas counter-movement, I say that you should just relax. Drink some eggnog, watch some football, and just chill out a little. It really doesn't matter — honest, it really doesn't.

Well, I'm not anti-Christmas; I just don't like the commercialism part. Let's just cut out the mass merchandising and recognize Christmas for what it is — a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and enjoy a really fun winter holiday with some neat traditions. It's okay to eat cookies, sing some carols off key and get smashed at an office party. But PLEASE, don't freak out when stores put "Happy Holidays" in their ads. Sheesh, come on.

Yellow Canary

"The harbinger of danger, the carrier of glee, the avian nut case ... yeah, the bird, man."

The Big Issue In A Peanut

Peanuts, man, peanuts!

Okay, I haven't posted in a while. That's because much of my posting time has been spent reading and participating in the great discussion on the Atlanta Leavers list. More on that later.

Tonight, I dedicate my blog to Sister Canary Cecilia of Florida. Cecilia really inspired me when I first took on the population issue in 1997. She went to a town hall meeting and got into the faces of politicians and started asking them population-related question. Of course, the central Florida good ol' boys were kind of taken aback by that and really didn't know what to say.

Anyway, here is a wonderful excerpt from an article that Sister Cecilia wrote. It really says it all.

From Cecilia:
I am passionate about population issues and work very hard to see that the Bush administration stop withholding funding from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). I am a staunch advocate for access to contraception and birth control measures, in large part, to prevent unwanted pregnancies and unwanted abortions. To prevent abortions is to prevent unplanned pregnancies. In my humble opinion, the vast majority of the world's ecological problems are the result of too many people jeopardizing the carrying capacity of our planet. So many children enter the world in an impoverished condition and so many die because of the lack of adequate health care, clean water and adequate nutrition. This needs to be addressed nationally and globally. If any one cares about the future of children and our world, one MUST be willing to address population and the carrying capacity issue. Helping families to plan for the size of their families will ripple across the globe so that we can have a sustainable world and a healthy population.
Thank you, Cecilia!

Laying Out the Framework for a New Society

Gather Around Boys & Girls!

I'm thrilled to announce that Brother Canary Alan is back on my blog today. Yes, he is a regular guest and it's always a joy to have him on the blog. Below are some of his thoughts from the Atlanta Leavers discussion list. My comments are in black. Really, I wish some of my Canary friends would write books or at least keep blogs. They have some great things to say, and it is an honor to share some of their ideas.

From Canary Alan:

I have a love/hate relationship with my own species; I like people and find some truly wonderful things about this culture, Warm cozy meals with friends including coffee, wine, and fish and many things that would not be available without commerce...

I like Christmas with its warm and friendly gatherings of people, but I don’t need a $1000.00 worth of gifts. A pretty seashell that my granddaughter gives me will do nicely. I like electricity but I don’t need 1000 devices to make my life easier and more complicated at the same time. I wouldn’t mind electricity being rationed so I could choose between the computer, music and moderate lights at night.

I believe family as the only true way to organize the human culture, but many of us have had bad experiences with family. That’s not because family is bad, it’s because this culture pulls them apart instead of ensuring their survival. This is the main failing of our civilization. We must have children in moderation and their well being must come first, this mean sacrifice from everyone else in the tribe especially mom and dad, all day long. I believe you must build a new culture from the ground up not by throwing a bunch of enlightened intellectuals together from various living situations. Culture is not about individuals it is about the collective good, and that’s where mother culture fails at an ever increasing rate.

I dislike the human race as it forms our culture, but the pieces could be reorganized into a modern thinking groups with traditional family valves without the religious superstitions.

I think we need a new religion, but our track record isn’t good. For example you start out with a pacifist healer who preaches love, charity, giving unconditionally, and you end up with religions in his name that are so twisted it can produce a Pat Robertson, creationism, no birth control, and the Klan, how lovely.

For me [Daniel] Quinn was an epiphany, but I still disagree with him on some issues. Our present Culture is not the only thing preventing us from taking the next step to a more civilized perspective on who we are and where we fit with universe. I think we are basically animals driven by instinct a lot more than we care to admit, and many of the things that helped us survive in the Pleistocene Period must be modified if we are to survive now. We need to look at what works in Leaver cultures and what works in modern cultures and blend the two for the future. Then we can consider what is a reasonable use of sunlight for human activities, and build our culture based on that prime limitation.

Also these are collective ideas and I’m very much an individualist so all this must be done while ensuring the individual in all of us can flourish. But I believe that a little group collectivism can create more opportunities for meaningful individualism through art, gardening, cooking and creative problem solving on at the personal level.

Yellow Canary Seys: Wow, this is really excellent. I just want to leave this as is and read it again and again. It is like a fine piece of perfectly seasoned food that you want to smell and admire before gobbling. The thoughts above really give me some clarity for the next steps I need to take in my crazy, insane, cocked, plan to save the World.

In Today's Gloom There is Opportunity for Tomorrow

Ahhhh, a target.

First, a Canary rant...

