Cool Healthy Food Choices images
A few nice healthy food choices images I found:
JugglingFriend_6585
Image by \!/_PeacePlusOne
Earth Hour at the 3 Finger Club LOHHAS Lifestyle Lounge
Lights were out between 8:30 and 9:30 while we told stories and discussed our Lifestyle Of Health, Happiness And Sustainability (LOHHAS) using the 3 Finger "Peace Plus One" Sustainability Salute to remind us about Peace, Harmony and Balance between Society, Environment and Economy
People were the best jugglers of "Society, Environment, Economy" balls won "EARTH HOUR 60" T-Shirts WOW \!/O\!/
Photo Courtesy of the McMaster Institute for Sustainable Development in Commerce
www.SustainabilitySymbol.com
www.PeacePlusOne.com
www.Dragonpreneur.com
all participants in the Earth Hour Discussion got a copy of "Letter to Maddie" featured below:
We Screwed Up
A Letter of Apology to My Granddaughter
By Chip Ward
[Note: I became politically active and committed on the day 20 years ago when I realized I could stand on the front porch of my house and point to three homes where children were in wheelchairs, to a home where a child had just died of leukemia, to another where a child was born missing a kidney, and yet another where a child suffered from spina bifida. All my parental alarms went off at once and I asked the obvious question: What’s going on here? Did I inadvertently move my three children into harm’s way when we settled in this high desert valley in Utah? A quest to find answers in Utah’s nuclear history and then seek solutions followed. Politics for me was never motivated by ideology. It was always about parenting.
Today my three kids are, thankfully, healthy adults. But now that grandchildren are being added to our family, my blood runs cold whenever I project out 50 years and imagine what their world will be like at middle age — assuming they get that far and that there is still a recognizable “world” to be part of. I wrote the following letter to my granddaughter, Madeline, who is almost four years old. Although she cannot read it today, I hope she will read it in a future that proves so much better than the one that is probable, and so terribly unfair. I’m sharing this letter with other parents and grandparents in the hope that it may move them to embrace their roles as citizens and commit to the hard work of making the planet viable, the economy equitable, and our culture democratic for the many Madelines to come.]
March 20, 2012
Dear Maddie,
I address this letter to you, but please share it with Jack, Tasiah, and other grandchildren who are yet unborn. Also, with your children and theirs. My unconditional love for my children and grandchildren convinces me that, if I could live long enough to embrace my great-grandchildren, I would love them as deeply as I love you.
On behalf of my generation of grandparents to all of you, I want to apologize.
I am sorry we used up all the oil. It took a million years for those layers of carbon goo to form under the Earth’s crust and we used up most of it in a geological instant. No doubt there will be some left and perhaps you can get around the fact that what remains is already distant, dirty, and dangerous, but the low-hanging fruit will be long-gone by the time you are my age. We took it all.
There’s no excuse, really. We are gas-hogs, plain and simple. We got hooked on faster-bigger-more and charged right over the carrying capacity of the planet. Oil made it possible.
Machines are our slaves and coal, oil, and gas are their food. They helped us grow so much of our own food that we could overpopulate the Earth. We could ship stuff and travel all over the globe, and still have enough fuel left to drive home alone in trucks in time to watch Monday Night Football.
Rocket fuel, fertilizer, baby bottles, lawn chairs: we made everything and anything out of oil and could never get enough of it. We could have conserved more for you to use in your lifetime. Instead, we demonstrated the self-restraint of crack addicts. It’s been great having all that oil to play with and we built our entire world around that. Living without it will be tough. Sorry.
I hope we develop clean, renewable energy sources soon, or that you and your generation figure out how to do that quickly. In the meantime, sorry about the climate. We just didn’t realize our addiction to carbon would come with monster storms, epic droughts, Biblical floods, wildfire infernos, rising seas, migration, starvation, pestilence, civil war, failed states, police states, and resource wars.
I’m sure Henry Ford didn’t see that coming when he figured out how to mass-produce automobiles and sell them to Everyman. I know my parents didn’t see the downside of using so much gas and coal. The all-electric house and a car in the driveway was their American Dream. For my generation, owning a car became a birthright. Today, it would be hard for most of us to live without a car. I have no idea what you’ll do to get around or how you will heat your home. Oops!
We also pigged out on most of the fertile soil, the forests and their timber, and the oceans that teemed with fish before we scraped the seabed raw, dumped our poisonous wastes in the water, and turned it acid and barren. Hey, that ocean was an awesome place and it’s too bad you can’t know it like we did. There were bright coral reefs, vibrant runs of red salmon, ribbons of birds embroidering the shores, graceful shells, the solace and majesty of the wild sea…
…But then I never saw the vast herds of bison that roamed the American heartland, so I know it is hard to miss something you only saw in pictures. We took lots of photos.
We thought we were pretty smart because we walked a man on the moon. Our technology is indeed amazing. I was raised without computers, smart phones, and the World Wide Web, so I appreciate how our engineering prowess has enhanced our lives, but I also know it has a downside.
When I was a kid we worried that the Cold War would go nuclear. And it wasn’t until a river caught fire near Cleveland that we realized fouling your own nest isn’t so smart after all. Well, you know about the rest — the coal-fired power plants, acid rain, the hole in the ozone…
www.tomdispatch.com/images/managed/fear2.gifThere were plenty of signs we took a wrong turn but we kept on going. Dumb, stubborn, blind: Who knows why we couldn’t stop? Greed maybe — powerful corporations we couldn’t overcome. It won’t matter much to you who is to blame. You’ll be too busy coping in the diminished world we bequeath you.
