The words of Roscoe Bartlett, House of Representatives: "On July 30, 2009, H.R. 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 was passed in the House by a recorded vote of 283 - 142. The problems in the Georgia peanut processing plant and the concerns with imported foods highlight the need for enhanced food safety laws [but] this bill missed the mark. Instead was aimed at the farming community. Specifically, there were concerns regarding the role of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulating farms which would not contribute to a safer food supply but would rather increase costs to farms and ultimately the American public. I was told that many of my concerns were addressed but since a final version of the bill was not available for serious review before the vote was called, I felt I could not support it".
Michelle Obama's call; "Its time to Make Healthy Food for all America's Children" is nobel. But farmer's know where healthy food comes from: seeds planted in nutrient rich soil. The issue has long since been ignored and America's farms have been neglected by US Government Agriculture Policy, if not targeted for extinction. Where we are today is defending the last of the soil-rich family farms from bills like HR 2749; the increased regulation on community farms.
We do need healthful food in schools and we do need to address childhood obesity, but we need to start with creating a system of agriculture to produce the food that once and for all places importance on the healthfulness of food not the profit it yeilds. One is growing, all on its own right now but in the lihgt of soon to pass legislation we can kiss it good-bye and see a future dominated by the Monsanto Movment. School lunches will work out just fine is we protect and encourage local, chemical free farming.
We can support the growing food movement by buying produce at farmer's markets and from Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). You should be aware however, at Farmer's Markets large food retailers, the ones that sell food to Safeway, Albertsons; National Grocery chains also sell at Farmer's Markets. Its important that everybody be aloud to participate in farmer's market but we need to know who is a farmer and who is a corporation.Capitalism is a means to get food to the table, not the other way around. There is areason people go to farmer's markets and not grocery stores.
Michelle Obama is creating the demand for healthful food while the legislators are increasing the costs. Its classic American Capitalism and no change at all. If we care about the food in our schools we'd look into the reason there is junk in cafeterias in the first place: Healthy Food is TOO EXPENSIVE and the system of Government has invested far more in war than our children's education (fact). New legislation will make healthful food even more expencive, if not gone entirly form the market.
2/17/10
I cry
to the promise of tomorrow
from lips of fools; heart true; love
I cry idiots idology and idealsits blindly sigh: Tomorrow will be better; I believe
I die a little bit, think on
intot he oblivous frame illuminated by the same light
a stamp upon the moment: it rots from within; today; tomorrow; for 200 more year, it rots
I lie to myself; I can make something of myself:
A musician
A mountain climber
A lover
A student
I am the manifestation of inspiration; love made and became me
I am not the dreamer
the dream is me
I am not the energy
the energy is me
I loose the percpetion of moon light
I see my present in the sun
I look so hard my eyes, they are ash
and my memories of one thing
"I" never was but a moment
I never became me only something imagined
we were but we never did see the other
it was one eye we had
it was the same picutre we saw
you looking at me
me looking at you
eternity and never was
one sum
1/15/10
On "Climate Change"
"Climate Change" is simply a symptom of the condition of irresponsible consumption. Those who would divert attention from consumption to the argument of the validity of Anthropogenic Global warming are simply contributing to the effort to distract you from the truth.
Conservation is not a far fetched approach to our nation's woes. Just a s cigarette smoker who accepts the habit as unhealthy must deal with the quitting challenge for a better health so too must the culture deal with it's addiction to material and instant gratification. This is manifested in our unquenchable thirst for supply limited/on-demand energy resources like coal and oil. To further express our addiction, we even incorporate these fuels in our proudest conservation effort: Recycling. To pin conservation efforts on fuel prices, such as with the nation/state/local recycling programs is unwise and a complete contradiction in conservation.
1/14/10
Art in Schools; Social Evolution
Though most wish to ignore the severity of the implications of suppressing art in schools, our aversion to reality, that to suppress art is to suppress ideas is no less detrimental to our children’s intellectual development than art-free schools themselves. Art is the refinement of self expression; it is the vehicle for taking a voice and turning it to a vision that captures a culture. Art is many things, from the obscure scribbles on alley walls, to the music of Gil Scott Heron; art as life, is.
It was Abraham Maslow who in his Hierarchy of Needs illustrated the prominence of self expression, or creativity, holding place at the pinnacle of social evolution along with morality, problems solving, lack of prejudice and acceptance of facts. His rationale, simple: Once the basic needs are met, safety achieved, family/love established and the self realized, we can then create art, and among other things, strive for harmony. What is seen as a school activity to a child, later in life develops into a free thinker as an adult. The continued attack upon art programs in school requires, in the least, a thoughtful look at the government's priorities and purpose behind the education of our children.