Like most tree-huggers, I love riding my bicycle. However, it's extremely dangerous on the road because so many people disrespect cyclists. Even though there are signs in my community that say, "Share the Road," and even though cyclists are mentioned in the driver's handbook, a lot of driver's don't think we have a right to be there and regard us a nuisance. It's funny, because I notice that auto drivers who are more health-conscious looking are more respectful and courteous. It is usually the pot belly types who see you as another squirrel to flatten. I mean, these are the same folks who get in their car to check the mailbox at the end of their driveway, and here they are trying to run me down? I would like to especially point out the guy in the red minivan who honked because my daughters and I were crossing a road and he had to wait five seconds — come on! You wouldn't honk at another car, so why did you honk at me? I pay taxes, and whether my vehicle is motorized or not, I have a right to the road. Work with us, man. Or better yet, maybe you could get on a bicycle yourself and lose a few tons. Sheesh.

Now for the news ...

This letter to the editor in today's newspaper says it all:

No need for shades in gloomy future

For the first time in my life, I feel a sense of dread about my future and that of my children. It's economic but even more it's a sense that this is the the America we were once so proud to claim as our own.

It's the cynicism in government, the lack of concern for the environment, the huge gap in wealth distribution and the government's promise that it intends to make the gap even more dramatic. It's the dishonesty of a president who makes a show of honoring our brave troops but whom you know sees them as just another commodity.

It's the failure of so many Americans to be informed and make good choices about who represents them in government. It's the idea that we have major problems that we need to work together to solve and so many Americans allow themselves to be divided and manipulated based on their prejudices.

I have my doubts about our ability as a nation to pull ourselves out of this mess. I think life will probably turn even more tragic before we are roused enough to demand and work for change. Worse, I fear if and when that change is finally demanded, it will be too late.

— Sharon Libert, Columbus, GA

Okay, SEE! So when you Righteous Ones out there make me out to be a looney psychopath, I'd like to point out that there is at least ONE OTHER person who feels the same way as I do, so that makes two of us. I have the same feeling of despair about my country. I no longer trust my government or the wisdom of my leaders. I no longer trust the voting process. I no longer trust religious leaders (as if I ever did) because there is always a hidden motive. I no longer trust the media — it's controlled by corporations.

Anyway, in coming months I want to start outlining what I think can be a new, sustainable society. It will not be nirvana or utopia, but it will be a life that no longer destroys the future. As I think out and plan this project, I will share more with my millions or loyal readers out there in blog land. Until next time, Godspeed and God bless.

Yellow Canary

Something Positive for a Change

For Once...

I just want to stop a moment and admire this photo of a thistle. It's really beautiful, colorful, and sort of peaceful in a way.

Whew, I mean it's like 24/7 that my brain is racing and I'm trying to figure life out. I have studied various religions, read books, participated in discussion groups, and mostly I have taken long walks and just pondered. I look around and there is so much I see in society that disgusts me. Now, I'm not talking about Hollywood, porno, and the usual crap. That's absolutely nothing. No, what disgusts me more than anything is the greed, selfishness, hypocrisy, and moral hollowness I see among my fellow Americans. Sure there are little sprouts of beauty like the thistle above, but that beautiful plant is in a vast field of wicked weeds.

In regards to the religion I grew up in, I really had it all wrong. I pictured Christians as these completely humble people who lived in harmony with each other and only cared about helping others. The Christians I envisioned did not care about material wealth — their existence was on a spiritual level. Yes, there are a few Christians like this, but man, what about the rest of you? What happened? What I see now are a bunch of materialism addicts who bash gays, subtly bash the poor and people of color, who worship sports and big screen TVs, who will kill you over a parking spot during Christmas season, who cozy up with the industrialists, who hate the environment, who are totally intolerant of people who disagree with them, who support the war and torture, who live for themselves, and then turnaround and judge me as a backslidden heathen.

Yes, if you think I'm a jaded idealist, that's because I am. That's because eight years ago I thought I could go out into the civic groups and churches and make a reasoned argument, and people would say, "Oh yeah, that makes sense" and then DO SOMETHING! For several years I gave slide presentations on urban sprawl. I spoke at various groups and made a convincing argument. I thought that the sprawl issue would be the first step toward the "waking up" of America. But even the activists, moderates, and progressives I spoke to said, "Wow, that's really a good slide show," and then went back to their ruts. I gave my slide show in front of local politicians, religious leaders, and even the freakin' Optimist Club! But what became of all this? Are growth patterns and development changing in my region? Not by much.

So, again, I just want to look at the picture above and just stare at it, and just feel happy. I want to pray for it, and I want to love it. Most of all, I want to pray for my two daughters because I love them most of all. I hope the world will be a better place for them.

The Yellow Canary

Ode to McMansions

Thy reward has come to you, they good God-fearing American.

Here I Was ....

Last night I was taking my daughter's friend home. As I was driving through this McMansion neighborhood, I couldn't help but notice that many homes were illuminated by "mood" lights. What the heck? The affluent neighborhood was already well lit with streetlights, so what's with the extra lighting? Are you wealthy American yuppies trying to light your house at night to rub your success in my face? Why do I have to look at your big, overstuffed house at night as well day? What are you trying to tell me?

Last week I listened to a Podcast that told how the gap between rich and poor in America is widening. Just look at all these Americans living in their McMansions. Many of them have made their money by cashing in on our broken legal system, on our broken medical system, or from raping the environment or exploiting workers.

I have zero problem with rich people, as long as you haven't earned your wealth by hurting others or the Planet. Simple. I have no problem with Bill Gates — he just got rich from his nice, honest monopoly and from buying up competitors. No problem.

