8 Deceember 2011
Quinebaug Valley Greens Local
Meeting at the Joshua Hyde Library , Sturbridge, MA
Attendees: Maureen Doyle, Matt Maselli, Gus Steeves, Daphne Stevens
A recommended book about Local Food: The Town that Food Saved by Ben Hewitt
Rules for Radicals by Saul Elinsky
Chicken Update: The Planning Board of Southbridge , MA is sending a recommendation to the Southbridge Town Council to update the by-laws to include backyard chicken raising; the recommendation says: 6 hens, in an enclosure, on one acre of land, with their poop in a container. The Town Council will debate it and send it back to the Planning Board for revisions.
--Gus has written an article for the S. Evening News about the ongoing saga of chicken rearing with in the town
Update on Growing Places Garden Project in Clinton, MA: daphne did contact them but has not heard from them yet
Letter to endorse Jill Stein: Daphne and Gus will send the letter written in the last meeting and Maureen will send her own.
Suggestions for Better Meetings: Matt gave us some suggestions based on his experiences doing community organizing in New Haven, CT (a much larger city). He told us of some success stories (including keeping guns out of a local KMART) and then suggested two approaches: a house party (with one single goal; place large sheets of paper around the room with ideas of ways to reach that one goal; people can stand by the sheet they like and the methods can be narrowed that way (by eliminating the sheets where no one is standing)) or individual meetings with people from larger meetings. (This is a good way to get to know people and to build up trust. He did mention that his experience was with one overseeing paid organizer (who works at it for 40-60 hours a week).
Green Communities Update: The Town of Sturbridge shot down the Green Communities designation based
on several vocal people who talked about the increase in housing requirements. L
Next meeting: we will meet after the holidays on Thursday, December 29th, at Joshua Hyde Library at 11am
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
17 November 2011
Quinebaug Valley Greens Local
Meeting at the Joshua Hyde Library , Sturbridge, MA
Attendees: Maureen Doyle, Gus Steeves, Daphne Stevens
Daphne heard about Americanselect.org, a group that wants a 3rd candidate for President of the US. We talked about this in light of Jill Stein’s run for President.
Growing Places Garden Project in Clinton, MA: a non-profit whose mission s to “improve food security and provide nutrition”. Would they be interested in pairing with us to gain chickens and chicken ownership?
---growing places.org
--Daphne will research this
Sierra Club has a list of things needed for a town to attain the green designation
Map your neighborhood: this will enable people to share resources (like chain saws, looking out for handicapped folks, sharing/looking out for propane tanks, etc.)
--Kevin wrote an article about this in the Southbridge Evening News
Legislature bill about creating local energy supplies
Letter to Durant (that we worked on last meeting, regarding agriculture programs in more schools)
--Gus sent the letter already
--Durant has office hours at the Southbridge town hall tonight and we will talk to him about it
Jill’s Campaign
As everyone knows, fellow Green Jill Stein is running for president of the country. As a green chapter, we talked about sending a letter to the editor in support of his run. It would go something like this:
“We can’t afford to allow the ‘powers that be’ to keep running the show because they will drown us. That is why we support Jill in her efforts. However, the issues are SO critical (climate change, pollution, global economics, political corruption, world unrest, rapidly multiplying extinctions, and overpopulation) that we NEED to have someone with national and international recognition who is willing to fight for these as life-affirming priorities. Both Democrats and Republicans are wholly owned subsidiaries of corporation America who no longer represent what the people and the planet need.”
--send to the Boston Globe, SEN, T&G, Turley, Herald
TO DO:
Daphne: Research the Growing Places (see above)
Gus: Can you locate Kevin’s article about mapping your neighborhood?
Maureen: Ask Durant if he received Gus’s email; what does he think? DONE Gus resent the letter to him on 12/7/2011
Quinebaug Valley Greens Local
Meeting at the Joshua Hyde Library , Sturbridge, MA
Attendees: Maureen Doyle, Gus Steeves, Daphne Stevens
Daphne heard about Americanselect.org, a group that wants a 3rd candidate for President of the US. We talked about this in light of Jill Stein’s run for President.
Growing Places Garden Project in Clinton, MA: a non-profit whose mission s to “improve food security and provide nutrition”. Would they be interested in pairing with us to gain chickens and chicken ownership?
---growing places.org
--Daphne will research this
Sierra Club has a list of things needed for a town to attain the green designation
Map your neighborhood: this will enable people to share resources (like chain saws, looking out for handicapped folks, sharing/looking out for propane tanks, etc.)
--Kevin wrote an article about this in the Southbridge Evening News
Legislature bill about creating local energy supplies
Letter to Durant (that we worked on last meeting, regarding agriculture programs in more schools)
--Gus sent the letter already
--Durant has office hours at the Southbridge town hall tonight and we will talk to him about it
Jill’s Campaign
As everyone knows, fellow Green Jill Stein is running for president of the country. As a green chapter, we talked about sending a letter to the editor in support of his run. It would go something like this:
“We can’t afford to allow the ‘powers that be’ to keep running the show because they will drown us. That is why we support Jill in her efforts. However, the issues are SO critical (climate change, pollution, global economics, political corruption, world unrest, rapidly multiplying extinctions, and overpopulation) that we NEED to have someone with national and international recognition who is willing to fight for these as life-affirming priorities. Both Democrats and Republicans are wholly owned subsidiaries of corporation America who no longer represent what the people and the planet need.”
--send to the Boston Globe, SEN, T&G, Turley, Herald
TO DO:
Daphne: Research the Growing Places (see above)
Gus: Can you locate Kevin’s article about mapping your neighborhood?
Maureen: Ask Durant if he received Gus’s email; what does he think? DONE Gus resent the letter to him on 12/7/2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
20 October Notes
20 October 2011
Quinebaug Valley Greens Local
Meeting at the Joshua Hyde Library , Sturbridge, MA
Attendees: Maureen Doyle, Gus Steeves, Daphne Stevens
Time: 11:20p
State Redistricting: how with this affect our districts; Durant will still be Worcester 6th(Charlton, Southbridge, Dudley and a bit of Spencer), Smola will be 1st Hampden (including Warren, Brimfield, Sturbridge., Wales, Palmer, and Holland); Kuros is still Uxbridge (but he is farther away from us); we will come in contact with Frost more as he is Worcester 7th including Auburn, Millbury, and Oxford; Fattman will cover Webster, Douglas, and Sutton.
Letter promoting an agriculture program in a local high school (the new Southbridge High school would be perfect because they are still constructing it). We will send the letter to Eric Eli; Jeffry Zanghi (the curriculum specialist); Reps. Durant, Smola, and Kuros
What other ag programs are there: Killingly, CT high school, UMASS Extension
Ag curriculums: I searched for agro ecology programs. Most seem to be at the college level. The author of my agro ecology 101 book, Miguel Altieri, is behind most of them.
Occupy and Mark Miller: Discussed these recent events. We need to contact Grace Ross to see how we can get involved in Occupy Worcester
Next Meetings at 11am, at the JHL:
October 27 and November 17th
TO DO:
GUS: Pen letter to reps about chickens; to Durant say, “Following up on our discussion at you Sothbridge Twn Hall Office Hours”
ALL: Research agriculture Curriculum
MAUREEN: tell Eric Eli about the Vernal Pool at the new high school site
ALL: Ask the Zepps , who are neighbors to the new school, if they will help. Can they tell us what predators are up there?
ALL: visit the Deep Green website (http://deepgreenresistance.org) and on Facebook
MAUREEN: Ask Jack Kittredge if he will speak about chicken ownership
MAUREEN: Contact Dave Wilson, from UW, to ask about agroecolgy curriculum (DONE- I couldn’t find him!)
MAUREEN: write to Bob Datz regarding holding a ‘living room meeting’ regarding corporate personhood
Quinebaug Valley Greens Local
Meeting at the Joshua Hyde Library , Sturbridge, MA
Attendees: Maureen Doyle, Gus Steeves, Daphne Stevens
Time: 11:20p
State Redistricting: how with this affect our districts; Durant will still be Worcester 6th(Charlton, Southbridge, Dudley and a bit of Spencer), Smola will be 1st Hampden (including Warren, Brimfield, Sturbridge., Wales, Palmer, and Holland); Kuros is still Uxbridge (but he is farther away from us); we will come in contact with Frost more as he is Worcester 7th including Auburn, Millbury, and Oxford; Fattman will cover Webster, Douglas, and Sutton.
Letter promoting an agriculture program in a local high school (the new Southbridge High school would be perfect because they are still constructing it). We will send the letter to Eric Eli; Jeffry Zanghi (the curriculum specialist); Reps. Durant, Smola, and Kuros
What other ag programs are there: Killingly, CT high school, UMASS Extension
Ag curriculums: I searched for agro ecology programs. Most seem to be at the college level. The author of my agro ecology 101 book, Miguel Altieri, is behind most of them.