One set of problems we pass on to you is not altogether our fault. It was handed down to us by our parents’ generation so hammered by cataclysmic world wars and economic hardship that they armed themselves to the teeth and saw enemies everywhere. Their paranoia was understandable, but they passed their fears on to us and we should have seen through them. I have lived through four major American wars in my 62 years, and by now defense and homeland security are powerful industries with a stranglehold on Congress and the economy. We knew that was a lousy deal, but trauma and terror darkened our imaginations and distorted our priorities. And, like you, we needed jobs.
Sorry we spent your inheritance on all that cheap bling and, especially, all those weapons of mass destruction. That was crazy and wasteful. I can’t explain it. I guess we’ve been confused for a long time now.
Oh, and sorry about the confusion. We called it advertising and it seemed like it would be easy enough to control. When I was a kid, commercials merely interrupted entertainment. Don’t know when the lines all blurred and the buy, buy, buy message became so ubiquitous and all-consuming. It just got outta hand and we couldn’t stop it, even when we realized we hated it and that it was taking us over. We turned away from one another, tuned in, and got lost.
I’m betting you can still download this note, copy it, share it, bust it up and remake it, and that you do so while plugged into some sort of electrical device you can’t live without — so maybe you don’t think that an apology for technology is needed and, if that’s the case, an apology is especially relevant. The tools we gave you are fine, but the apps are mostly bogus. We made an industry of silly distraction. When our spirits hungered, we fed them clay that filled but did not nourish them. If you still don’t know the difference, blame us because we started it.
And sorry about the chemicals. I mean the ones you were born with in your blood and bones that stay there — even though we don’t know what they’ll do to you). Who thought that the fire retardant that kept smokers from igniting their pillows and children’s clothes from bursting into flames would end up in umbilical cords and infants?
It just seemed like better living through chemistry at the time. Same with all the other chemicals you carry. We learned to accept cancer and I guess you will, too. I’m sure there will be better treatments for that in your lifetime than we have today. If you can afford them, that is. Turning healthcare over to predatory corporations was another bad move.
All in all, our chemical obsession was pretty reckless and we got into that same old pattern: just couldn’t give up all the neat stuff. Oh, we tried. We took the lead out of gasoline and banned DDT, but mostly we did too little, too late. I hope you’ve done better. Maybe it will help your generation to run out of oil, since so many of the toxic chemicals came from that. Anyway, we didn’t see it coming and we could have, should have. Our bad.
There are so many other things I wish I could change for you. We leave behind a noisy world. Silence is rare today, and unless some future catastrophe has left your numbers greatly diminished, your machines stilled, and your streets ghostly empty, it is likely that the last remnants of tranquility will be gone by the time you are my age.
And how about all those species, the abundant and wondrous creatures that are fading away forever as I write these words? I never saw a polar bear and I guess you can live without that, too, but when I think of the peep and chirp of frogs at night, the hum of bees busy on a flower bed, the trill of birds at dawn, and so many other splendorous pleasures that you may no longer have, I ache with regret. We should have done more to keep the planet whole and well, but we couldn’t get clear of the old ways of seeing, the ingrained habits, the way we hobble one another’s choices so that the best intentions never get realized.
Mostly I’m sorry about taking all the good water. When I was a child I could kneel down and drink from a brook or spring wherever we camped and played. We could still hike up to glaciers and ski down snow-capped mountains.
Clean, crisp, cold, fresh water is life’s most precious taste. A life-giving gift, all water is holy. I repeat: holy. We treated it, instead, as if it were merely useful. We wasted and tainted it and, again in a geological moment, sucked up aquifers that had taken 10,000 years to gather below ground. In my lifetime, glaciers are melting away, wells are running dry, dust storms are blowing, and rivers like the mighty Colorado are running dry before they reach the sea. I hate to think of what will be left for you. Sorry. So very, very sorry.
I’m sure there’s a boatload of other trouble we’re leaving you that I haven’t covered here. My purpose is not to offer a complete catalog of our follies and atrocities, but to do what we taught your parents to do when they were as little as you are today.
When you make a mistake, we told them, admit it, and then do better. If you do something wrong, own up and say you are sorry. After that, you can work on making amends.
I am trying to see a way out of the hardship and turmoil we are making for you. As I work to stop the madness, I will be mindful of how much harder your struggles will be as you deal with the challenges we leave you to face.
The best I can do to help you through the overheated future we are making is to love you now. I cannot change the past and my struggle to make a healthier future for you is uncertain, but today I can teach you, encourage you, and help you be as strong and smart and confident as you can be, so that whatever the future holds, whatever crises you face, you are as ready as possible. We will learn to laugh together, too, because love and laughter can pull you through the toughest times.
I know a better world is possible. We create that better world by reaching out to one another, listening, learning, and speaking from our hearts, face to face, neighbor to neighbor, one community after another, openly, inclusively, bravely. Democracy is not a gift to be practiced only when permitted. We empower ourselves. Our salvation is found in each other, together.
Across America this morning and all around the world, our better angels call to us, imploring us to rise up and be as resilient as our beloved, beautiful children and grandchildren, whose future we make today. We can do better. I promise.
Your grandfather,
Chip Ward
JugglingLOHHASlounge_6571
Image by \!/_PeacePlusOne
Earth Hour at the 3 Finger Club LOHHAS Lifestyle Lounge
Lights were out between 8:30 and 9:30 while we told stories and discussed our Lifestyle Of Health, Happiness And Sustainability (LOHHAS) using the 3 Finger "Peace Plus One" Sustainability Salute to remind us about Peace, Harmony and Balance between Society, Environment and Economy
People were the best jugglers of "Society, Environment, Economy" balls won "EARTH HOUR 60" T-Shirts WOW \!/O\!/
Photo Courtesy of the McMaster Institute for Sustainable Development in Commerce
www.SustainabilitySymbol.com
www.PeacePlusOne.com
www.Dragonpreneur.com
all participants in the Earth Hour Discussion got a copy of "Letter to Maddie" featured below:
We Screwed Up
A Letter of Apology to My Granddaughter
By Chip Ward
[Note: I became politically active and committed on the day 20 years ago when I realized I could stand on the front porch of my house and point to three homes where children were in wheelchairs, to a home where a child had just died of leukemia, to another where a child was born missing a kidney, and yet another where a child suffered from spina bifida. All my parental alarms went off at once and I asked the obvious question: What’s going on here? Did I inadvertently move my three children into harm’s way when we settled in this high desert valley in Utah? A quest to find answers in Utah’s nuclear history and then seek solutions followed. Politics for me was never motivated by ideology. It was always about parenting.