But so many Americans have sold their soul and "cashed in," often by selling their grandparent's land or whatever. But really, wealth is not good and it does not fit into my vision for the future. More people need to have less so others can have a warm meal, decent clothes, and a roof that doesn't leak. Am I supporting socialism? Well, sorta. Or maybe just a highly restrained capitalism.

Yikes. Even my sisters and sister-in-law are getting their McMansions. They are so wasteful to heat and cool, yet everyone has to have a "big house." And then they have to waste more energy by shining stupid lights on them. Don't you know that you are using more energy, making some coal-burning power plant work harder, and contributing to global warming?

"Ah so what, maybe we can start farming Canada."

How can you justify all the waste? How can you sleep at night? Where is your sense of responsibility. Don't you know I'd respect you more if you lived in a box, or a tent like my friend Günther, or a shack like my friend Chris? Are you trying to impress me? Hell, you are probably up to your ears in debt, and I really don't care about your two SUVs in the driveway and your banal brick house. I just don't care.

"Oh, but I grew up poor. I'm entitled to this."

And it's more honorable that you die poor. You've sold your soul to materialism. If your wealth has just come naturally from the love of your career, give it to the needy. Give it to a good cause. Just give it away before it corrupts you.

I particularly find it ironic that one of my sisters is moving from one McMansion to a bigger McMansion. See, she's married to a Christian music star. Yes, that's right, they are making their money off God — they call it a ministry, but it sure sounds like a business. When I was a kid people gave "love offerings" to a visiting singer. Now they charge comfortable prices for their concerts, CDs, and merchandizing. I am told that God has blessed them. Why is God blessing them with a McMansion while 1 billion people in the world are undernourished? It just doesn't make sense to me. Come on, God, can't you spread your blessings a little more evenly?

Anyway, back to the lights on the big houses. Sheesh, maybe you should go to the following website to determine your footprint (impact on the Earth): http://www.myfootprint.org.

As for me, I'm going to bed. The Yellow Canary is tired.

People Are Like Air

Where I'm At

I had two great experiences last week. On Thursday, I went to a meeting of the Atlanta Leavers, which was the first meeting I've made in about a year. The Atlanta Leavers is a discussion group that uses the writings of Daniel Quinn as a starting point to discuss world issues. At the meeting on Thursday, we also talked about another author whom I believe is on a similar wavelength — Neale Donald Walsch, author of Conservations With God.

On Friday, I had more fun. After having lunch with some Sierra Club friends in midtown I then traveled to nearby Decatur to see two of my wonderful Canary friends — Brothers Günther and Fida. We enjoyed a great afternoon sipping on tea and having "save the world" type discussions on the back porch. Brother Günther, by the way, lives in a tent in Fida's backyard, which I think is really neat.

The Piece of the Puzzle For This Week

While the events on Thursday and Friday gave me tons to blog about, Brother Fida gave me a great analogy that ties into my search for ways to save the world.

Brother Fida told me that humans are like air (I am paraphrasing here):

• Seventy-eight percent of people are like Nitrogen, an inert gas. They are just there.
• Twenty percent of people are like Oxygen — they have the potential to breathe life.
• About 2 percent of the people are like Argon, Carbon Dioxide, and the various trace elements. They are the activists.

Nothing can ever be done with the 78 percent of people who are inert. Thus, the goal is for the 2 percent of people who are the Trace Elements to activate the 80 percent who are Oxygen.

I asked Fida where he heard this, and he said, "My father. "

Wow, A Great Epiphany

We then had a great discussion about this analogy and I've been thinking about it ever since. I told him that I have been in many churches over the years to give my Sierra Club presentations on sprawl and population. In the moderate churches I visited, like Presbyterian and Methodist, I see lots of Oxygen — more open-minded people who will join us in our journey if inspired and led. As for the Baptist church I grew up in, they will always be inert because their literal interpretation of the Bible and other strict beliefs makes it difficult for them to take responsibility for the Planet and Future.

Along with the Baptist, there are many other folks in the 78 percent Inert group — the people who hang out at Hooters, the people who don't vote or read a newspaper, the guys who are totally obsessed with sports, etc... But that's okay.

Moral of the Story: Don't Worry - It Only Takes A Few of Us




I often think about one of my favorite Bible stories where the Israelites are about to fight the Midianites. The Israelite leader Gideon gathered his army for the great battle (Judges 7:1-7).


But God said to Gideon, "You have too many men. Anyone who is afraid may turn back (go home)." Most of Gideon's men went home. God said to Gideon again, "There are still too many men. Take them down to the water and I will test them for you." So Gideon took his men to the water to drink. Many of the men knelt down and drank the water as a dog drinks. Only 300 men drank the water from their hands. Then God said, "By the 300 men who drank from their hands I will defeat the Midianites."

This story pops in my head all the time when I'm doing activist work. When I first began my journey in 1997, I was shocked that so many people didn't "get it" and never would — even my own family and relatives. Now, I've come to accept this as a way of life. As an Activist, my goal is to inspire and empower the 20 percent of people who are Oxygen. They are the moderates and the level-headed folks who we need. They are the ones who will assume the top roles in government and introduce the initiatives that will take us on the road to sustainability. As for me, I can't do all that. I'm just the spark — I just want to light up all that centrist, middle road Oxygen out there. These people are the great progressives of our time, and we Canaries need them.