Occupy and Mark Miller: Discussed these recent events. We need to contact Grace Ross to see how we can get involved in Occupy Worcester
Next Meetings at 11am, at the JHL:
October 27 and November 17th
TO DO:
GUS: Pen letter to reps about chickens; to Durant say, “Following up on our discussion at you Sothbridge Twn Hall Office Hours”
ALL: Research agriculture Curriculum
MAUREEN: tell Eric Eli about the Vernal Pool at the new high school site
ALL: Ask the Zepps , who are neighbors to the new school, if they will help. Can they tell us what predators are up there?
ALL: visit the Deep Green website (http://deepgreenresistance.org) and on Facebook
MAUREEN: Ask Jack Kittredge if he will speak about chicken ownership
MAUREEN: Contact Dave Wilson, from UW, to ask about agroecolgy curriculum (DONE- I couldn’t find him!)
MAUREEN: write to Bob Datz regarding holding a ‘living room meeting’ regarding corporate personhood
Notes of September 22
22 September 2011
Quinebaug Valley Greens Local
Meeting at the Joshua Hyde Library , Sturbridge, MA
Attendees: Maureen Doyle, Gus Steeves, Daphne Stevens
Time: 11:20p
Locavesting speaker at JEL: Gus talked to Margaret Morrissey at the Jacob Edwards Library about the possibly of the author of Locavesting coming to speak there. There is nothing definite so any planning on our part would be immature.
Office Hours of our Local Representatives:
Brewer: D- Barre; Tatman House, 20 Common St., Barre, MA 01005, 978-355-244 4or Room 212 Boston, MA 02133:Chair, Senate Ways and Means Committee, Chair of the Joint Committee on Ways and Means, Joint Committee on Rules, Senate Committee on Ethics and Rules
Smola: R- Palmer; Room 156, Boston, MA 02133 ; 617-722-2240; House Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures, and State Assets and Joint Committee on Public Service.
Durant: R-Spencer; Room 33, Boston, MA 02133, 617-722-2060; joint Committee on elder affairs and the joint committee on transportation.
Kuros: R-Uxbridge, Room 443, Boston, MA 02133, 617-722-2460
Wording for a Petition to our State Legislators: to allow persoanla use of chickens for property owners that do NOT have 5 acres. Include:
-- chicken rearing for personal use (not commercial use)
--this helps the local economy (each chicken owner will purchase food, shavings as well as other supplies for them)
--we , the undersigned, seek an amendment to MGL tpo allow chickens for property owners with ¼ acre or more
--with the following restrictions:
Non-commercial- use only; hens only (no roosters)
-- notices to abutting occupied houses
--this shall be a by-right use, up to a dozen hens per acre, pro-rated for smaller acrages
--chickens make much less noise than lawn mowers, neighbors with blaring radios, etc.
Quinebaug Valley Greens Local
Meeting at the Joshua Hyde Library , Sturbridge, MA
Attendees: Maureen Doyle, Gus Steeves, Daphne Stevens
Time: 11:20p
Locavesting speaker at JEL: Gus talked to Margaret Morrissey at the Jacob Edwards Library about the possibly of the author of Locavesting coming to speak there. There is nothing definite so any planning on our part would be immature.
Office Hours of our Local Representatives:
Brewer: D- Barre; Tatman House, 20 Common St., Barre, MA 01005, 978-355-244 4or Room 212 Boston, MA 02133:Chair, Senate Ways and Means Committee, Chair of the Joint Committee on Ways and Means, Joint Committee on Rules, Senate Committee on Ethics and Rules
Smola: R- Palmer; Room 156, Boston, MA 02133 ; 617-722-2240; House Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures, and State Assets and Joint Committee on Public Service.
Durant: R-Spencer; Room 33, Boston, MA 02133, 617-722-2060; joint Committee on elder affairs and the joint committee on transportation.
Kuros: R-Uxbridge, Room 443, Boston, MA 02133, 617-722-2460
Wording for a Petition to our State Legislators: to allow persoanla use of chickens for property owners that do NOT have 5 acres. Include:
-- chicken rearing for personal use (not commercial use)
--this helps the local economy (each chicken owner will purchase food, shavings as well as other supplies for them)
--we , the undersigned, seek an amendment to MGL tpo allow chickens for property owners with ¼ acre or more
--with the following restrictions:
Non-commercial- use only; hens only (no roosters)
-- notices to abutting occupied houses
--this shall be a by-right use, up to a dozen hens per acre, pro-rated for smaller acrages
--chickens make much less noise than lawn mowers, neighbors with blaring radios, etc.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
A New Language
By DAPHNE STEVENS
Editor's Note: Daphne recently gave this as a guest sermon at the Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church. The Green Party isn't sectarian, but the views are very similar to many of those shared by political Greens.
How many of you have tried to learn another language or languages? How many of you have become so adept that you can think in this new language? There is quite a difference. Today, we all need to think in the new language, the language of GREEN.
When I was learning Spanish, I had to mentally translate each word from English, a sort of back and forth. Eventually there were phrases that I could say easily without translating first. The Unitarian Univeralist 7th principle is about protecting the interdependent web of life. Currently that web is torn. We all need to
bring the health of the planet into the forefront of our thoughts. You may think that’s not a language. But it is. GREEN is the language of our planet.
I became really aware that I think and speak green when I started asking candidates how green he or she is. The usual answer is they recycle. Occasionally, I will come across someone who is really committed to putting the planet first. My favorite of the former, was the man who wanted my signature to get on the ballot. When I asked my question, there was a long pause and then he said “I’m Irish." I explained why I couldn’t sign his petition.
That’s one way to think green. Others are probably more familiar. For example, you may already combine trips for errands. Do you think next, I can walk for some of these things? If you have to go to J.C. Penney and Job Lot, would you park in the middle and walk to both? Short trips are detrimental to our automobile exhaust systems. I have consistently found that being GREEN is better for my car, my health and the planet I live on.
It’s no coincidence that Unitarian Universalists have adopted the 7th principle. Many studies have shown that being in nature calms your soul, brings beauty into your world and peace into your heart. Watching birds, animals, children all have a therapeutic effect on us. Nature can cure itself if we can give it a chance. For example, I recently learned that Catbriar, which has sharp thorns, grows out of disturbed land, those
thorns protect the land until it can recover. Birch trees are short lived nurse trees, quickly filling in old pasture land. Their goal is to shade the slower growing pines that eventually give way to the hardwoods, creating a mature forest. As the birch trees die, their crumbling wood is food for various organisms that help promote further growth. This process in turn provides forest soil nutrients for the next and following generations.
Scientists have found many plants have medicinal qualities that can cure the planet and its organisms. It is expected that there are many future drugs in the enormous but shrinking rainforests. As we destroy the earth, we are losing the opportunity to find those potential medicines that can save us from the ills created by our destructive behavior.
Look at our filthy air; it’s no wonder that asthma is increasing among the young and old. There are toxins in many products, also in the water and on the earth that our government is reluctant to remove, much less find out more about the suspected toxicity.
I rail against our government. They won’t spend the money needed to protect us.
I cringe when a store clerk holds out a BPA-laden receipt to me. I need to have my gloves ready sooner. Why are our leaders ignoring our pleas? Generally they support those with money and power. Fortunately we are finding that environmental companies can survive, make a profit and clean up the planet. Support those companies that are more responsive to the health of the Earth, our home.
I recently purchased the Go Green stamps from the United States Post Office, a government agency that says on the back "Best of all, once you’ve started thinking and acting green, you’ll feel proud that you’ve been a part of a big change." I wish the US government would follow thinking and acting green.
Another example of acting GREEN is by the bank you choose for your financial purposes. Most banks are out for themselves and their stockholders. You would probably be horrified to learn where these banks are investing your money. The enormous cost of war materials is probably a good bet; how about oil or huge salaries and bonuses. Also, imagine the companies that benefit by working with these banks. Instead, remove your money from these banks; invest instead in a Credit Union where your money stays in your community. (Find one here -- our state has LOTS.) The benefits, including help for low income people to buy homes, start businesses, afford an education, buy cars to go to a job etc., raise the level of the area you live in, improving your quality of life. I am very fortunate to have a green credit card where the money earned also is returned to the community.
Furthermore, there are investment companies with various screens to protect your money from industries you don’t want to support. Good examples of these screens are only investing in companies that protect the environment, support social justice, and promote safer and plentiful food.
Food is another issue where you can vote with your dollar for the sake of your health. I always try to buy organic, not just because that food has been exposed to fewer herbicides and pesticides, but because the soil is improved, often containing the minerals that you need for a healthy body. The importance of these minerals to us is a huge new field that we are now learning so much more about.
