"Green, Red, Black, and Female"

Terrific article.
the-future-must-be-green-red-black-and-female

Standing in the rain

This week's Time magazine, Oct. 21, had a thoughtful and articulate piece by James Poniewozik in his "Tuned In" culture page.  Normally he reviews television, movies or trends and such.  However, the culture of our media "The Fourth Estate", (as I share definition of below) is relevant today for our culture, for our understanding as we ingest media coverage of events, and most importantly, for our understanding of the road that our democracy seems to be taking in this past decade and more.

As it turns out, the Times article (October 21, 2013 "Unfair and Balanced") is not yet posted online, however I did photograph it, shown below.

And then, I found Poniewozik's online version that he posted on October 7th:
Read it here: why-false-equivalence-matters-in-the-shutdown-showdown

As a personal writing note,  I find it interesting to see the editing choices made by Time as they removed perhaps disparaging quotation marked words and unnecessary parenthetical additions.  Fair.

"Reality doesn't always have a bias - liberal, conservative or otherwise.  But when it does, it's not journalism's job to rebalance reality."
His last two lines say it all.  It is my prayer (and my push in posting links on FB) that we can still use a person's thoughts and words, researched, truthful and clear of "false equivalence" to get back our democracy and our personal stake in it.

"The Fourth Estate"
In United States English, the phrase "fourth estate" is contrasted with the "fourth branch of government", a term that originated because no direct equivalents to the estates of the realm exist in the United States. The "fourth estate" is used to emphasize the independence of the press, while the "fourth branch" suggests that the press is not independent of the government.^[12]
Don't confuse the two.  
And to define further:
"the Networked Fourth Estate as the set of practices, organizing models, and technologies that are associated with the free press and provide a public check on the branches of government."^[14] 
"It differs from the traditional press, the traditional fourth estate, in that it has a diverse set of actors instead of a small number of major presses, these actors include small for-profit media organizations, non-profit media organizations, academic centers, and distributed networks of individuals participating in the media process with the larger traditional organizations."^[15]

• 12:  Martin A. Lee and Norman Solomon. Unreliable Sources (New York, NY: Lyle Stuart, 1990) ISBN 0-8184-0521-X

1. 14:  Jump up to:"US vs Bradley Manning, Volume 17 July 10, 2013 Morning Session" (PDF). Freedom of the Press Foundation: Transcripts from Bradley Manning's Trial. July 10, 2013. Archived from the original on |archiveurl= requires |archivedate= (help). Retrieved 11 July 2013.

1. 15:  Jump up to: "US vs Bradley Manning, Volume 17 July 10, 2013 Afternoon Session" (PDF). Freedom of the Press Foundation: Transcripts from Bradley Manning's Trial. July 10, 2013. Archived from the original on |archiveurl= requires |archivedate= (help). Retrieved 11 July 2013.

Recently I watched the 2003, very graphic and emotional film set in Civil War time, 1864 "Cold Mountain" and the words spoken by "Ruby" stuck in my head:

"Every piece of this is man's bullshit.  They call this war a cloud over the land.  But they made the weather and then they stand in the rain and say 'Shit, it's raining!'"

Jon Stewart interviews Robert Reich

Jon Stewart interviews Robert Reich.
Robert Reich says he is an optimist and says there is hope and things will change.
I believe him.
Jon has a plan to corrupt congress in order to keep uncorrupted congress.
Robert questions "Why can't we expect our public servants to be truly great people?"

Parts 1 and 2 of the interview:
robert-reich-extended-interview-pt--1

robert-reich-extended-interview-pt--2

Celebrating Abbey

Larry, Joseph and I said our goodbyes to Abbey and she passed away Thursday, August 1st.

Over the last month, her 13 years, 9 months (that's a graceful, nearly 98 year old in doggie years) had been showing in subtle yet progressing challenges for our sweet girl.  Tuesday eve was her last begging for dinner scraps and lying down for the night in the entryway (she had stopped climbing the stairs to go up to bed with us about a week before).  By Wednesday morning she had suffered something neurological and became listless, no panting and not herself.  She did walk outside and go poop and pee and then looked lost again in the front yard.  She need to lie down out there and we had to carry her, on a tarp, back inside.  We hoped she would chipper-up by the afternoon, but there was no change, no tail wagging (and a second vomit).  We took her to the vet. 

Whatever was happening in her body had caused her to go into heat stroke, with a high temperature, irregular heartbeat and more loss of function in her back legs.  After ice bath, alcohol bath on paws, intravenous cold fluids, her temp went down a little and she was prepped to stay the night.  We saw her in the morning, and she couldn't stand and her response was still going downhill.  Silent, with dignity, sliding into her own peace.  We had to make a decision.  Holding onto some hope, we waited until the afternoon, and then said our goodbyes, kissing her head and rubbing her ears.  Abbey lifted her head slightly for us, and then would lay it back down, close her eyes for a bit, and open them up to see us there on the floor starring into her eyes.  Still no tail wag.  We whispered our love and our thanks to her over and over.  She was going away and her body was not strong enough to show us her feelings anymore.   If ever there was a time for the phrase, "it was her time to go," this was it.