As for the Inert people, it is a total waste of time trying to "convert" them — I don't think it's possible. They didn't do much to resist slavery or Hitler's Germany. They have made zero contribution to history. They are just there, singing in the choir or watching NASCAR races. Most of them are good people and I love them all, but God has not given them the vision, intellect, or the analytical mind needed to save our Earth. They are simply the sheep grazing in the pasture.

A Quote from one of the Top Canaries of All Time:

We are living beyond our means. As a people we have developed a lifestyle that is draining the earth of its priceless and irreplaceable resources without regard for the future of our children and people all around the world.
—Margaret Mead, famous anthropologist

Global Warming & Overpopulation - Why Can't Anyone "Get It?"

Cook, cook, sizzle, sizzle.

An Opening Line ....

From today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

There is an article titled "Electric Supplies A Worry in West." Here is a quote that got my attention:

Phoenix added more people—and more air conditioners—than any other city in the country last year. As a result, on a typical 100-degree-plus summer day, Phoenix and surrounding cities now use more electricity than Manhattan.

This is typical of the paradox taking place around the world. This is important for all of us, so please read this carefully:

We are caught in a vicious cycle: Global Warming means more power (often from coal burning plants) for air conditioners. More air conditioners, and air conditioners working harder, means more power demand, and MORE Global Warming.

Now, add to this the craziness of rapidly developing cities in the desert, like Phoenix, where people use mass amounts of electricity so they can be cool and comfortable in their desert homes. If there are more "rolling blackouts," of course they will blame it on us evil environmentalists for making it difficult to build more coal plants.

Now, add to this the exploding U.S. and world population. The United States population was 177 million when I was born in 1960; now it's at 295 million. This means more cars, air conditioners, appliances, factories, etc... Many people just want to solve the problem by stopping immigration. But that is only a Band-aide solution to addressing the overall world population crises.

We humans are multiplying like crazy, pumping millions of tons of carbon into the sky, sucking up the world's resources, and doing things to our planetary home that may cause irreparable harm. Yet, even the most passionate environmental activists don't make the connection between babies and environmental ruin. I guess no one wants to be thought of as an extremist or weirdo. I mean, who wants to stand up at a public hearing and say, "Everyone needs to have fewer children, so that we don't have to widen roads, build more power plants, and destroy green space." While it makes perfect sense to me, many citizens and local politicians would freak out. "OH NO, you can't tell people how many children they can have. Why, why, that's just too personal." And sadly, the good Religious Conservatives want to cut off or restrict family planning funding and ban comprehensive sex education — it's almost as if they are condoning population growth when the Earth is already starting to crack under the pressure.

Will It Really Help?

While I love being in the environmental movement and I LOVE my fellow tree-huggers, I must admit that 95 percent of the issues we work on are responding to population growth. Right now my local Sierra Club Group is trying to stop some bad rezonings, trying to prevent a road widening, etc.. See, most of what we do is try to mitigate the impact of GROWTH. A fellow environmentalist contacted me today about two cell phone towers proposed for the Chattahoochee River Recreation Area. While that is a valid concern, it does point out something I see with a lot of my fellow Sierra Club members — they see their role as merely protecting public lands. So, when the rest of the country is completely packed with high-density developments, at least we will have a few small islands of green thanks to their good work. I'm not knocking the more traditional environmentalists, I'm just saying that you can protect your little park and win the battle, but we will all ultimately lose the war to save our Planet.

A Letter With Edge

I am a former member of Population Connection. I let my membership drop simply because I don't have the money to support all the worthy causes out there — I wish I did. Anyway, they sent me a really edgy letter and it's so good that I think I'm going to rejoin. Allow me to quote from Population Connection president John Seager:

Look at what's happening. Global warming threatens our very Planet. We're witnessing species extinctions not seen since the days of the dinosaurs. One billion people live on less than $1/day. Overpopulation kills 20,000 children every single day.

Today, we have a national government that denies science at every turn. George Bush has embraced the know-nothing crowd, a bunch that opposes sex education, wants to ban contraception, and believes in creationist nonsense.

Pretty ballsy, huh?

Word of the Day

I love this word. It is a major reason why we are in our current mess. We humans just like to pass on our way of living, even if it no longer works.
meme |mēm| |mim| |miːm|
noun Biology
an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, esp. imitation.

It's All About Me - Me Good American!

Rep. Richard Pombo is a big property
rights guy who's looking out for
number one.

We Gonna Gut That Endangered Species Act

"I don't care about them dumb animals. I want to develop my land and make money. Because it's all about money. It's all about private land rights — not the better good of the community. I got me a ranch and I can do anything I want with it."

Yep, this summer Rep. Pombo (R-CA) led the drive to gut the Endangered Species Act. The Pombo bill has passed the House and may soon go to the Senate. Good boy, Pombo — just like all those other GOP people, you are feeling empowered to destroy what's left of U.S. environmental laws.

It's all about you. It's all about the American Lifestyle. Who cares about protecting all the other animals that we share the Planet with — the important thing is that Richard Pombo must have the right to plow up his land, sell it off to build condos, or whatever. Because it's not about the Earth, the Future, or anything else. It's all about Pombo and his sacred rights.