Today my three kids are, thankfully, healthy adults. But now that grandchildren are being added to our family, my blood runs cold whenever I project out 50 years and imagine what their world will be like at middle age — assuming they get that far and that there is still a recognizable “world” to be part of. I wrote the following letter to my granddaughter, Madeline, who is almost four years old. Although she cannot read it today, I hope she will read it in a future that proves so much better than the one that is probable, and so terribly unfair. I’m sharing this letter with other parents and grandparents in the hope that it may move them to embrace their roles as citizens and commit to the hard work of making the planet viable, the economy equitable, and our culture democratic for the many Madelines to come.]
March 20, 2012
Dear Maddie,
I address this letter to you, but please share it with Jack, Tasiah, and other grandchildren who are yet unborn. Also, with your children and theirs. My unconditional love for my children and grandchildren convinces me that, if I could live long enough to embrace my great-grandchildren, I would love them as deeply as I love you.
On behalf of my generation of grandparents to all of you, I want to apologize.
I am sorry we used up all the oil. It took a million years for those layers of carbon goo to form under the Earth’s crust and we used up most of it in a geological instant. No doubt there will be some left and perhaps you can get around the fact that what remains is already distant, dirty, and dangerous, but the low-hanging fruit will be long-gone by the time you are my age. We took it all.
There’s no excuse, really. We are gas-hogs, plain and simple. We got hooked on faster-bigger-more and charged right over the carrying capacity of the planet. Oil made it possible.
Machines are our slaves and coal, oil, and gas are their food. They helped us grow so much of our own food that we could overpopulate the Earth. We could ship stuff and travel all over the globe, and still have enough fuel left to drive home alone in trucks in time to watch Monday Night Football.
Rocket fuel, fertilizer, baby bottles, lawn chairs: we made everything and anything out of oil and could never get enough of it. We could have conserved more for you to use in your lifetime. Instead, we demonstrated the self-restraint of crack addicts. It’s been great having all that oil to play with and we built our entire world around that. Living without it will be tough. Sorry.
I hope we develop clean, renewable energy sources soon, or that you and your generation figure out how to do that quickly. In the meantime, sorry about the climate. We just didn’t realize our addiction to carbon would come with monster storms, epic droughts, Biblical floods, wildfire infernos, rising seas, migration, starvation, pestilence, civil war, failed states, police states, and resource wars.
I’m sure Henry Ford didn’t see that coming when he figured out how to mass-produce automobiles and sell them to Everyman. I know my parents didn’t see the downside of using so much gas and coal. The all-electric house and a car in the driveway was their American Dream. For my generation, owning a car became a birthright. Today, it would be hard for most of us to live without a car. I have no idea what you’ll do to get around or how you will heat your home. Oops!
We also pigged out on most of the fertile soil, the forests and their timber, and the oceans that teemed with fish before we scraped the seabed raw, dumped our poisonous wastes in the water, and turned it acid and barren. Hey, that ocean was an awesome place and it’s too bad you can’t know it like we did. There were bright coral reefs, vibrant runs of red salmon, ribbons of birds embroidering the shores, graceful shells, the solace and majesty of the wild sea…
…But then I never saw the vast herds of bison that roamed the American heartland, so I know it is hard to miss something you only saw in pictures. We took lots of photos.
We thought we were pretty smart because we walked a man on the moon. Our technology is indeed amazing. I was raised without computers, smart phones, and the World Wide Web, so I appreciate how our engineering prowess has enhanced our lives, but I also know it has a downside.
When I was a kid we worried that the Cold War would go nuclear. And it wasn’t until a river caught fire near Cleveland that we realized fouling your own nest isn’t so smart after all. Well, you know about the rest — the coal-fired power plants, acid rain, the hole in the ozone…
www.tomdispatch.com/images/managed/fear2.gifThere were plenty of signs we took a wrong turn but we kept on going. Dumb, stubborn, blind: Who knows why we couldn’t stop? Greed maybe — powerful corporations we couldn’t overcome. It won’t matter much to you who is to blame. You’ll be too busy coping in the diminished world we bequeath you.
One set of problems we pass on to you is not altogether our fault. It was handed down to us by our parents’ generation so hammered by cataclysmic world wars and economic hardship that they armed themselves to the teeth and saw enemies everywhere. Their paranoia was understandable, but they passed their fears on to us and we should have seen through them. I have lived through four major American wars in my 62 years, and by now defense and homeland security are powerful industries with a stranglehold on Congress and the economy. We knew that was a lousy deal, but trauma and terror darkened our imaginations and distorted our priorities. And, like you, we needed jobs.
Sorry we spent your inheritance on all that cheap bling and, especially, all those weapons of mass destruction. That was crazy and wasteful. I can’t explain it. I guess we’ve been confused for a long time now.
Oh, and sorry about the confusion. We called it advertising and it seemed like it would be easy enough to control. When I was a kid, commercials merely interrupted entertainment. Don’t know when the lines all blurred and the buy, buy, buy message became so ubiquitous and all-consuming. It just got outta hand and we couldn’t stop it, even when we realized we hated it and that it was taking us over. We turned away from one another, tuned in, and got lost.