Many people are finding that vacations can be green adventures. Some people look for an organization that welcomes those who want to work for a week: rebuilding storm damaged areas, improving wilderness trails, doing animal inventories, studying sea creatures and more. Many religious organizations offer programs to help those in need. Our church has raised money for Haiti and helped in building a Unitarian Universalist church in Africa. We cleaned the Brookfield common and have offered programs educating the public about climate change. There are many opportunities to help.
Others of us do activist activities: write letters to our elected officials, local or city newspapers, go door to door for a green cause, support green politicians, grow food for others, pick up litter, remove invasive plants, give a green sermon, live simply which is very green, buying little, walking and biking more and praying for the planet.
You are probably, without thinking about it, putting all the people in your household first when you are planning your day or week. All I am asking is include the planet, our only home, in your focus for that day or week. You will find that this commitment will improve your outlook, your health and pocket book. Be one with nature.
Editor's Note: Daphne recently gave this as a guest sermon at the Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church. The Green Party isn't sectarian, but the views are very similar to many of those shared by political Greens.
How many of you have tried to learn another language or languages? How many of you have become so adept that you can think in this new language? There is quite a difference. Today, we all need to think in the new language, the language of GREEN.
When I was learning Spanish, I had to mentally translate each word from English, a sort of back and forth. Eventually there were phrases that I could say easily without translating first. The Unitarian Univeralist 7th principle is about protecting the interdependent web of life. Currently that web is torn. We all need to
bring the health of the planet into the forefront of our thoughts. You may think that’s not a language. But it is. GREEN is the language of our planet.
I became really aware that I think and speak green when I started asking candidates how green he or she is. The usual answer is they recycle. Occasionally, I will come across someone who is really committed to putting the planet first. My favorite of the former, was the man who wanted my signature to get on the ballot. When I asked my question, there was a long pause and then he said “I’m Irish." I explained why I couldn’t sign his petition.
That’s one way to think green. Others are probably more familiar. For example, you may already combine trips for errands. Do you think next, I can walk for some of these things? If you have to go to J.C. Penney and Job Lot, would you park in the middle and walk to both? Short trips are detrimental to our automobile exhaust systems. I have consistently found that being GREEN is better for my car, my health and the planet I live on.
It’s no coincidence that Unitarian Universalists have adopted the 7th principle. Many studies have shown that being in nature calms your soul, brings beauty into your world and peace into your heart. Watching birds, animals, children all have a therapeutic effect on us. Nature can cure itself if we can give it a chance. For example, I recently learned that Catbriar, which has sharp thorns, grows out of disturbed land, those
thorns protect the land until it can recover. Birch trees are short lived nurse trees, quickly filling in old pasture land. Their goal is to shade the slower growing pines that eventually give way to the hardwoods, creating a mature forest. As the birch trees die, their crumbling wood is food for various organisms that help promote further growth. This process in turn provides forest soil nutrients for the next and following generations.
Scientists have found many plants have medicinal qualities that can cure the planet and its organisms. It is expected that there are many future drugs in the enormous but shrinking rainforests. As we destroy the earth, we are losing the opportunity to find those potential medicines that can save us from the ills created by our destructive behavior.
Look at our filthy air; it’s no wonder that asthma is increasing among the young and old. There are toxins in many products, also in the water and on the earth that our government is reluctant to remove, much less find out more about the suspected toxicity.
I rail against our government. They won’t spend the money needed to protect us.
I cringe when a store clerk holds out a BPA-laden receipt to me. I need to have my gloves ready sooner. Why are our leaders ignoring our pleas? Generally they support those with money and power. Fortunately we are finding that environmental companies can survive, make a profit and clean up the planet. Support those companies that are more responsive to the health of the Earth, our home.
I recently purchased the Go Green stamps from the United States Post Office, a government agency that says on the back "Best of all, once you’ve started thinking and acting green, you’ll feel proud that you’ve been a part of a big change." I wish the US government would follow thinking and acting green.
Another example of acting GREEN is by the bank you choose for your financial purposes. Most banks are out for themselves and their stockholders. You would probably be horrified to learn where these banks are investing your money. The enormous cost of war materials is probably a good bet; how about oil or huge salaries and bonuses. Also, imagine the companies that benefit by working with these banks. Instead, remove your money from these banks; invest instead in a Credit Union where your money stays in your community. (Find one here -- our state has LOTS.) The benefits, including help for low income people to buy homes, start businesses, afford an education, buy cars to go to a job etc., raise the level of the area you live in, improving your quality of life. I am very fortunate to have a green credit card where the money earned also is returned to the community.
Furthermore, there are investment companies with various screens to protect your money from industries you don’t want to support. Good examples of these screens are only investing in companies that protect the environment, support social justice, and promote safer and plentiful food.
Food is another issue where you can vote with your dollar for the sake of your health. I always try to buy organic, not just because that food has been exposed to fewer herbicides and pesticides, but because the soil is improved, often containing the minerals that you need for a healthy body. The importance of these minerals to us is a huge new field that we are now learning so much more about.
Many people are finding that vacations can be green adventures. Some people look for an organization that welcomes those who want to work for a week: rebuilding storm damaged areas, improving wilderness trails, doing animal inventories, studying sea creatures and more. Many religious organizations offer programs to help those in need. Our church has raised money for Haiti and helped in building a Unitarian Universalist church in Africa. We cleaned the Brookfield common and have offered programs educating the public about climate change. There are many opportunities to help.
Others of us do activist activities: write letters to our elected officials, local or city newspapers, go door to door for a green cause, support green politicians, grow food for others, pick up litter, remove invasive plants, give a green sermon, live simply which is very green, buying little, walking and biking more and praying for the planet.
You are probably, without thinking about it, putting all the people in your household first when you are planning your day or week. All I am asking is include the planet, our only home, in your focus for that day or week. You will find that this commitment will improve your outlook, your health and pocket book. Be one with nature.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
21 April minutes
21 April 2011
Quinebaug Valley Greens Local
Attendees: Daphne Stevens, Maureen Doyle, Gus Steeves
Since this was our first meeting, we did not have an agenda.
-We talked about Jill’s recent phone call to us and about registering for Doodle.com
-We talked about the conference’s four goals: 1. Green economy, 2. Single-Payer health care,3. Instant Runoff Voting, and 4. Peace
-We talked about the proposed wind turbines for Charlton, MA , solar projects in Southbridge, and the wind turbine in Worcester (at Holy Name High School) in regard to the Green Economy.
--how can we support these projects? Cable projects?
--we talked about attending the upcoming public hearings: on May 4th, the Bay Path Wind Turbine hearing in coming before the Charlton Planning Board
Food Issues: Daphne’s church is donating food to the Worcester Food Bank(canned goods and boxed items) and light bulbs. There was a speaker at her church who spoke about how the Worc. Food Bank works. She’ll find out the name of the person. Can we, as a local, participate? We discussed a meeting that Gus and I attended where Charlene C. talked about the length of food supply we have in this area. Would she be willing to speak out here again? We talked about butchers in the area; what sort of a food supply do they have? Linda F. could speak about how CSAs work and Chris S. could talk about container gardening.
Other potential speakers (about green issues in general):
Linda C. (re-elected to the Board of Health in Sturbridge; she seems very “green” in her positions)
Ted
Kathleen W. (Charlton Selectwoman)
Ian L. (pastor from Brimfield)
Mike S. (knows a lot about composting and gardening)
Scott B.
John G.
Brad K. (head of maintenance at Old Sturbridge Village; he does not use pesticides)
Peter P. (pastor from Southbridge)
Russ
Other ideas:
Approaching local businesses about how they use things, like Styrofoam. Can we change that? Can we educate folks.
Work on individual town clean-ups. Southbridge has a clean-up, organized by the Future of Southbridge. Do other towns?
Community Gardens (http://acga.localharvest.org/garden/M2138)- getting one started here and a potential speaker
Press release to send to the area papers and cable services Stonebridge Press (Southbridge Evening News, the Villager Papers, Sturbridge, Charlton, Webster Times), Turley Papers ( tkane@turley.com;
Town Common http://www.thetantasquatowncommon.com/, Quabog Current http://quaboagcurrent.com/index1.html), Leicester (web only),
Ecosystem of the Quinebaug Valley:
Spencer
Sturbridge
Southbridge
Webster Dudley
Charlton
Holland
Wales
Brookfields
Next meeting: May 5th, 2011 at the Joshua Hyde Library in Sturbridge at 11am
GUS: share info received disputing the flicker effect
DAPHNE: research green solar field research and the Norfolk solar field project
MAUREEN: Contact Sandy Q., from Sturbridge. Sturbridge had a presentation about solar hot water recently
EVERYONE: work on creating our own education about these issues
EVERYONE: register on doodle.com (It is easy!! I did it and you can, too! J)
MAUREEN: Contact Charlene C. about speaking about the food supply.
DAPHNE: Find out the name of the person from the Worcester Food bank.