Now I hear that Pombo is going after the National Environmental Policy Act, one of our nation's most important environmental laws. Yep, those good GOP members who hate the environment with a passion (but give conservation lip service) are now having a feeding frenzy. They are settling their vendetta's with Mother Earth, all for a few pieces of silver and the blessings of their capitalist masters.



Ain't nobody gonna tell me what
to do with my land. This is MY LAND
and I'm a third generation rancher
with a giant chip on my shoulder.


Surprise!

Okay, this may come as a shock to you, Congressman Pombo and all you gun-toting land rights folks. The World is owned by GOD! Nobody can own land. Whoever thought that idea up hundreds of years ago is just plain wrong. We humans and all other animals must share the LAND — humans don't have any special entitlement to take it over and kill or run off everything else on it.

Canary, you're sounding radical tonight. Not even Left Wingers go this far.

Sorry, but at the very most, we are given the privilege to take care of a piece of land for the brief period we are alive. Maybe Rep. Pombo claims that, but what it's really about to him is the rights of the Individual at the expense of the Community of Life and the Future.

"Ain't no government going to tell me what to do on my land. It's mine, damnit, mine! All mine. I paid fer it. I own it. And I got me this shotgun to prove it."

Yeah, right. Every time I hear about these property rights activist, I realize that humankind still has a long way to go.

That's all for tonight, folks.

The Yellow Canary

Brother Canary Brian Speaketh

Gulp

We interrupt our regularly scheduled broadcasting to hear from a guest Canary tonight. This is from Brother Brian, whom I met on the local Daniel Quinn discussion list (Atlanta Leavers). Of course I'm going to reprint this—Brother Brian says nice things about me. Would anyone else do that? Would W do that? Would my mom do that? Nope.


Okay, take it from here...


Your website is impressive, both interesting and enlightening, clear, concise and funny. I like it. Most importantly, your writing style is non-confrontational. You are able to portray your opinions as self evident facts, that you are amazed many people haven't considered or accepted. I like your quick guide to agree to reducing our footprint, it hits the big items that people can act on. This website will increase awareness of pressing environmental problems. Do you have much traffic on it? [Nope, just fellow bloggers and other Canaries, mostly] How long has it been up? [It keeps evolving as I keep growing in my walk - my first website went up exactly 8 years ago] Why did you choose the metaphor of yellow canary? [My last website on sustainability was too cut-and-dry. I decided I needed a metaphor. In April 2003 at a training class, an instructor said that we environmentalists are like yellow canaries — like the canaries that miners used to take down the mine shaft. We warn others of impending danger.]

This site probably works best for people that already see the dire global situation, to educate and inspire into action. [Correct - my outreach is for those young canaries just hatching out of the egg, and just waking up to what's REALLY going on in this world.] What do you think we can do for the vast majority who are brainwashed by culture and religion into denying a problem? [Most of what we are fighting is ignorance and denial. Open-mindedness is the antidote to the Hard Right mantra. Education is the poison to the 500-year-old establishment that is designed to benefit the privileged few.] Why don't most people think overpopulation and environmental destruction is a problem? [Because of a shocking and profound belief that technology or God will deliver us from all problems. But more realistically, I think it's a shocking laziness. People are just too lazy to care, they don't want to care, they forgot how to care. Instead, they immerse themselves in reality TV and sports, and just try to deny it all. People may feel the problem is too big for them. But in the area where I live, I think the biggest problem is that all that's going on in the world is a challenge to their religious beliefs. Both sides agree that we are in the final days, but one side thinks that God is going to do a rescue mission and the other side (those damn humanists) think it's up to us to save ourselves. There is a big moral divide here, man.]

Quinn shed light on this question, and it resonated deeply with me. That's why I haven't strayed too far from his ideas since I read Ishmael in 1998. It comes down to core beliefs that all "takers" share:

1) The world was made for man to tame and use.
2) Man is the pinnacle of creation, separate and superior to all other creation.
3) Our system of agriculture and civilization is the way humans were meant to live.
4) The earth is full of suffering and should be transcended, whether it is towards heaven or reincarnation to a higher being or nirvana.

I agree with Quinn that if these memes were dropped, then we would all stand a chance at survival, for humans and all other life forms. I think focusing on dispelling these cultural myths would be the most effective way to "save the earth", to encourage a cultural shift, and new Renaissance if you will. How can we do this? [I'm guessing that people won't wake up until their world is really falling apart and they are FORCED to deal with uncomfortable things, like the fallacy of their religion, culture, and way of life. It is no coincidence that the bloom of the Renaissance came on the heels of the Dark Ages. For all practical purposes, we are living in the Dark Ages now. Maybe not for the privileged few, but for most of humanity, for wildlife, and the environment, the current age we live in is a living hell. And it's going to get worse before it gets better.]


This is the point I'm at in my life. I've been sidetracked by sustainable solutions, reduce/reuse/recycle, environmental activism, etc. They help, but only appeal to those who care. While more and more people care, the number isn't increasing fast enough, and their resolve to make a change isn't deep enough. These bandages don't attack the core problem- how we view our place in the world. Any conversation in this area would be greatly appreciated, because I'm at a dead end. [I am optimistic because the things you mention, like recycling, are the first step in changing core values. Recycling is a great introductory function that brings people to a greater awareness. Remember that concepts like "little ol' me can impact the entire world, either good or bad" are entirely new to people. Folks are too busy singing in the choir or getting drunk at Hooters to really think about their role in the cosmos.]