I’m betting you can still download this note, copy it, share it, bust it up and remake it, and that you do so while plugged into some sort of electrical device you can’t live without — so maybe you don’t think that an apology for technology is needed and, if that’s the case, an apology is especially relevant. The tools we gave you are fine, but the apps are mostly bogus. We made an industry of silly distraction. When our spirits hungered, we fed them clay that filled but did not nourish them. If you still don’t know the difference, blame us because we started it.
And sorry about the chemicals. I mean the ones you were born with in your blood and bones that stay there — even though we don’t know what they’ll do to you). Who thought that the fire retardant that kept smokers from igniting their pillows and children’s clothes from bursting into flames would end up in umbilical cords and infants?
It just seemed like better living through chemistry at the time. Same with all the other chemicals you carry. We learned to accept cancer and I guess you will, too. I’m sure there will be better treatments for that in your lifetime than we have today. If you can afford them, that is. Turning healthcare over to predatory corporations was another bad move.
All in all, our chemical obsession was pretty reckless and we got into that same old pattern: just couldn’t give up all the neat stuff. Oh, we tried. We took the lead out of gasoline and banned DDT, but mostly we did too little, too late. I hope you’ve done better. Maybe it will help your generation to run out of oil, since so many of the toxic chemicals came from that. Anyway, we didn’t see it coming and we could have, should have. Our bad.
There are so many other things I wish I could change for you. We leave behind a noisy world. Silence is rare today, and unless some future catastrophe has left your numbers greatly diminished, your machines stilled, and your streets ghostly empty, it is likely that the last remnants of tranquility will be gone by the time you are my age.
And how about all those species, the abundant and wondrous creatures that are fading away forever as I write these words? I never saw a polar bear and I guess you can live without that, too, but when I think of the peep and chirp of frogs at night, the hum of bees busy on a flower bed, the trill of birds at dawn, and so many other splendorous pleasures that you may no longer have, I ache with regret. We should have done more to keep the planet whole and well, but we couldn’t get clear of the old ways of seeing, the ingrained habits, the way we hobble one another’s choices so that the best intentions never get realized.
Mostly I’m sorry about taking all the good water. When I was a child I could kneel down and drink from a brook or spring wherever we camped and played. We could still hike up to glaciers and ski down snow-capped mountains.
Clean, crisp, cold, fresh water is life’s most precious taste. A life-giving gift, all water is holy. I repeat: holy. We treated it, instead, as if it were merely useful. We wasted and tainted it and, again in a geological moment, sucked up aquifers that had taken 10,000 years to gather below ground. In my lifetime, glaciers are melting away, wells are running dry, dust storms are blowing, and rivers like the mighty Colorado are running dry before they reach the sea. I hate to think of what will be left for you. Sorry. So very, very sorry.
I’m sure there’s a boatload of other trouble we’re leaving you that I haven’t covered here. My purpose is not to offer a complete catalog of our follies and atrocities, but to do what we taught your parents to do when they were as little as you are today.
When you make a mistake, we told them, admit it, and then do better. If you do something wrong, own up and say you are sorry. After that, you can work on making amends.
I am trying to see a way out of the hardship and turmoil we are making for you. As I work to stop the madness, I will be mindful of how much harder your struggles will be as you deal with the challenges we leave you to face.
The best I can do to help you through the overheated future we are making is to love you now. I cannot change the past and my struggle to make a healthier future for you is uncertain, but today I can teach you, encourage you, and help you be as strong and smart and confident as you can be, so that whatever the future holds, whatever crises you face, you are as ready as possible. We will learn to laugh together, too, because love and laughter can pull you through the toughest times.
I know a better world is possible. We create that better world by reaching out to one another, listening, learning, and speaking from our hearts, face to face, neighbor to neighbor, one community after another, openly, inclusively, bravely. Democracy is not a gift to be practiced only when permitted. We empower ourselves. Our salvation is found in each other, together.
Across America this morning and all around the world, our better angels call to us, imploring us to rise up and be as resilient as our beloved, beautiful children and grandchildren, whose future we make today. We can do better. I promise.
Your grandfather,
Chip Ward
Winners_6597
Image by \!/_PeacePlusOne
Earth Hour at the 3 Finger Club LOHHAS Lifestyle Lounge
Lights were out between 8:30 and 9:30 while we told stories and discussed our Lifestyle Of Health, Happiness And Sustainability (LOHHAS) using the 3 Finger "Peace Plus One" Sustainability Salute to remind us about Peace, Harmony and Balance between Society, Environment and Economy
People were the best jugglers of "Society, Environment, Economy" balls won "EARTH HOUR 60" T-Shirts WOW \!/O\!/
Photo Courtesy of the McMaster Institute for Sustainable Development in Commerce
www.SustainabilitySymbol.com
www.PeacePlusOne.com
www.Dragonpreneur.com
all participants in the Earth Hour Discussion got a copy of "Letter to Maddie" featured below:
We Screwed Up
A Letter of Apology to My Granddaughter
By Chip Ward
[Note: I became politically active and committed on the day 20 years ago when I realized I could stand on the front porch of my house and point to three homes where children were in wheelchairs, to a home where a child had just died of leukemia, to another where a child was born missing a kidney, and yet another where a child suffered from spina bifida. All my parental alarms went off at once and I asked the obvious question: What’s going on here? Did I inadvertently move my three children into harm’s way when we settled in this high desert valley in Utah? A quest to find answers in Utah’s nuclear history and then seek solutions followed. Politics for me was never motivated by ideology. It was always about parenting.
Today my three kids are, thankfully, healthy adults. But now that grandchildren are being added to our family, my blood runs cold whenever I project out 50 years and imagine what their world will be like at middle age — assuming they get that far and that there is still a recognizable “world” to be part of. I wrote the following letter to my granddaughter, Madeline, who is almost four years old. Although she cannot read it today, I hope she will read it in a future that proves so much better than the one that is probable, and so terribly unfair. I’m sharing this letter with other parents and grandparents in the hope that it may move them to embrace their roles as citizens and commit to the hard work of making the planet viable, the economy equitable, and our culture democratic for the many Madelines to come.]