GUS: Do you have contact at the Worc. Food Bank also?
GUS: You offered to write a press release
Quinebaug Valley Greens Local
Attendees: Daphne Stevens, Maureen Doyle, Gus Steeves
Since this was our first meeting, we did not have an agenda.
-We talked about Jill’s recent phone call to us and about registering for Doodle.com
-We talked about the conference’s four goals: 1. Green economy, 2. Single-Payer health care,3. Instant Runoff Voting, and 4. Peace
-We talked about the proposed wind turbines for Charlton, MA , solar projects in Southbridge, and the wind turbine in Worcester (at Holy Name High School) in regard to the Green Economy.
--how can we support these projects? Cable projects?
--we talked about attending the upcoming public hearings: on May 4th, the Bay Path Wind Turbine hearing in coming before the Charlton Planning Board
Food Issues: Daphne’s church is donating food to the Worcester Food Bank(canned goods and boxed items) and light bulbs. There was a speaker at her church who spoke about how the Worc. Food Bank works. She’ll find out the name of the person. Can we, as a local, participate? We discussed a meeting that Gus and I attended where Charlene C. talked about the length of food supply we have in this area. Would she be willing to speak out here again? We talked about butchers in the area; what sort of a food supply do they have? Linda F. could speak about how CSAs work and Chris S. could talk about container gardening.
Other potential speakers (about green issues in general):
Linda C. (re-elected to the Board of Health in Sturbridge; she seems very “green” in her positions)
Ted
Kathleen W. (Charlton Selectwoman)
Ian L. (pastor from Brimfield)
Mike S. (knows a lot about composting and gardening)
Scott B.
John G.
Brad K. (head of maintenance at Old Sturbridge Village; he does not use pesticides)
Peter P. (pastor from Southbridge)
Russ
Other ideas:
Approaching local businesses about how they use things, like Styrofoam. Can we change that? Can we educate folks.
Work on individual town clean-ups. Southbridge has a clean-up, organized by the Future of Southbridge. Do other towns?
Community Gardens (http://acga.localharvest.org/garden/M2138)- getting one started here and a potential speaker
Press release to send to the area papers and cable services Stonebridge Press (Southbridge Evening News, the Villager Papers, Sturbridge, Charlton, Webster Times), Turley Papers ( tkane@turley.com;
Town Common http://www.thetantasquatowncommon.com/, Quabog Current http://quaboagcurrent.com/index1.html), Leicester (web only),
Ecosystem of the Quinebaug Valley:
Spencer
Sturbridge
Southbridge
Webster Dudley
Charlton
Holland
Wales
Brookfields
Next meeting: May 5th, 2011 at the Joshua Hyde Library in Sturbridge at 11am
GUS: share info received disputing the flicker effect
DAPHNE: research green solar field research and the Norfolk solar field project
MAUREEN: Contact Sandy Q., from Sturbridge. Sturbridge had a presentation about solar hot water recently
EVERYONE: work on creating our own education about these issues
EVERYONE: register on doodle.com (It is easy!! I did it and you can, too! J)
MAUREEN: Contact Charlene C. about speaking about the food supply.
DAPHNE: Find out the name of the person from the Worcester Food bank.
GUS: Do you have contact at the Worc. Food Bank also?
GUS: You offered to write a press release
May 5th minutes
5 May 2011
Quinebaug Valley Greens Local
Meeting at the Joshua Hyde Library , Sturbridge, MA
Attendees: Maureen Doyle, Gus Steeves, Daphne Stevens
Time: 11:30a
--Gus read his press release , seeking comments from the other members of the local. We discussed wording and phrasing. We agreed on one and Gus will submit it. We talked about getting it translated into Spanish and will ask Nancy (from Lit volunteers or Rick Purcell)
--Setting up a GMAIL account: This will be accessible to all three of us. We decided we will try for the account name of: quingreens@gmail.com
-- a patron in the library came over to talk to us; she seemed in sync with many of our views and shared her information. Please include on our email list and contact list.
--add Sturbridge Times to our list of places we want to list our meetings: www.sturbridgetimes.com
508-347-7077
--Southbridge Fest (june 4th): should we table there? No- it will cost us to reserve a table. Backpack? Clipboard? Yes- we could just walk around with info.
--next meeting: we walk to accommodate more people; should it be in the evening? Afternoon? We talked about a tentative date being May 19th at 11am. Gus is going to talk to Nancy S. as she expressed interest in our group. Whenever she can make it on that day we will try to accommodate (so the 11 am time is totally flexible).
--should we pair up with the last green valley? http://www.tlgv.org, Phone: 860-774-3300
From last meeting:
GUS: share info received from Dimitri’s step mum disputing the flicker effect
DAPHNE: research green solar field research and the Norfolk solar field project
MAUREEN: Contact Sandy, from Sturbridge. Sturbridge had a presentation about solar hot water recently
EVERYONE: work on creating our own education about these issues
MAUREEN: Contact Charlene C about speaking about the food supply.
DAPHNE: Find out the name of the person from the Worcester Food bank.
GUS: Do you have contact at the Worc. Food Bank also?
This meeting:
GUS: register on doodle.com
GUS: Please submit the press release that you wrote.
GUS: Contact Nancy S. and invite her to a meeting.
Quinebaug Valley Greens Local
Meeting at the Joshua Hyde Library , Sturbridge, MA
Attendees: Maureen Doyle, Gus Steeves, Daphne Stevens
Time: 11:30a
--Gus read his press release , seeking comments from the other members of the local. We discussed wording and phrasing. We agreed on one and Gus will submit it. We talked about getting it translated into Spanish and will ask Nancy (from Lit volunteers or Rick Purcell)
--Setting up a GMAIL account: This will be accessible to all three of us. We decided we will try for the account name of: quingreens@gmail.com
-- a patron in the library came over to talk to us; she seemed in sync with many of our views and shared her information. Please include on our email list and contact list.
--add Sturbridge Times to our list of places we want to list our meetings: www.sturbridgetimes.com
508-347-7077
--Southbridge Fest (june 4th): should we table there? No- it will cost us to reserve a table. Backpack? Clipboard? Yes- we could just walk around with info.
--next meeting: we walk to accommodate more people; should it be in the evening? Afternoon? We talked about a tentative date being May 19th at 11am. Gus is going to talk to Nancy S. as she expressed interest in our group. Whenever she can make it on that day we will try to accommodate (so the 11 am time is totally flexible).
--should we pair up with the last green valley? http://www.tlgv.org, Phone: 860-774-3300
From last meeting:
GUS: share info received from Dimitri’s step mum disputing the flicker effect
DAPHNE: research green solar field research and the Norfolk solar field project
MAUREEN: Contact Sandy, from Sturbridge. Sturbridge had a presentation about solar hot water recently
EVERYONE: work on creating our own education about these issues
MAUREEN: Contact Charlene C about speaking about the food supply.
DAPHNE: Find out the name of the person from the Worcester Food bank.
GUS: Do you have contact at the Worc. Food Bank also?
This meeting:
GUS: register on doodle.com
GUS: Please submit the press release that you wrote.
GUS: Contact Nancy S. and invite her to a meeting.
Minutes From 16 June
16 June 2011
Quinebaug Valley Greens Local
Meeting at the Joshua Hyde Library , Sturbridge, MA
Attendees: Maureen Doyle, Gus Steeves, Daphne Stevens
Time: 11:00a
We discussed the article that will appear in Sturbridge Times.
We discussed the regional Peace Meeting that occurred in Worcester last Saturday. Gus and I attended. We recapped the discussion on the People’s Budget, Gordon’s ides, and Chris Horton’s foreclosure idea.
We revisited and reinforced our decision to set up a GRP local, the Quinebaug Valley Greens. So, we looked at the MA Green Party Organizing Manual again. We reviewed some goals:
--”in short, a good group will be effective, fun, and participatory.”
--is there a curriculum at Bay Path about agriculture?
--contact Charleen Cultler, from the Last Green Valley, about doing programs on food (specifically, growing local food)
--founding a Grange
--connecting with Quinsigemond College: can we host a speaker or present a program there?
--Daphne suggested creating a list of local farmers and farmers’ markets; talk to them and find out the requirements of each. To promote them
--working on allowing backyard chickens (working with town zoning boards, what should a local ordinance look like? The number of chickens allowed, not allowing roosters, etc) , local gardening and fruit tree.
--would local farmers have input into these town/city issues?
--there is a man who spoke recently to the Worcester City Council about backyard chickens; what happened? Gus has his name and number.
-- http://www.tlgv.org, Phone: 860-774-3300
From first meeting:
GUS: share info received from Dimitri’s step mum disputing the flicker effect
DAPHNE: research green solar field research and the Norfolk solar field project
MAUREEN: Contact Sandy Quigley, from Sturbridge. Sturbridge had a presentation about solar hot water recently
EVERYONE: work on creating our own education about these issues
MAUREEN: Contact Charlene Cutler about speaking about the food supply.