I write these details to package this final time we had with her, to process the science behind her departure (because that is what I do), and to find peace with her own graceful exit from Earth.  Her spark, her soul, is back to the universe and we remain so very thankful for the time we had with her in our lives.  Now, Abbey lives within our hearts forever.

From an 8 week old pup to a 13 + year old "girl", Abbey has brought immeasurable joy to our lives. She was integral to every day life in our family.  Larry and I got Abbey as a pup in downeast Maine, two years after we were married.  When she was almost six, our son arrived and oh the joy!   New action, two different moves, and new adventures always.

Abbey ever present, ever beautiful, full of grace and gentle of spirit.

This video celebration is long, over 200 photos - so be warned.  There are hundred(s) more in hidden places and videos, I'm sure.  For some reason, even beyond the fact that we didn't have a digital camera when Abbey was a pup, there are not many puppy photos.  As any dog owner knows, this puppy year goes by way too quickly.

Abbey is an odd spelling, we know.  She also went by the names:  Little Blackie, Abigail, Abbeygirl, Abbeydog, Abbeee, Abbs, Abbster, Little girl, Pup pup, Scuppy, Scup, Fluffy, Pupperator, Abbergail, Dog dog, Snark, Stinkbutt, Fluff butt, Fluffnut, Flufferdoo ... and from there, as you can imagine, we continue into whatever loving coo flies out!

Thank you to family and friends who shared their love with Abbey. 

She gave love back to all of us unconditionally, in abundance.

Abbey
October 30, 1999 - August 1, 2013

"Rise Up or Die"

This is the same basis of my understanding and for my frustration in our government.  Particularly when the actual Presidency has very little influence.  There are several key things that Obama is doing and NOT doing that make me aggravated, and give evidence that no matter which political party we vote with, the powerful in our government is way beyond what we can do with simple political votes.  The powerful over our government has bought their way into our government voice in a very deep way.
commondreams.org/video/2013/05/22

As Thom Hartmann asks, "Why are we not calling this Fascism?"  Why?

The article introduced, by Chris Hedges, was first published May 19, 2013 at Truthdig
Rise Up or Die

What can we do?

Read.  Learn.  Write.  Discuss (however painful) with friends, family, strangers.

Think.  Think from your own conscience.

Vote your conscience.

And repeat.

Chris Hedges on TOTN

Humanity in journalism; peaceful, nonpartisan.  Full-out commitment, depth and courage.
Chris Hedges - I hold in highest ranks of journalists.

Find his writing listed here at alternet and regularly here at truthdig and here at truth-out
and his books can be found here (Amazon).

Most recently he was interviewed by Neal Conan on NPR's Talk of the Nation
Poverty, politics and U.S. culture
Link has both the audio and full transcript.

Inspiring.

America on Solar Power - Imagine!

Why?
why-pay-double-solar-america

Solar installation and benefits working well in other countries, so ... red tape, of course:
cut-the-price-of-solar-in-half-by-cutting-red-tape

germany-solar-power-wins

And the reason why U.S. might be so slow in taking this on, is in the following graph:

half-germanys-53000-megawatts-renewable-energy-locally-owned/

Major utilities only get back 6.5% of the share.  Imagine their reaction to American citizens becoming financially free from gas/coal companies!?

And imagine if the U.S. government was the project planner (14%) or even part of the Fund/Bank (11%) and contracted out development and manufacturing (similar in idea to the hundreds/thousands of military contracts so easily given out to multitudes of companies), and thus supporting huge job creation (in non-military goals) and gaining economically from a reasonable percent share to be used in social services (ie, education, medicare, VA modernization, etc.)

IMAGINE!

Let's talk. No, REALLY TALK!

Why we should keep (BEGIN) truly, constantly, talking about climate change:
messages-climate
and:
global-warming-message-polling

The public has been more than ready for it:
study-debunks-al-gore-polarized-the-debate-myths-of-public-opinion-climate-change

From April, 2006, TIME

And from November, 2012:

A certain political party (guess!?) needs a true paradigm shift if it wants to stay relevant in the future:
yale-poll-finds-climate-change-action-is-a-political-winner

Sandra Steingraber - Biologist, writer, mother

"Steingraber demonstrates how closely the intimate world of parenting connects to the public world of policy-making and how the ongoing environmental crisis is, fundamentally, a crisis of family life."

How many mothers/fathers are on my facebook friends list?  No matter if you are a parent or not, you are a citizen of the world.  As so, even if you are not neighboring fracking operations, Steingraber's articles, books, and interviews - a must read, must attend to.

All links found throughout her site.
steingraber.com

Rachel Carson was able to work from within government and had Pres. Kennedy's attention.  Sandra brings the same expertise and passion to talks with scientific and non-scientific audiences across the country and however difficult, to the media and to a very different lobbying/congressional system than 50 years ago.  There is, I have to believe, always hope where there are passionate people.

I wanted to share this with family and friends as it is something close to me that I have been working on for awhile, and has helped refine my writing/literary focus in my goal in this next year.  I eagerly work to add my voice to this struggle to open awareness and action in regaining and protecting clean water and air.


Peace in the New Year