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"