DAPHNE: Find out the name of the person from the Worcester Food bank.
GUS: Do you have contact at the Worc. Food Bank also?
From the last meeting:
GUS: register on doodle.com
GUS: Please submit the press release that you wrote.
GUS: Contact Nancy Shields and invite her to a meeting.
From this meeting:
GUS: update on press release and getting it translated into Spanish
EVERYONE: has anyone gone on the email account or looked at the blog?
GUS: do you have the name and number of the man who spoke before the Worcester City Council?
GUS: Talk to Michelle Buck (The Town Planner from Leicester and Spencer); what is their situation like (regarding backyard chickens and goats)
GUS and MAUREEN: send monthly MDAR mailing to Daphne
DAPHNE: Call the registered Greens from your town list
GUS: Contact the Holistic Health and Raw Food Counselor whom you met recently
Next meeting: Two weeks from last meeting
11am, Thursday, June 30th at the Joshua Hyde Library, Sturbridge
Quinebaug Valley Greens Local
Meeting at the Joshua Hyde Library , Sturbridge, MA
Attendees: Maureen Doyle, Gus Steeves, Daphne Stevens
Time: 11:00a
We discussed the article that will appear in Sturbridge Times.
We discussed the regional Peace Meeting that occurred in Worcester last Saturday. Gus and I attended. We recapped the discussion on the People’s Budget, Gordon’s ides, and Chris Horton’s foreclosure idea.
We revisited and reinforced our decision to set up a GRP local, the Quinebaug Valley Greens. So, we looked at the MA Green Party Organizing Manual again. We reviewed some goals:
--”in short, a good group will be effective, fun, and participatory.”
--is there a curriculum at Bay Path about agriculture?
--contact Charleen Cultler, from the Last Green Valley, about doing programs on food (specifically, growing local food)
--founding a Grange
--connecting with Quinsigemond College: can we host a speaker or present a program there?
--Daphne suggested creating a list of local farmers and farmers’ markets; talk to them and find out the requirements of each. To promote them
--working on allowing backyard chickens (working with town zoning boards, what should a local ordinance look like? The number of chickens allowed, not allowing roosters, etc) , local gardening and fruit tree.
--would local farmers have input into these town/city issues?
--there is a man who spoke recently to the Worcester City Council about backyard chickens; what happened? Gus has his name and number.
-- http://www.tlgv.org, Phone: 860-774-3300
From first meeting:
GUS: share info received from Dimitri’s step mum disputing the flicker effect
DAPHNE: research green solar field research and the Norfolk solar field project
MAUREEN: Contact Sandy Quigley, from Sturbridge. Sturbridge had a presentation about solar hot water recently
EVERYONE: work on creating our own education about these issues
MAUREEN: Contact Charlene Cutler about speaking about the food supply.
DAPHNE: Find out the name of the person from the Worcester Food bank.
GUS: Do you have contact at the Worc. Food Bank also?
From the last meeting:
GUS: register on doodle.com
GUS: Please submit the press release that you wrote.
GUS: Contact Nancy Shields and invite her to a meeting.
From this meeting:
GUS: update on press release and getting it translated into Spanish
EVERYONE: has anyone gone on the email account or looked at the blog?
GUS: do you have the name and number of the man who spoke before the Worcester City Council?
GUS: Talk to Michelle Buck (The Town Planner from Leicester and Spencer); what is their situation like (regarding backyard chickens and goats)
GUS and MAUREEN: send monthly MDAR mailing to Daphne
DAPHNE: Call the registered Greens from your town list
GUS: Contact the Holistic Health and Raw Food Counselor whom you met recently
Next meeting: Two weeks from last meeting
11am, Thursday, June 30th at the Joshua Hyde Library, Sturbridge
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Viral capitalism
"... I was working in an orchard/ that grew the strangest fruit;
It wasn't Mother Nature that made those trees/ take root.
Your children cannot hear you/they only want your loot ...
They never believed you were in distress.
Now you've gone and left them with Tristesse..."
~ The Church, "Tristesse" (from "Heyday" 1985)
The way we're going, that could be the theme song for the year 2030, maybe even earlier. What's sad is that they saw it 26 years ago ... and others did so even before that.
What does that say about our culture's ability to change?
Obviously, something as big as a civilization has a lot of inertia, and it doesn't make the process of change any easier when a relative handful of people are making unbelievable quantities of money because of the path we're on. Even though the vast majority of us aren't in that group, those who are depend on the rest of us for their position and wealth. Without us, they'd be nobody.
Our system does everything possible to deny that basic fact, driven as it is by the dogma of the uber-individual. But since the very first day some courageous proto-human walked out of the trees and realized there's an enormous savannah out there with some large, salivating carnivores just waiting to eat him (or her), it's been our communal abilities that have kept us alive. Granted, some people ARE stronger, more creative, more organized, smarter -- whatever superlative you can think of -- than the average human, but that person usually needs to be very lucky to be in the right place and time where their talent or new idea can take root and, most crucially, to have people around them who believe in that idea and their talents. Let's call it the Great Widget, but remember it applies as much to the paper clip as to Microsoft.
Capitalism -- especially the current, globalized Wall Street/corporatist version of it -- neglects those "little people," rewarding the idea person far out of proportion for the actual amount of work they put into making the Widget possible. At the same time, it largely under-rewards the various labors of the many that made it possible to bring the Widget into existence, sell it, transport it, etc. During the process, it gives smart but unethical people who have talents that can be profitably commoditized in this kind of culture (which is not the only one humanly possible) an excuse to be greedy and grossly antisocial, allowing them to use their luck to abuse other people and, even worse, convince those other people to abuse Earth herself for short-term gain.
Inevitably, any such gain will be short-term -- maybe not in the sense of an individual lifespan, but, as we're beginning to see all around us, certainly in the sense of human longevity as a species. A lot of the talk in environmental circles is still, after decades, about "saving the planet," but by taking strong action to heal Earth's distress, we're saving OURSELVES. Doing that means making major changes to the capitalist system, quite likely by killing it off as we now know it, but definitely by greatly reducing the quantity of wasteful and polluting Widgets we make.
First and foremost, we need to separate capitalism from the concept of democracy -- the two did "grow up" together to some degree, but that was more historical chance than because they're kin. They're not. Capitalism has actually served to mutate democracy's development by corrupting or outright preventing the electoral process (depending on the country) and laying minefields in the way of real reforms that would allow more human beings to be involved in government (as opposed to the inhuman non-people called corporations). That's because capitalism's primary aim has always been two-fold: concentrate wealth and political power in the hands of the few while using virus-like rhetoric of individualism, opportunity and competition to divide the common people. Even Adam Smith saw that back in 1776, although he didn't phrase it that way.* In some periods, those common folks have been able to take a few steps up the capitalist ladder, but only when a strong, honest and responsive government has been able to counter the system's monopolistic tendencies.
Unfortunately, now is not one of those periods; both major U.S. parties are corrupt (especially at the federal level), and the capitalist doctrine has infected most other governments, including nominally communist ones. The big corporations often don't even pretend to be loyal to any nation anymore, because they're wealthier than many nations.** They're only loyal to the dollar (or yen or yuan or euro, whatever the dominant currency of the day is).
Apologists will say corporations have a legal duty to maximize profit for their shareholders but that's not really true. Nothing prevents a company from using profits for socially- and ecologically-beneficial purposes (far more, I mean, than the token percentages most global players currently spend, amounts that are vastly dwarfed by what they spend to TELL us how "beneficial" they are.) It could be reasonably argued that doing so would, in fact, BE paying the shareholders their dividends, since cleaning up the huge mess the profit system has made of Earth in the last several decades will have a much more positive impact on shareholders' future than any money. Likewise, such apologists will claim a majority of Americans hold stock in some firm or other, and while numerically that's (barely) true, in practice more than 80% of all stock and other investments are in the hands of 10% of the population. Because corporate votes are one stock-one vote rather than one person-one vote, that gives a handful of uber-rich folks total control of and almost all of the profit from those companies.
Such a system is decidedly NOT democratic, but it is what capitalism inherently slides toward when allowed to do what it wishes. It's called plutocracy and, typical of a virus, it is rapidly hijacking our government and our media to make copies of itself, making Earth extremely sick in the process. We need to be Earth's immune system and fight off this infection before it kills us and leaves Earth's ecosystem severely debilitated.
****************
*What he actually wrote was "Merchants ... have an interest to deceive and even to oppress the people." In his time, there were no consumer, child or labor protection laws and no environmental laws, and the Big Business of the period did exactly what it tries to do today -- make as much money as possible with absolutely no qualms about the consequences for workers, land or people. Back then, they were a quite blatant about it, with mercantilist enterprises like the East India Company fielding their own armies to conquer and pillage India, Africa and elsewhere, ostensibly in the name of the Crown.