March 20, 2012
Dear Maddie,
I address this letter to you, but please share it with Jack, Tasiah, and other grandchildren who are yet unborn. Also, with your children and theirs. My unconditional love for my children and grandchildren convinces me that, if I could live long enough to embrace my great-grandchildren, I would love them as deeply as I love you.
On behalf of my generation of grandparents to all of you, I want to apologize.
I am sorry we used up all the oil. It took a million years for those layers of carbon goo to form under the Earth’s crust and we used up most of it in a geological instant. No doubt there will be some left and perhaps you can get around the fact that what remains is already distant, dirty, and dangerous, but the low-hanging fruit will be long-gone by the time you are my age. We took it all.
There’s no excuse, really. We are gas-hogs, plain and simple. We got hooked on faster-bigger-more and charged right over the carrying capacity of the planet. Oil made it possible.
Machines are our slaves and coal, oil, and gas are their food. They helped us grow so much of our own food that we could overpopulate the Earth. We could ship stuff and travel all over the globe, and still have enough fuel left to drive home alone in trucks in time to watch Monday Night Football.
Rocket fuel, fertilizer, baby bottles, lawn chairs: we made everything and anything out of oil and could never get enough of it. We could have conserved more for you to use in your lifetime. Instead, we demonstrated the self-restraint of crack addicts. It’s been great having all that oil to play with and we built our entire world around that. Living without it will be tough. Sorry.
I hope we develop clean, renewable energy sources soon, or that you and your generation figure out how to do that quickly. In the meantime, sorry about the climate. We just didn’t realize our addiction to carbon would come with monster storms, epic droughts, Biblical floods, wildfire infernos, rising seas, migration, starvation, pestilence, civil war, failed states, police states, and resource wars.
I’m sure Henry Ford didn’t see that coming when he figured out how to mass-produce automobiles and sell them to Everyman. I know my parents didn’t see the downside of using so much gas and coal. The all-electric house and a car in the driveway was their American Dream. For my generation, owning a car became a birthright. Today, it would be hard for most of us to live without a car. I have no idea what you’ll do to get around or how you will heat your home. Oops!
We also pigged out on most of the fertile soil, the forests and their timber, and the oceans that teemed with fish before we scraped the seabed raw, dumped our poisonous wastes in the water, and turned it acid and barren. Hey, that ocean was an awesome place and it’s too bad you can’t know it like we did. There were bright coral reefs, vibrant runs of red salmon, ribbons of birds embroidering the shores, graceful shells, the solace and majesty of the wild sea…
…But then I never saw the vast herds of bison that roamed the American heartland, so I know it is hard to miss something you only saw in pictures. We took lots of photos.
We thought we were pretty smart because we walked a man on the moon. Our technology is indeed amazing. I was raised without computers, smart phones, and the World Wide Web, so I appreciate how our engineering prowess has enhanced our lives, but I also know it has a downside.
When I was a kid we worried that the Cold War would go nuclear. And it wasn’t until a river caught fire near Cleveland that we realized fouling your own nest isn’t so smart after all. Well, you know about the rest — the coal-fired power plants, acid rain, the hole in the ozone…
www.tomdispatch.com/images/managed/fear2.gifThere were plenty of signs we took a wrong turn but we kept on going. Dumb, stubborn, blind: Who knows why we couldn’t stop? Greed maybe — powerful corporations we couldn’t overcome. It won’t matter much to you who is to blame. You’ll be too busy coping in the diminished world we bequeath you.
One set of problems we pass on to you is not altogether our fault. It was handed down to us by our parents’ generation so hammered by cataclysmic world wars and economic hardship that they armed themselves to the teeth and saw enemies everywhere. Their paranoia was understandable, but they passed their fears on to us and we should have seen through them. I have lived through four major American wars in my 62 years, and by now defense and homeland security are powerful industries with a stranglehold on Congress and the economy. We knew that was a lousy deal, but trauma and terror darkened our imaginations and distorted our priorities. And, like you, we needed jobs.
Sorry we spent your inheritance on all that cheap bling and, especially, all those weapons of mass destruction. That was crazy and wasteful. I can’t explain it. I guess we’ve been confused for a long time now.
Oh, and sorry about the confusion. We called it advertising and it seemed like it would be easy enough to control. When I was a kid, commercials merely interrupted entertainment. Don’t know when the lines all blurred and the buy, buy, buy message became so ubiquitous and all-consuming. It just got outta hand and we couldn’t stop it, even when we realized we hated it and that it was taking us over. We turned away from one another, tuned in, and got lost.
I’m betting you can still download this note, copy it, share it, bust it up and remake it, and that you do so while plugged into some sort of electrical device you can’t live without — so maybe you don’t think that an apology for technology is needed and, if that’s the case, an apology is especially relevant. The tools we gave you are fine, but the apps are mostly bogus. We made an industry of silly distraction. When our spirits hungered, we fed them clay that filled but did not nourish them. If you still don’t know the difference, blame us because we started it.
And sorry about the chemicals. I mean the ones you were born with in your blood and bones that stay there — even though we don’t know what they’ll do to you). Who thought that the fire retardant that kept smokers from igniting their pillows and children’s clothes from bursting into flames would end up in umbilical cords and infants?
It just seemed like better living through chemistry at the time. Same with all the other chemicals you carry. We learned to accept cancer and I guess you will, too. I’m sure there will be better treatments for that in your lifetime than we have today. If you can afford them, that is. Turning healthcare over to predatory corporations was another bad move.