Again, Brother Canary Brian -- thanks for sharing, and for caring.

The Yellow Canary

Just To Remind Me That I'm Not Crazy

Rosa Parks, 1913-2005

I have been so busy that I haven't had time to blog about the death of one of my greatest heros. Rosa Parks died quietly last Monday at a rest home. I share some of her quotes to remind myself that I'm not crazy — that there are others on this Earth who have and do feel the same way as I.

Quotes by Rosa Parks:

"I am leaving this legacy to all of you .. to bring peace, justice, equality, love, and a fulfillment of what our lives should be. Without vision, the people will perish, and without courage and inspiration, dreams will die—the dream of freedom and peace."

"Each person must live their life as a model for others."

"Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it. I kept thinking about my mother and my grandparents and how strong they were ... an opportunity was being given to me to do what I had asked of others."

=============

Dear Ms. Parks,

Thank you for teaching us about honor and dignity. Thank you for showing us the righteousness of standing up to a system that is corrupt and wrong. May we always remember the example you set. In the end, maybe we can make the world a little better, like you did.

Respectfully,

The Yellow Canary

Little Buds of Hope are Sprouting

Marching on to the next level.

This lifetime work to achieve peace and sustainability on the Planet is really difficult. In fact, I don't think I can get the job in my lifetime. But if all of us Canaries do what we can: we get the word out, educate others, do a lot of writing, a lot talking, and a lot of volunteer work, and eventually we help humanity take a big step forward.

Why do we do this? No doubt to give meaning to our lives. When we are working for an exciting goal or cause, life is very fulfilling. We have a purpose — a real purpose, not just some fabricated story. Saving the Earth is very exciting work. Everyday, I see new buds in the Sustainability Movement start to blossom. I get emails, I read articles, I hear people talking and see their work—it's exciting.

I've often thought about starting a nationwide sustainability umbrella group. In fact, I did start a sustainability group here in Georgia that is still functioning after seven years. But I'm thinking that an umbrella organization already exists through the Sierra Club and other large environmental groups—the infrastructure is already there and all of our goals are ultimately the same.

In fact, the Sierra Club has been working on new issues that are extremely exciting to me, most notably sustainable agriculture and the promotion of locally grown food. The idea is that it's impractical to spend gallons of fuel transporting food from all over the hemisphere just so you can have a "3,000-mile Caesar salad." Already the Club is supporting New Urbanism and sustainable communities as an alternative to the sprawl hell that is destroying our countryside.

So, yeah, maybe instead of starting a new group we can all operate within the framework of existing institutions. Gosh knows, these big organizations are cumbersome, bureaucratic creatures, but we are not perfect either, so what the heck.

Okay, I know this is a really boring post and it's my rants that everyone enjoys reading. Sorry, but sometimes I just have to get my thoughts out so that I can use them as a reference point for climbing to the next step.

See, I am determined to save the world. I an not striving for utopia — only a peaceful and nature-respecting society that lives a little slower and that focuses more on spiritual values rather than materialism. The rightist American religions really have nothing to do with spirituality, and have everything to do with promoting the so-called American lifestyle, American "values", and all the other pack of lies that have NOTHING to do with Christianity.

Enough for now. The Canary must rest.

Yellow Canary

Murder

Wow, my mom's best friend's husband was murdered yesterday. This is the first time in my life I've ever known anyone who was murdered. Apparently, he walked in on a burglary of his home. As he tried to flee to his truck, he was shot three times in the back — by his own gun!!!

So, let us remember the following sayings, which are promoted by those violence-loving good, moral people of America:

"Guns don't kill people, people do."

"If we outlaw guns, only outlaws will own guns."

If you own a gun, be prepared to use it. If you own a gun, be prepared to die by it.

That's all for tonight, boys and girls.

The Yellow Canary

Rantings of a Mad Bird

I Do Not Want This War ....

I really don't want to take part in a Left-Right culture war. I really don't want to take on the pseudo Christian Establishment. This is not my war. I really don't want to take on anyone. Actually, I'd prefer to just crawl into a little hole and sleep.



But what I must take on is the massive ignorance, blatant hypocrisy, and corruption of this World. I mean, come on, the Bible provides a great roadmap for living, but few people actually follow it. Or they selectively follow it. Actually, people use it for self-gain, or to just beat their ideological opponents over the head. It's really all a game.

I recently read several articles that link Hurricane Katrina to Global Climate Change. What an irony: every time you get into your car to go to a Sierra Club meeting or to church, you are contributing to the crime. This week I've read articles and watched TV documentaries on the effect of Climate Change on the Arctic. For the people who live up there, Climate Change is already happening and affecting their lives. It is a warning for things to come.

And YES, it is human-caused and not part of a long-term cycle (as the industrialists would have you believe). It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that the millions of tons of emissions we put into the sky each week are going to have SOME impact on the Earth.

Ms. Bradberry: One volcano puts more pollution the air than all of industrialized society combined. And in the 1970s they were predicting that all the pollution would keep the sun from getting in and we'd have another ice age.