** A list of the top 100 nations and corporations in 2000 is on page 6 of the linked PDF. Several of those corps have since grown immensely, typically by merger (that date was before the union of Exxon and Mobil, for example) or due to the recently climbing prices for food, oil, etc.
It wasn't Mother Nature that made those trees/ take root.
Your children cannot hear you/they only want your loot ...
They never believed you were in distress.
Now you've gone and left them with Tristesse..."
~ The Church, "Tristesse" (from "Heyday" 1985)
The way we're going, that could be the theme song for the year 2030, maybe even earlier. What's sad is that they saw it 26 years ago ... and others did so even before that.
What does that say about our culture's ability to change?
Obviously, something as big as a civilization has a lot of inertia, and it doesn't make the process of change any easier when a relative handful of people are making unbelievable quantities of money because of the path we're on. Even though the vast majority of us aren't in that group, those who are depend on the rest of us for their position and wealth. Without us, they'd be nobody.
Our system does everything possible to deny that basic fact, driven as it is by the dogma of the uber-individual. But since the very first day some courageous proto-human walked out of the trees and realized there's an enormous savannah out there with some large, salivating carnivores just waiting to eat him (or her), it's been our communal abilities that have kept us alive. Granted, some people ARE stronger, more creative, more organized, smarter -- whatever superlative you can think of -- than the average human, but that person usually needs to be very lucky to be in the right place and time where their talent or new idea can take root and, most crucially, to have people around them who believe in that idea and their talents. Let's call it the Great Widget, but remember it applies as much to the paper clip as to Microsoft.
Capitalism -- especially the current, globalized Wall Street/corporatist version of it -- neglects those "little people," rewarding the idea person far out of proportion for the actual amount of work they put into making the Widget possible. At the same time, it largely under-rewards the various labors of the many that made it possible to bring the Widget into existence, sell it, transport it, etc. During the process, it gives smart but unethical people who have talents that can be profitably commoditized in this kind of culture (which is not the only one humanly possible) an excuse to be greedy and grossly antisocial, allowing them to use their luck to abuse other people and, even worse, convince those other people to abuse Earth herself for short-term gain.
Inevitably, any such gain will be short-term -- maybe not in the sense of an individual lifespan, but, as we're beginning to see all around us, certainly in the sense of human longevity as a species. A lot of the talk in environmental circles is still, after decades, about "saving the planet," but by taking strong action to heal Earth's distress, we're saving OURSELVES. Doing that means making major changes to the capitalist system, quite likely by killing it off as we now know it, but definitely by greatly reducing the quantity of wasteful and polluting Widgets we make.
First and foremost, we need to separate capitalism from the concept of democracy -- the two did "grow up" together to some degree, but that was more historical chance than because they're kin. They're not. Capitalism has actually served to mutate democracy's development by corrupting or outright preventing the electoral process (depending on the country) and laying minefields in the way of real reforms that would allow more human beings to be involved in government (as opposed to the inhuman non-people called corporations). That's because capitalism's primary aim has always been two-fold: concentrate wealth and political power in the hands of the few while using virus-like rhetoric of individualism, opportunity and competition to divide the common people. Even Adam Smith saw that back in 1776, although he didn't phrase it that way.* In some periods, those common folks have been able to take a few steps up the capitalist ladder, but only when a strong, honest and responsive government has been able to counter the system's monopolistic tendencies.
Unfortunately, now is not one of those periods; both major U.S. parties are corrupt (especially at the federal level), and the capitalist doctrine has infected most other governments, including nominally communist ones. The big corporations often don't even pretend to be loyal to any nation anymore, because they're wealthier than many nations.** They're only loyal to the dollar (or yen or yuan or euro, whatever the dominant currency of the day is).
Apologists will say corporations have a legal duty to maximize profit for their shareholders but that's not really true. Nothing prevents a company from using profits for socially- and ecologically-beneficial purposes (far more, I mean, than the token percentages most global players currently spend, amounts that are vastly dwarfed by what they spend to TELL us how "beneficial" they are.) It could be reasonably argued that doing so would, in fact, BE paying the shareholders their dividends, since cleaning up the huge mess the profit system has made of Earth in the last several decades will have a much more positive impact on shareholders' future than any money. Likewise, such apologists will claim a majority of Americans hold stock in some firm or other, and while numerically that's (barely) true, in practice more than 80% of all stock and other investments are in the hands of 10% of the population. Because corporate votes are one stock-one vote rather than one person-one vote, that gives a handful of uber-rich folks total control of and almost all of the profit from those companies.
Such a system is decidedly NOT democratic, but it is what capitalism inherently slides toward when allowed to do what it wishes. It's called plutocracy and, typical of a virus, it is rapidly hijacking our government and our media to make copies of itself, making Earth extremely sick in the process. We need to be Earth's immune system and fight off this infection before it kills us and leaves Earth's ecosystem severely debilitated.
****************
*What he actually wrote was "Merchants ... have an interest to deceive and even to oppress the people." In his time, there were no consumer, child or labor protection laws and no environmental laws, and the Big Business of the period did exactly what it tries to do today -- make as much money as possible with absolutely no qualms about the consequences for workers, land or people. Back then, they were a quite blatant about it, with mercantilist enterprises like the East India Company fielding their own armies to conquer and pillage India, Africa and elsewhere, ostensibly in the name of the Crown.
** A list of the top 100 nations and corporations in 2000 is on page 6 of the linked PDF. Several of those corps have since grown immensely, typically by merger (that date was before the union of Exxon and Mobil, for example) or due to the recently climbing prices for food, oil, etc.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Osama's dead... now what?
Media everywhere have been trying to ferret out the meaning of the May 1 Navy SEALS raid that killed Osama bin Laden, with praise for President Obama and/or Bush, criticism of one or both, and a fair amount of speculation of what al-Qaeda might do next.
What none of the coverage I've seen (at least in our area) even touches is the fact that Osama's death solves none of the real problems that prompted him to start hating the West in the first place. Remember, after all, that he was once OUR guy in Afghanistan vs the Soviets, and he was then fighting a war that, in his mind, never changed -- a war to drive foreigners out of Muslim soil. Once the Soviets departed in 1989, he largely vanished for a while, until the first Iraq War, when we used his homeland, Saudi Arabia, as a staging ground, defeated the Iraqis, and set up semi-permanent shop in Saudi.
We aren't in Saudi in significant military numbers at the moment, but are still in Iraq, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Libya and elsewhere -- and all of them for two interrelated reasons: money and power. In this case, both of them manifest mostly as oil. Yes, I know Afghanistan lacks the black stuff itself, but we're there due to our junkie's relationship with the repressive regime in Riyadh which provides significant doses of our drug of choice.*
If we had broken or seriously reduced our dependence on crude oil starting back in the 1970s, we would not have felt the need to defend the Saudis in 1991, and therefore not have given bin Laden a new target to point his twisted obsessions at. We wouldn't, therefore, be involved in three wars in the Mid East now, and would be free to do what our conscience says we should: support real change in those countries. Likewise, we would be able to truly help the people of Pakistan address the serious crisis mainstream US media doesn't discuss -- they're reeling from last year's massive floods and have disintegrating food and fuel systems that threaten the stability of South Asia.
To be clear, OUR addiction did not justify the Twin Tower attack or al-Qaeda's subsequent activities and ranting, but we could have PREVENTED some or all of it by having some foresight.
We are the wealthiest culture that has EVER existed, but a large part of it is unnecessarily wasteful and redundant: multiple cars and TVs per household, dozens electrical devices left running constantly, giant office buildings that are empty (but sucking energy) about half of every day, the ad-driven demand for the latest fad, failure to build a good transit network, overpackaged everything, etc. Almost all of that waste has been produced by and perpetuates an economic system that is obsessed with the sociopathic notion that we should be in constant competition, when humanity has survived this long primarily because we learned how to share and cooperate. Selfish, greedy people in the Ayn Rand model might have the upper hand over the short-term (they certainly seem to run the global economy now), but that selfishness is rapidly undermining both our culture's capacity to provide for our needs and Earth's capacity to support us.
It's obvious we cannot rewrite history, but it's equally obvious we can't keep enacting the insane script that claims it's "destiny" for us to do whatever we please in the world. That script is one that leads toward more war and our self-destruction as a society -- probably even as a species. There are in fact limits to growth of our economy, our population and our overall impact on the planet. Other cultures and other species do have a right to exist and are not there to serve us.