All in all, our chemical obsession was pretty reckless and we got into that same old pattern: just couldn’t give up all the neat stuff. Oh, we tried. We took the lead out of gasoline and banned DDT, but mostly we did too little, too late. I hope you’ve done better. Maybe it will help your generation to run out of oil, since so many of the toxic chemicals came from that. Anyway, we didn’t see it coming and we could have, should have. Our bad.
There are so many other things I wish I could change for you. We leave behind a noisy world. Silence is rare today, and unless some future catastrophe has left your numbers greatly diminished, your machines stilled, and your streets ghostly empty, it is likely that the last remnants of tranquility will be gone by the time you are my age.
And how about all those species, the abundant and wondrous creatures that are fading away forever as I write these words? I never saw a polar bear and I guess you can live without that, too, but when I think of the peep and chirp of frogs at night, the hum of bees busy on a flower bed, the trill of birds at dawn, and so many other splendorous pleasures that you may no longer have, I ache with regret. We should have done more to keep the planet whole and well, but we couldn’t get clear of the old ways of seeing, the ingrained habits, the way we hobble one another’s choices so that the best intentions never get realized.
Mostly I’m sorry about taking all the good water. When I was a child I could kneel down and drink from a brook or spring wherever we camped and played. We could still hike up to glaciers and ski down snow-capped mountains.
Clean, crisp, cold, fresh water is life’s most precious taste. A life-giving gift, all water is holy. I repeat: holy. We treated it, instead, as if it were merely useful. We wasted and tainted it and, again in a geological moment, sucked up aquifers that had taken 10,000 years to gather below ground. In my lifetime, glaciers are melting away, wells are running dry, dust storms are blowing, and rivers like the mighty Colorado are running dry before they reach the sea. I hate to think of what will be left for you. Sorry. So very, very sorry.
I’m sure there’s a boatload of other trouble we’re leaving you that I haven’t covered here. My purpose is not to offer a complete catalog of our follies and atrocities, but to do what we taught your parents to do when they were as little as you are today.
When you make a mistake, we told them, admit it, and then do better. If you do something wrong, own up and say you are sorry. After that, you can work on making amends.
I am trying to see a way out of the hardship and turmoil we are making for you. As I work to stop the madness, I will be mindful of how much harder your struggles will be as you deal with the challenges we leave you to face.
The best I can do to help you through the overheated future we are making is to love you now. I cannot change the past and my struggle to make a healthier future for you is uncertain, but today I can teach you, encourage you, and help you be as strong and smart and confident as you can be, so that whatever the future holds, whatever crises you face, you are as ready as possible. We will learn to laugh together, too, because love and laughter can pull you through the toughest times.
I know a better world is possible. We create that better world by reaching out to one another, listening, learning, and speaking from our hearts, face to face, neighbor to neighbor, one community after another, openly, inclusively, bravely. Democracy is not a gift to be practiced only when permitted. We empower ourselves. Our salvation is found in each other, together.
Across America this morning and all around the world, our better angels call to us, imploring us to rise up and be as resilient as our beloved, beautiful children and grandchildren, whose future we make today. We can do better. I promise.
Your grandfather,
Chip Ward
Babushka’s Recipe
A few nice recipes images I found:
Babushka’s Recipe
Image by Harvard Avenue
Mmm…Parbroied and Steam Roasted Beef with Gravy…In A Can!!!
Scylla and Charybdis
Some cool healthy food choices images:
Scylla and Charybdis
Image by KevinHutchins314
What am i going to do?
I’ve survived with HIV since i was nineteen years old, and now i’m almost forty-two. But i seem to have finally arrived at a situation which could bring about the end of these decades of good fortune.
Over the years i’ve had periods when i wasn’t on medication to treat the AIDS virus, but usually those times were fraught with co-infections. I’ve had Pneumocystis twice, and many other serious problems which were life-threatening to a person with an unhealthy immune system (rotavirus, food poisoning, viral conjunctivitis, cutaneous infections, etc). I was lucky, i survived each incident, and typically i have been able to find medications which help me to continue living as they combat the HIV and help my white blood cells to rebound, lowering the "viral load" while improving my count of helper T-cells. My viral load has often been "detectable" despite being "lowered", and this is troublesome for people with AIDS. My T-cell count has mostly stayed very low (between 100 and 150, which is about ninety percent below what i’d prefer) but i have always managed to survive. Co-infections still occur, but i’ve had medical help and thus have endured in this situation for more than half of my life so far. My entire "adult" life has been under these circumstances since 1989.
Autoimmune diseases are at the opposite end of the spectrum, so to speak, from my situation with AIDS. In people with autoimmune disease (which is usually hereditary) the body’s own immune cells malfunction and attack the body’s healthy cells by mistake. My mother has a severe case of Meniere’s Disease (autoimmune attack against the inner ear and other neurological tissue), her sister has Lupus (autoimmune attack against skin and joints and other tissue), and other members of our family have our various quirks of immunology, particularly drug-allergies.
In most people, these autoimmune problems are burdensome but not fatal. There are usually no treatments which do much good for people with Lupus or Meniere’s, and often the best that can be attempted is to utilize certain steroids and other immuno-suppressive techniques to control the body’s malfunctions. The inflamations, attacks on joints and skin and other tissues, migraines, and some of the symptoms of autoimmune malfunction can be slightly alleviated, but the method of alleviation almost always involves lowering the body’s immune-system activities.
Some people with autoimmune malfunctions find they are seriously aggravated by certain triggers. There are many types of triggers, but severe reactions to medications are among the most common, especially reactions to various antibiotics and anti-microbials.
Over the past decade (or more!) i have gradually found my autoimmune malfunctions (presumably inherited) become increasingly terrible. Then during the past year and a half, everything has worsened until now it feels like i’ve "gone over the cliff".