Well, I don't know about the volcano thing, but I CAN say that scientist know a lot more now than they did 30 years ago, and it is becoming an accepted fact that Global Warming is anthropogenic.

When Global Climate worsens, it will be the poor that is impacted most. We are already seeing that from Hurricane Katrina. Those in Bangledesh, a nation at or below sea level, will soon see it too. The poor live in flood plains, on the mountainsides, and in the most dangerous areas. The wealthy can adapt, they can move, they can buy more air conditions, but what about the poor.

Below is a favorite passage of Scripture, because it talks about humility. Oh, and then we are threatened with Hell. Truly, a religion of contradicting forces and cognitive dissonance.

Matthew 25:44-46 (RSV)

44. "Then they also will answer, `Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?' 45. Then he will answer them, `Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.' 46. And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."


What kind of world are we leaving our little
children. Hell, I know that sounds cliche. And,
hell, I know that no one really cares.

Ten Minutes of Hope
I think maybe I should start with what hope is not. Hope is not saying or believing that everything is fine now. And it’s not a belief or a promise that every thing is going to be fine. Terrible things are going on now, and terrible things will be going on then. Hope is the belief that what we do matters, and that the world is wilder than our imaginations. And the despairing often go for sweeping statements as though if not everything is fine, then everything is doomed and ghastly. Despair is predicated on the idea that the future looks like whatever is most painful and worrying in the present. But if the past is anything to navigate by, it isn’t going to look that way at all. We don’t know what it will look like.
—Rebecca Solnit, author of “Hope in the Dark,” Sierra Summit 2005

Abortion Debate, Round 23

Abortion is Redrum!!! Yeah, something like that...

Well, now that President Bush is packing the Supreme Court with stealth judges, I'm sure the whole abortion debate will once again take center stage.

A good Canary sister in New Jersey sent me an article that throws yet another curve ball into the debate. For 25 years I've been hearing supporters of abortion say, "If you outlaw abortion, women will just turn to back-alley providers and coat hangers."

Oh, but now. This is 25 years later and things have gotten more high-tech. Women will just use a drug called misoprostol, which is normally used for ulcers but works pretty good for abortions. So, really, I'm sure that once abortion is outlawed, a whole cottage industry of high-tech gadgetry and drugs will pop up. The difficulty of getting an abortion will be about the same, whether it's illegal or not.

The Point Being ....

Abortion, along with gays, have become the favorite hot button to mobilize the foot soldiers of the Christian Reich. On every political campaign I've worked on, there's always someone who says, "Where does your candidate stand on abortion?" They ask this even if my candidate is running for city council or county commission — posts that have nothing to do with abortion decisions.

So, before you march off to the polls again to elect another corrupt pro-industry puppet, all in the name of "family values," please educate yourself and ask a few questions:

1) Who are these girls getting abortions?
2) Why are they getting abortions?
3) What is the number of abortions?
4) How can teen pregnancies be prevented?

The Christians blame everything on "the World" and say that morals began to crumble when God was taken out of the schools. But, at the risk of being simplistic, I would say that these are the root causes of abortion:

1) Millions of divorced and broken homes.
2) Parents, especially fathers, not spending enough time with their daughters.
3) Parents not educating their children about sex and its consequences.

Duh, call me stupid. Abortion is a symptom of very serious social problems in our dysfunctional country, and I believe that so many problems can be traced back to a family.


Ms. Bradberry: Abortion is murder. We have to throw all those girls in jail. We have to throw all those abortion doctors in jail. They are murderers.

I don't like abortions either, but I've sat back in amazement to see how crafty politicians have dangled this issue over the unquestioning masses and used it to totally manipulate people to obtain votes.

Here are some real solutions:

1) Fathers being good fathers.
2) Comprehensive sex education.
3) Chilling out our total-sex obsessed society. I mean, what's up with that?

Both the Left and Right are guilty of this great social plague called abortion. The Right only wishes to treat symptoms and use the issue for political posturing. The Left doesn't do enough to sit on Hollywood and the music industry, and TV, and all the other foul outlets of mind numbing humping. Go Tipper Gore! She's my hero!


Even if the court restricts or eliminates the right to an abortion, the often-raised specter of a return to back-alley abortions is not likely to be realized, said Dr. Beverly Winikoff, president of Gynuity Health Services, a nonprofit group that supports access to abortion. "The conditions that existed before 1973 were much different than what they are in 2005," she said. "We have better antibiotics now and better surgical treatments."

Belief & Ignorance

Canary: I wonder how much of our history has been covered up by willful ignorance? Maybe it's just easier to "believe" something than really research the facts. Or maybe we know what the facts are and we don't want to deal with them.

Ms. Bradberry: It doesn't matter to me. I know what I believe in my heart is true, and I have total peace.

Canary: Maybe it's just easier to follow your culture and believe the "status quo, politically correct" stuff, even if it can't be proven and makes no sense. And even if what you believe becomes the means to your world's end.

Ms. Bradberry: But don't you fret. God is in charge of the macro and everything is in His plan. We are just to tend to the micro. Same with evolution — there is only such thing as micro evolution, which God created to allow species to better adapt to their environment. But everything was ultimately created by God.