We are one of many parts of this amazing, wonderful living system called Earth and have a responsibility to ensure that it continues to be a healthy place for life. That means it's long overdue time we stopped playing juvenile, showoff games of power and prestige and started acting like intelligent adults by doing what we know must be done to solve the problems we face. For the U.S., that means leading by quickly weaning ourselves off fossil fuels and resource wasting practices while diverting what funds we have left to building a strong, localized alternative energy network, rebuilding our communities, and cleaning up the ecosystem. Money and power (in the political and energy sense) are tools, not reasons for existence, and certainly should not be the causes of our suicide.
----------
* Saudi Arabia is not our top oil source; it's fourth after Canada, Mexico and the U.S. itself. But it has the world's largest remaining supply of the easy-to-reach, fairly inexpensive oil, and therefore has an inordinate amount of influence. Several sources, however, note Riyadh may have been lying for years about how much it actually has, and the evidence indicates it is not capable of meeting growing global demand. At the same time, all of the non-OPEC sources are rapidly in decline and almost every oil producer is showing signs of holding back some of their oil for their own people rather than exporting it. While some countries have claimed new discoveries, they're almost all from deep-ocean sites that are extremely dangerous and expensive to tap. Add all that to rapidly growing demand from China and India, and we've got a huge mess on our hands known as Peak Oil, which global production numbers show actually hit in 2006.
(It's after midnight and I'm mental toast, so I'll come back later to add the links that support all of these things.)
What none of the coverage I've seen (at least in our area) even touches is the fact that Osama's death solves none of the real problems that prompted him to start hating the West in the first place. Remember, after all, that he was once OUR guy in Afghanistan vs the Soviets, and he was then fighting a war that, in his mind, never changed -- a war to drive foreigners out of Muslim soil. Once the Soviets departed in 1989, he largely vanished for a while, until the first Iraq War, when we used his homeland, Saudi Arabia, as a staging ground, defeated the Iraqis, and set up semi-permanent shop in Saudi.
We aren't in Saudi in significant military numbers at the moment, but are still in Iraq, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Libya and elsewhere -- and all of them for two interrelated reasons: money and power. In this case, both of them manifest mostly as oil. Yes, I know Afghanistan lacks the black stuff itself, but we're there due to our junkie's relationship with the repressive regime in Riyadh which provides significant doses of our drug of choice.*
If we had broken or seriously reduced our dependence on crude oil starting back in the 1970s, we would not have felt the need to defend the Saudis in 1991, and therefore not have given bin Laden a new target to point his twisted obsessions at. We wouldn't, therefore, be involved in three wars in the Mid East now, and would be free to do what our conscience says we should: support real change in those countries. Likewise, we would be able to truly help the people of Pakistan address the serious crisis mainstream US media doesn't discuss -- they're reeling from last year's massive floods and have disintegrating food and fuel systems that threaten the stability of South Asia.
To be clear, OUR addiction did not justify the Twin Tower attack or al-Qaeda's subsequent activities and ranting, but we could have PREVENTED some or all of it by having some foresight.
We are the wealthiest culture that has EVER existed, but a large part of it is unnecessarily wasteful and redundant: multiple cars and TVs per household, dozens electrical devices left running constantly, giant office buildings that are empty (but sucking energy) about half of every day, the ad-driven demand for the latest fad, failure to build a good transit network, overpackaged everything, etc. Almost all of that waste has been produced by and perpetuates an economic system that is obsessed with the sociopathic notion that we should be in constant competition, when humanity has survived this long primarily because we learned how to share and cooperate. Selfish, greedy people in the Ayn Rand model might have the upper hand over the short-term (they certainly seem to run the global economy now), but that selfishness is rapidly undermining both our culture's capacity to provide for our needs and Earth's capacity to support us.
It's obvious we cannot rewrite history, but it's equally obvious we can't keep enacting the insane script that claims it's "destiny" for us to do whatever we please in the world. That script is one that leads toward more war and our self-destruction as a society -- probably even as a species. There are in fact limits to growth of our economy, our population and our overall impact on the planet. Other cultures and other species do have a right to exist and are not there to serve us.
We are one of many parts of this amazing, wonderful living system called Earth and have a responsibility to ensure that it continues to be a healthy place for life. That means it's long overdue time we stopped playing juvenile, showoff games of power and prestige and started acting like intelligent adults by doing what we know must be done to solve the problems we face. For the U.S., that means leading by quickly weaning ourselves off fossil fuels and resource wasting practices while diverting what funds we have left to building a strong, localized alternative energy network, rebuilding our communities, and cleaning up the ecosystem. Money and power (in the political and energy sense) are tools, not reasons for existence, and certainly should not be the causes of our suicide.
----------
* Saudi Arabia is not our top oil source; it's fourth after Canada, Mexico and the U.S. itself. But it has the world's largest remaining supply of the easy-to-reach, fairly inexpensive oil, and therefore has an inordinate amount of influence. Several sources, however, note Riyadh may have been lying for years about how much it actually has, and the evidence indicates it is not capable of meeting growing global demand. At the same time, all of the non-OPEC sources are rapidly in decline and almost every oil producer is showing signs of holding back some of their oil for their own people rather than exporting it. While some countries have claimed new discoveries, they're almost all from deep-ocean sites that are extremely dangerous and expensive to tap. Add all that to rapidly growing demand from China and India, and we've got a huge mess on our hands known as Peak Oil, which global production numbers show actually hit in 2006.
(It's after midnight and I'm mental toast, so I'll come back later to add the links that support all of these things.)
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Press Release #1
Peace abroad. Vibrant communities. Healthy food. Honest government. Fair taxes. Real representation. An economy that works for us. An environment that can support our grandkids.
Don't you wish Massachusetts had those things?
So do we, but we need your help to make them happen.
We're the Quinebaug Valley Chapter of the Green-Rainbow Party, seeking to give a voice to all those who feel left out of the major parties. For some time, the Tea Party movement has had center stage as the voice of public concern about where society is going. But many of us do not share its views and don't like where that effort seems to be heading.
We Greens want to focus our energy on things that will help everyone:
Environmental stewardship, including clean energy, effective transit, local food and climate change; affordable, accessible single-payer health care that promotes prevention; responsive, real democracy that truly serves the people; peace on our streets and overseas.
Isn't it time we worked to create a future that's more than just the next stock statement? We think so, and if you do, too, join us. For more info, contact quingreens@gmail.com, go to our blog "Quinebaug Valley Greenspeak" at quingreens.blogspot.com, or call us at 508-347-1537 (Daphne) or 508-764-8042 (Gus & Maureen).
Don't you wish Massachusetts had those things?
So do we, but we need your help to make them happen.
We're the Quinebaug Valley Chapter of the Green-Rainbow Party, seeking to give a voice to all those who feel left out of the major parties. For some time, the Tea Party movement has had center stage as the voice of public concern about where society is going. But many of us do not share its views and don't like where that effort seems to be heading.
We Greens want to focus our energy on things that will help everyone:
Environmental stewardship, including clean energy, effective transit, local food and climate change; affordable, accessible single-payer health care that promotes prevention; responsive, real democracy that truly serves the people; peace on our streets and overseas.
Isn't it time we worked to create a future that's more than just the next stock statement? We think so, and if you do, too, join us. For more info, contact quingreens@gmail.com, go to our blog "Quinebaug Valley Greenspeak" at quingreens.blogspot.com, or call us at 508-347-1537 (Daphne) or 508-764-8042 (Gus & Maureen).
Thursday, May 5, 2011
APB: Food
In the upper Quin Valley (that is, the MA towns, basically), we really need to put out an all points bulletin on our missing food supply.
When the average person thinks nothing of buying mangoes from Central America or India (as the T&G was promoting on 4/17), strawberries from California, beef from Texas or Argentina, etc., we're in trouble. It's nearly impossible not to have to do some of it, since there's presently no way locally-grown food can support the thousands of people in our towns. Even in the town that used to be dubbed a "cow town" -- Charlton, with its large agriculturally-zoned areas -- the number of active farms is significantly below what it needs to be, while the population has grown immensely. That needs to change.
I don't know how often I've had to go somewhere (usually for work) and passed by dozens of houses with well-mowed lawns, some of them huge. They're so ubiquitous some have argued there's a deep-seated psychological need to see something that vaguely resembles the African savanna we evolved on. Personally, I think that's bunk. I'm more inclined to think they're a throwback to a much more recent, aristocratic era, when the medieval rich could show off large swaths of land they did not need to farm because someone else was feeding them.
For decades now, we have been those aristocrats -- maybe not in actual wealth (although even in recession, we're far richer than almost everyone in history), but certainly in our sense of entitlement, thanks to vast quantities of energy, mostly from oil. We've gotten so used to expecting the food to keep coming to our store shelves, and thence to our tables, few of us consider just how vulnerable that supply system really is or how profoundly lucky we have been for so long.
That CANNOT continue forever, and some pretty strong evidence is signaling it's time we ripped up those extremely boring monocultures of grass and start planting food again: The Great Plains is experiencing a drought worse than the Dust Bowl; the Mississippi River's flooding is setting new records; the recent southern tornadoes were stronger than ever; oil prices are higher than they were this time in 2008, when they peaked at $147 in July ....