I tried to take a combination of HIV medicines for most of last year, but they triggered so much auto-immune malfunction, i just about died. My hair fell out (and the ugly bald patches are still continuing to spread), my neurology showed signs of damage, my joints and ligaments have become sites for burning pain as my own immune cells attack me and give me symptoms of arthritis, all-over body itching which makes me feel like i’m on fire, rashes and hives, itching which goes down my ears and into my throat, nose, eyes, and worries me when my larynx is involved. (Anaphylaxis, anybody?) I could list all the other painful and irritating problems, but it would involve a catalogue of nearly every part of my body, and probably some gruesome photos of how my skin, joints, various subcutaneous tissues, follicles, and other places are all inflamed and deforming from this disastrous mess.
I discontinued that combination of medications, then tried some other HIV drugs during the first couple months of this year. It quickly turned into the same mess: as the drugs blocked the HIV and my own immune system slowly "recovered" and underwent cellular multiplication, the flare-ups drastically increased. I thought i was going to die from the pains in my chest and shoulders and head and everywhere else. I believed i would rather die than have to endure the continuous torture of the sensation of having all my skin "on fire" with massive itchy rash flare-ups.
I discontinued that next combination of medications, then tried to go back on an older combination which had been successful for me a few years ago. It was a "weaker" combination, but hopefully better than nothing, because my immune system is in dire shape from the twenty-three years with AIDS. Unfortunately, within less than a week, even the "weaker" drugs were triggering the autoimmune malfunction. Head on fire, body burning up, i told my doctors i had to stop those medications, too.
So now what? Every time i take a "successful" medication against HIV, it helps my immune system to "rebuild", but the "strengthened" immune system then always incorrectly attacks parts of my own body. And really, i am not a wimp, i could tolerate some hair-loss, some itching, some discomfort, some soreness, whatever… But i can not tolerate the sensation of being perpetually tortured twenty-four hours per day when i take the HIV medications.
What am i going to do?
My doctors are doing their best. In addition to my usual general practitioner and my infectious disease specialist, i’ve also had help from dermatologists, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, and so many other categories of experts. But we are stumped now. I’m going to see a Rheumatologist next month. Maybe he will be able to suggest a treatment for the autoimmune flare-ups, and then maybe that would allow me to tolerate some HIV medications again. But the problem is: treatment for autoimmune flare-ups usually involves giving people immunosuppressive steroids and other drugs, which would be a terrible thing in my situation with AIDS.
One of my doctors said this was like "the dragon is chasing its own tail!" For decades i have been in situations where i needed some drugs to fix an HIV-related problem, then more drugs to fix the problems created by the side-effects of the first drugs, then more drugs to fix the problems created by the side-effects of the fixer drugs, then more drugs to… … well, you get the idea.
It worked. It worked for years. It worked for decades. But now it’s not working.
I don’t like HIV medications but i want to take them so they can help me stay alive.
I don’t want to forgo HIV medications, but when i take them they trigger my autoimmune malfunctions so severly, it makes me wish i were dead rather than endure the torture.
Between Scylla and Charybdis, apparently i must make some kind of choice.
For the moment i can’t do much of anything, but i’ll see what sort of ideas the Rheumatologist might have next month. Meanwhile, i’m trying to ignore all the unpleasant symptoms as best i can (which isn’t very well) and i’m just hoping to enjoy the remainder of my life peacefully and quietly here with Tony. I was somewhat anxious and sad when i thought about how my life was likely to be cut short by AIDS and medical complications; but i’m happy to have enjoyed a couple of decades of adulthood despite disease. I’m happy to be retired here with Tony, free from most of what’s going on in the world. But when the autoimmune symptoms are at their worst, when the pains and aggravations torture me with burning sensations in my skull, shoulders, feet, wrists, and ankles, when the itching and aching makes me wish i were dead, then i just don’t feel the same anxiety and sadness. Instead, i start to feel almost relieved, because death will spare me any more of this fucking torture.
Oh well. Most people with AIDS never would have lived this long in the first place. To survive since the late 1980s with HIV and somehow still be managing to live in 2012, i’ve been so fortunate. I’ve had a good life for a person who’s been infected since the age of nineteen. I’ve had all these years of retirement with Tony. I’ve had a good time, despite what an awful place this world is, despite what an awful species humans are, so i guess it would be rather ungrateful to complain about the ending of it. Maybe the ending will be such a relief from the travails of illness, i might even be glad to just get it over with.
Scylla and Charybdis: monsters of horror, or angels of deliverance?
If something good were happening in our local area of the universe, i would be disappointed to die and miss out on the goodness. But we aren’t doing anything good. We aren’t exploring other star systems, we aren’t contacting alien intelligence, we aren’t even really advancing science much (except by accident, now and then.) Instead, we have a planet of poisonous retarded monkey-creatures who are violent, xenophobic, oppressively assimilationist, militantly anti-intelligent, and keen to destroy anybody who differs. So if i die soon because of something like AIDS, i won’t be missing out on anything important. I’ll be mercifully freed from this retarded-poison-monkey-planet. It’s too bad if i can’t go on enjoying my quiet comfort with Tony, but at least i will no longer be a prisoner of this world full of stupid primates.
My favorite daydreams lately often include scenes similar to the beginning of "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy". A passing spaceship miraculously rescues a couple of (very undeserving) creatures from the retarded-poison-monkey-planet, and they find an interesting life far removed from the stupidity of this world to which we’re accustomed.
Beam me up, Aliens! I’m ready to go!
Delaware jockeys support nutrition education program
Image by agriculturede
Delaware jockeys are continuing their support of a nutrition program to help improve jockey health and safety on the state’s racetracks with a donation. The Delaware Jockeys Health and Welfare Fund presented ,000 to the University of Delaware Cooperative Extension on June 20 to continue an initiative begun in 2009 to improve jockey nutrition.
