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

Re-thinking the American Dream (again)

Re-thinking the American Dream (again)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Yellow Canary


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

-- Donna The Buffalo "America"

The 23rd Sigh

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

THE 23rd SIGH

Bush is my shepherd; I dwell in want.

He maketh logs to be cut down in national forests.

He leadeth trucks into the still wilderness.

He restoreth my fears.

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

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

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

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

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

Thou anointest my head with foreign oil.

My health insurance runneth out.

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

And my jobless child shall dwell in my basement
forever.

Okay, Some Positive Things

How Do I Feel Today?

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

Okay, man, think of something POSITIVE

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




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

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

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

A few individuals CAN make a difference

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

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



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

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

A quick diatribe

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

Yellow Canary
"The Troubled Bird"

Quote of the Week

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

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

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

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

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

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