Need I go on?
Because New England has largely lain fallow, unfarmed for most of a century, our soil is generally pretty fertile. Because our ancestors did most of the heavy lifting, there are lots of acres that are free of the big rocks our region is infamous for. Because we've done a lot in the last few decades to clean the rivers and lakes, our water supply is mostly good (and with global warming, our region is expected to get more of it, unlike much of the present grain belt).
Those all give us a good chance to be able to resume feeding ourselves, if we're willing to get off our arses and get to work. Although the Commonwealth defines 5 acres as the minimum to merit formal protection as a "farm," or two acres if you sell $1000 per acre, those requirements in practice mostly apply to owning farm animals. Very little prevents most people from growing a sizable part of their own vegetable supply on less than that. Even apartment dwellers can plant a bunch of things in containers on their windowsills, and there are several books and websites teaching people how to support themselves on a suburban acre or less.
Our individual physical health needs it, and so does the well-being of our towns. Besides, there are few things more rewarding that knowing YOU grew dinner!
When the average person thinks nothing of buying mangoes from Central America or India (as the T&G was promoting on 4/17), strawberries from California, beef from Texas or Argentina, etc., we're in trouble. It's nearly impossible not to have to do some of it, since there's presently no way locally-grown food can support the thousands of people in our towns. Even in the town that used to be dubbed a "cow town" -- Charlton, with its large agriculturally-zoned areas -- the number of active farms is significantly below what it needs to be, while the population has grown immensely. That needs to change.
I don't know how often I've had to go somewhere (usually for work) and passed by dozens of houses with well-mowed lawns, some of them huge. They're so ubiquitous some have argued there's a deep-seated psychological need to see something that vaguely resembles the African savanna we evolved on. Personally, I think that's bunk. I'm more inclined to think they're a throwback to a much more recent, aristocratic era, when the medieval rich could show off large swaths of land they did not need to farm because someone else was feeding them.
For decades now, we have been those aristocrats -- maybe not in actual wealth (although even in recession, we're far richer than almost everyone in history), but certainly in our sense of entitlement, thanks to vast quantities of energy, mostly from oil. We've gotten so used to expecting the food to keep coming to our store shelves, and thence to our tables, few of us consider just how vulnerable that supply system really is or how profoundly lucky we have been for so long.
That CANNOT continue forever, and some pretty strong evidence is signaling it's time we ripped up those extremely boring monocultures of grass and start planting food again: The Great Plains is experiencing a drought worse than the Dust Bowl; the Mississippi River's flooding is setting new records; the recent southern tornadoes were stronger than ever; oil prices are higher than they were this time in 2008, when they peaked at $147 in July ....
Need I go on?
Because New England has largely lain fallow, unfarmed for most of a century, our soil is generally pretty fertile. Because our ancestors did most of the heavy lifting, there are lots of acres that are free of the big rocks our region is infamous for. Because we've done a lot in the last few decades to clean the rivers and lakes, our water supply is mostly good (and with global warming, our region is expected to get more of it, unlike much of the present grain belt).
Those all give us a good chance to be able to resume feeding ourselves, if we're willing to get off our arses and get to work. Although the Commonwealth defines 5 acres as the minimum to merit formal protection as a "farm," or two acres if you sell $1000 per acre, those requirements in practice mostly apply to owning farm animals. Very little prevents most people from growing a sizable part of their own vegetable supply on less than that. Even apartment dwellers can plant a bunch of things in containers on their windowsills, and there are several books and websites teaching people how to support themselves on a suburban acre or less.
Our individual physical health needs it, and so does the well-being of our towns. Besides, there are few things more rewarding that knowing YOU grew dinner!
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Calling everyone
Hi!
It's no secret that the Quinebaug Valley has a ton of issues to address, but it also has most or all of the resources needed to do so. We, the new local chapter of the Mass. Green-Rainbow Party, want to be a part of creating those solutions -- ones that work for all of us here in Southbridge, Charlton, Sturbridge and surrounding towns -- while making Beacon Hill pay attention and act as if our ecological, economic, community and personal health matter.
Only those blinded by ideology or selfish interest cannot see that the world is rapidly changing around us. The lifestyle we've known for most of our lifetimes is being rocked by changes in our energy system (the Fukushima quake-tsunami-meltdown, the Gulf disaster, power outages, Peak Oil and other resource shortages), a climate becoming more prone to weather extremes, an economy marked by soaring costs and insecure jobs, a political system dominated by corporate influence, a health insurance system that does not care about health, a financial system that greatly concentrates wealth in the hands of a few, and an industrial food system that destroys the land's fertility while making it hard for small farms to survive.
Yeah, that's a mouthful, and it seems like a daunting task to address them. But they were all created or worsened by people and can be changed by people -- namely, you and me. In fact, they must change if we hope to have anything resembling a stable, healthy society to hand to our children and grandchildren.
We know some people are afraid of taking a stand in a third party, but to us these issues are exactly why now is the time to build one. The Greens aren't entirely new -- we've been around for years in the U.S. {links here and here}, Europe and many other countries. What's new is the opportunity presented by these cascading issues -- and the major parties' outright denial of and/or halfway measures toward them -- to galvanize real change. That change, however, cannot come from above; at best, top-down solutions will only slow down the cascade, and they're more likely to accelerate it.
True change needs to come from US, the American people, people of the Quinebaug Valley, people who are tired of divisive politics based on fear, lies, feel-good slogans and corruption. Isn't it time to express our strengths -- our tolerance for diversity, our depth of stored knowledge and skill (whether formally educated or not), our creativity, our concern for the future, our talents for planning and communicating, our willingness to volunteer, our ability to see the "Big Picture" unlike any other species on Earth? We can, and must, use these skills to turn this society into one that truly benefits everyone, that protects Earth's ability to provide for our survival alongside other species, and that deserves to be called a democracy. All of those things start right here, in our neighborhoods, our schools, our Town Halls.
We'll be talking about a lot of these things on this blog, and tapping sources that know them far better than we do. But by far the most important part of this process is YOU, whether you're technically a Green or not at this point (obviously, we hope you are or will be, but we'll need all the help we can get on these things!) Please post your ideas and suggestions if you want to join us in this journey!
It's no secret that the Quinebaug Valley has a ton of issues to address, but it also has most or all of the resources needed to do so. We, the new local chapter of the Mass. Green-Rainbow Party, want to be a part of creating those solutions -- ones that work for all of us here in Southbridge, Charlton, Sturbridge and surrounding towns -- while making Beacon Hill pay attention and act as if our ecological, economic, community and personal health matter.
Only those blinded by ideology or selfish interest cannot see that the world is rapidly changing around us. The lifestyle we've known for most of our lifetimes is being rocked by changes in our energy system (the Fukushima quake-tsunami-meltdown, the Gulf disaster, power outages, Peak Oil and other resource shortages), a climate becoming more prone to weather extremes, an economy marked by soaring costs and insecure jobs, a political system dominated by corporate influence, a health insurance system that does not care about health, a financial system that greatly concentrates wealth in the hands of a few, and an industrial food system that destroys the land's fertility while making it hard for small farms to survive.
Yeah, that's a mouthful, and it seems like a daunting task to address them. But they were all created or worsened by people and can be changed by people -- namely, you and me. In fact, they must change if we hope to have anything resembling a stable, healthy society to hand to our children and grandchildren.
We know some people are afraid of taking a stand in a third party, but to us these issues are exactly why now is the time to build one. The Greens aren't entirely new -- we've been around for years in the U.S. {links here and here}, Europe and many other countries. What's new is the opportunity presented by these cascading issues -- and the major parties' outright denial of and/or halfway measures toward them -- to galvanize real change. That change, however, cannot come from above; at best, top-down solutions will only slow down the cascade, and they're more likely to accelerate it.
True change needs to come from US, the American people, people of the Quinebaug Valley, people who are tired of divisive politics based on fear, lies, feel-good slogans and corruption. Isn't it time to express our strengths -- our tolerance for diversity, our depth of stored knowledge and skill (whether formally educated or not), our creativity, our concern for the future, our talents for planning and communicating, our willingness to volunteer, our ability to see the "Big Picture" unlike any other species on Earth? We can, and must, use these skills to turn this society into one that truly benefits everyone, that protects Earth's ability to provide for our survival alongside other species, and that deserves to be called a democracy. All of those things start right here, in our neighborhoods, our schools, our Town Halls.
We'll be talking about a lot of these things on this blog, and tapping sources that know them far better than we do. But by far the most important part of this process is YOU, whether you're technically a Green or not at this point (obviously, we hope you are or will be, but we'll need all the help we can get on these things!) Please post your ideas and suggestions if you want to join us in this journey!
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