From left, Luis Diaz, Sean Jones, Gregorio Rivera, Esteban Unsihuay, Oliver Castillo, Victor Rodriguez, Michael McCarthy, Eric Jones, Alex Cintron, Abel Castellano, Stacy Glass, Professor Sue Snider, Ed Stegemeier, Robert Colton, Pete Lizarzaburu.
With jockeys facing strict weight limits to participate in races and not impede their horses, many riders can develop eating disorders or practice other unhealthy behaviors to get their weight down before races. Such practices can hinder their riding abilities and safety on the horse, said John F. Wayne, executive director of the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission.
“This program helps educate jockeys about the risks to their health and the health of their horses,” Wayne said. “Healthy riders are safer riders, and we all want races to be safe.”
The donation made Wednesday will provide new jockeys with information to make healthy choices in their daily diets. The nutrition education effort was launched in 2009 with a study by the University of Delaware Cooperative Extension and a collaboration with the Delaware Jockey Health and Welfare Benefit Board and the Delaware Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association. An advisory committee of current and former jockeys was appointed to help meet riders’ needs.
"I am not aware of any other nutrition education program in the U.S. for jockeys,” said Dr. Sue Snider, a professor and food safety and nutrition specialist with the University of Delaware. “During the program offered by UD Cooperative Extension, jockeys are encouraged to eat small amounts of food throughout the day, especially in the morning. Based on our original survey, the average jockey consumes around 1,000 calories a day. The program focuses on getting the most nutrients for the fewest calories."
Dr. Michelle Rodgers, associate dean and director of UD Cooperative Extension, said: "Helping individuals apply nutrition concepts to meet their diet and health needs has been a long standing component of Extension programming. However, this is a new audience with some specific needs for us to work with."
The Delaware Jockeys Health and Welfare Benefit Board oversees management of a 0,000 fund each year, offsetting health and welfare costs for participating riders. Half of the money comes from track video lottery funds and half from the Horsemen’s Purse Account. Delaware Park also has a million on-track injury policy in force, covering riders injured during racing, and has the option to accept an additional million on-track policy for per mount, with the other portion of the premium covered by the Jockeys Health and Welfare Fund.
Boston Market
Image by theotherway
Good food! My plate is on the left with the healthier choices…but I did steal a macaroni!
Longhorn Barbecue
A few nice barbecue foods images I found:
Longhorn Barbecue
Image by DoubleGrande
We wound up eating here before leaving. The fat wasn’t cooked out of the meat, the sauce was as bland as water, the potato salad was practically raw, and the beans tasted like they’d been cooked in dirty dishwater and sat out for a week to cure. All in all, a place to "steer" clear of. We had Pete’s barbecue last year, and it was "fair"ly good.
Food and football:Patrons enjoy winning combination
Image by Morning Calm News
Learn More About U.S. Army in Korea
Food and football:Patrons enjoy winning combination
By W. Wayne Marlow
warren.wayne.marlow@us.army.mil
CAMP HUMPHREYS — Patrons had plenty of munchies and drinks to go with their football, thanks to several Super Bowl specials at on-post establishments.
While the New York Giants and New England Patriots exchanged leads, Soldiers, family members, and civilians had pancakes at the USO, steak at the Alaska Mining Company, a breakfast buffet at Veterans of Foreign War Post 10223, and barbecued ribs and noodles at Tommy D’s.
The specials began well before the game started and continued even after the game was over.
Besides pancakes, those in attendance at the USO were treated to another Super Bowl highlight, the commercials, thanks to a computer hooked up to an NFL feed.
Alaska Mining Company featured mostly breakfast items, such as waffles, sausage, and toast, while Tommy D’s started serving later and had ribs, noodles, rice, soup, and salad.
Nice Family Meals photos
Check out these family meals images:
Presidio of Monterey leaders serve Thanksgiving meal
Image by Presidio of Monterey: DLIFLC & USAG
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, Calif. – Military leaders dished it out to just over 800 people Nov. 25. What was dished out was the Thanksgiving meal when service leaders from the various military branches at the Presidio worked in shifts to serve some 800 patrons at the Combs and Belas dining facilities over the two-hour meal time. The patrons included service personnel, retirees, civilians and family members. Meal preparation began early for the kitchen staff, as the meal preparation and slow cooking for the prime rib began at 6 a.m., said Ernest Meadows, the food program manager for the Directorate of Logistics. Shortly after that, the staff prepped the turkey and began cooking it around 7 a.m., he explained. Then, all other products were prepped and cooked next, with shrimp and crab legs being prepared at 11 a.m. and progressively cooked until 1:30 p.m.
Official Presidio of Monterey Web site
Official Presidio of Monterey Facebook
PHOTO by Tonya Townsell, Presidio of Monterey Public Affairs.
Presidio of Monterey leaders serve Thanksgiving meal
Image by Presidio of Monterey: DLIFLC & USAG
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, Calif. – Military leaders dished it out to just over 800 people Nov. 25. What was dished out was the Thanksgiving meal when service leaders from the various military branches at the Presidio worked in shifts to serve some 800 patrons at the Combs and Belas dining facilities over the two-hour meal time. The patrons included service personnel, retirees, civilians and family members. Meal preparation began early for the kitchen staff, as the meal preparation and slow cooking for the prime rib began at 6 a.m., said Ernest Meadows, the food program manager for the Directorate of Logistics. Shortly after that, the staff prepped the turkey and began cooking it around 7 a.m., he explained. Then, all other products were prepped and cooked next, with shrimp and crab legs being prepared at 11 a.m. and progressively cooked until 1:30 p.m.
Official Presidio of Monterey Web site
Official Presidio of Monterey Facebook
PHOTO by Tonya Townsell, Presidio of Monterey Public Affairs.