Canary: I'm not questioning you Ms. Bradberry. All I'm asking for is proof. If you're so right and so sure, why's that such a big problem? It's nice to have the feeling and say, "I believe, there is a big hand micro-managing everything that happens to me, and I'm going to live in a gold mansion when I die, so I'm covered." But what if people just use their belief as a security blanket. This is a problem because rather than address serious problems facing our world, they cuddle up with their blanket and suck their thumb.

Ms. Bradberry: You just have to have more faith. You have to get into the Word. You are talking like a reprobate, backslider, and scoffer. The more you get into the Word, the more you will see.

Canary: But what if all of this is designed to perpetuate an organization and belief system, rather than reveal factual truth. Why does God want his children to have blind faith? Those who saw supernatural events in the Bible had no need for faith. And what right does the Apostle Paul have to discuss faith if he had a supernatural experience? Maybe faith is a substitute for institutionalized ignorance. In fact, lately I've been thinking that that is all religion is: an excuse to be ignorant. Why can't we have the courage to simply say, "We don't know!" rather than presenting stories as fact and chastising and threatening those who disagree with our version?

Ms. Bradberry: Don't you believe in God, Canary?

Canary: Of course I do. I believe their is a supernatural element in the Universe. What I'm still trying to figure out is what parts of religion are human-made. I have a feeling that most of our religions simply evolved from earlier cultures and earlier thought processes. I have a hunch that religions evolve in thought, borrow ideas from one another, and continually reinvent themselves. But with the Big Three religions, the clock seemed to stop. People suddenly were able to put their religions down into detailed writings, and suddenly the evolving ended. The religion stopped adapting to the increasing knowledge of humankind, and we humans started evolving around the religion. This is a problem because our religious society is locked into a mindset that is 1,500 to 7,000 years old.

Ms. Bradberry: You're messed up, Canary.

Canary: Yeah, I know. I just see the conservative religions as a big roadblock to my ultimate goal — indefinite sustainability and perpetuation for the human species. I'm not sure I know even why I want this goal. I think it's because I know we are the one species capable of making it in the long haul, but we are in a precarious time right now in our development, and if we screw up big, it's all over. More realistically, if we have a nuke out or ruin the Planet environmentally, at least a few people will survive to start over again. They will have a head start on our society, but humans may have to go through this cycle several times before they finally "get it." We'll just have to wait and see. Right now fuel prices keep going up and the poor are hurting the worse. Our federal government has zero vision beyond lining the pockets of donors so that crooked politicians can get reelected. So, really, it's up to us to organize on the local and maybe state levels to save ourselves.

Ms. Bradberry: You shouldn't fret over this. God will come soon to take his children away, and then this Earth is going to burn, eventually. Stop trying to interfere with the plans of the Almighty.

Canary: Right, Ms. Bradberry. My apologies.

The Fish Tank

It's Elementary, Watson

My wife is a fish hobbyist, and we recently added a new fish to our saltwater tank. Well, that caused a LOT of problems because some of the other fish were picking on the new guy and snipping at his tail. In fact, those fish like to fight a lot!

So, Ms. Canary tried a trick that was suggested by the pet store folks. She and I removed all the coral pieces in the tank. AND GUESS WHAT? The fish stopped fighting. They didn't have any territory to defend, and they were suddenly all on an even keel.

This made me think, "Wow, what if humans removed all the stupid things that make us so territorial then we wouldn't have anything to fight about.


But Ms. Bradberry Sezs: Humans are SUPPOSED to be violent, it's been going on that way for years.

I don't think so. I mean, what if we got rid of all religion? What if we dumped political parties? What if we got rid of all the things that make us fight?

In fact, as of tonight, I think I'm going to dump all my labels. I'm not white, yuppie, lefty, back-slidden, radical, or anything. I am just ME. And I'm willing to accept you as just YOU.

I am willing to be civil, have an open mind, and hear other sides of the argument. The only problem, though, is if you come at me with ignorance, I'll go nutso. I will listen, but please back up what you are saying with evidence and proof. Don't just say "because I believe it" or "because Rush Limbaugh said it."

The Rock

I was watching on the History Channel (I'm addicted to it) where there is this holy place in Jerusalem that the Jews think is the site where God is going to come back and build his temple. The Muslims believe this same site is where Muhammad ascended to heaven (or something like that). So these two religions are fighting over the same spot of land, and they've been at it for centuries.

I dunno. I don't think humans inherently have to fight. We've just created all these barriers and walls between us, and then we go after each other and even kill each other in the name of whatever we happen to believe. It's wrong, man.

Introducing Ms. Bradberry...




Starting tonight, I'd like to introduce a new friend to help with my blogging. Her name is Ms. Bradberry — the name just totally, randomly popped into my head. She is your typical conservative, highly religious, quite uneducated, completely mainstream American. You got it — she's a personification of my mother. But that's okay. She has joined the Canary Blog Team to play the role of the Devil's Advocate. The arguments she makes are the same old arguments I hear everyday. They are the party line, programmed into her brain by the big institutions — corporations, religion, and government. See, Ms. Bradberry doesn't question. She's just a parrot — only repeating what she hears and what she has been taught. So, join me in welcoming Ms. Bradberry to the stage.

Oh, about her? She is 37, has three cute kids, and her husband is a deacon in the local country church. She is your typical yuppie mom and drives a massive SUV. Her husband is in middle management at a grading company.

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