For as long as I can remember, parents, educators and members of the arts community have been defending the role of art in our schools. For over a decade the people of the country have made clear, that we value art in our schools. Yet, as a shepherd in the night must be vigilant in protecting the sheep from the wolves, we have yet to see the dawn in this indirect attack on the intellectual development of our children. Why?
If our public school system is governed by our elected officials, and our elected officials comprise the government that serves and protects us, why must we defend our children from the governments idea of education? We are taxed for public education are we not? Then why should the education we pay for not be to our standards? Why does our government not protect the refinement of self-expression; the blossoming of free-thinking among the youth of America?
It takes imagination to create art. It takes inspiration to surpass convention. Albert Einstein believed “the problems of today cannot be solved by the same thinking that created them”. When asked how he formulated such advanced theories he admitted, “I simply imagine something and then set out to prove it”.
Thought history there has been one reason to suppress art: to suppress ideas. Uncultivated creativity has profound implication on a child’s future. We must ask, what have we done to achieve harmony in this world; have we achieved a status that needs no more solutions? Have we perfected the human kingdom? I don;t believe we have no more need for imaginative adults, or children who find music to be their medium for relating to and sharing love? I wish this were simply an issue of whether or not to support new lights for the football stadium, but it is an issue about encouraging and supporting our children’s imagination. It is about the future of our country and the degree to which her people will think freely. Change takes a long time, and according to Maslow, our pyramid has been crumbling, piece by piece. We must understand the evolution of our society and see change for what it is: tiny deviations from the norm.
As a benefactor of a music education, and a adventure who climbed mountains following his imagination, I look behind me, to the class of my nieces age to see who is following. I am hopeful more now than ever for the confidence is gone. I listen to popular music and look at popular art and see little to do with the world we live in. The songs Marvin Gaye sang have yet to be heard it seems. We still can’t remember what Willie Nelson meant when he started Farm Aid. There are artists today holding on to the true inspiration, that love is the first mover and life is the vehicle to express it. We must support art, from top to bottom, from left to right. We must encourage our children to create, not from technique but from free creativeness.
It is not enough to vote for most political promises never breach the ether. To stand up for our children’s right to self expression, is the least we can do, for it is clear the educational system stands for something else.
We can organize our taxes and a quantify the protion used for education and put it into our communities ability to educate our children. We can pay teachers, house them; support those who provide our children with the most valuable thing: Education. We can make a discision to invest more into the future of our, the people's, country through true education of our children; tach about the attrocities our country committed and to this day finances; teach about the ways the native americans lived on this land 10x longer and left not a scratch; teach them money is simply a means and freedom is walking down the sidewalk not sitting in a car in traffic. We can, through organization make the educational system work, we must eliveate this responsibility from our government for it is clear, the incompitence with which it deals with the minds of tomorrows thinkers.
It was Abraham Maslow who in his Hierarchy of Needs illustrated the prominence of self expression, or creativity, holding place at the pinnacle of social evolution along with morality, problems solving, lack of prejudice and acceptance of facts. His rationale, simple: Once the basic needs are met, safety achieved, family/love established and the self realized, we can then create art, and among other things, strive for harmony. What is seen as a school activity to a child, later in life develops into a free thinker as an adult. The continued attack upon art programs in school requires, in the least, a thoughtful look at the government's priorities and purpose behind the education of our children.
For as long as I can remember, parents, educators and members of the arts community have been defending the role of art in our schools. For over a decade the people of the country have made clear, that we value art in our schools. Yet, as a shepherd in the night must be vigilant in protecting the sheep from the wolves, we have yet to see the dawn in this indirect attack on the intellectual development of our children. Why?
If our public school system is governed by our elected officials, and our elected officials comprise the government that serves and protects us, why must we defend our children from the governments idea of education? We are taxed for public education are we not? Then why should the education we pay for not be to our standards? Why does our government not protect the refinement of self-expression; the blossoming of free-thinking among the youth of America?
It takes imagination to create art. It takes inspiration to surpass convention. Albert Einstein believed “the problems of today cannot be solved by the same thinking that created them”. When asked how he formulated such advanced theories he admitted, “I simply imagine something and then set out to prove it”.
Thought history there has been one reason to suppress art: to suppress ideas. Uncultivated creativity has profound implication on a child’s future. We must ask, what have we done to achieve harmony in this world; have we achieved a status that needs no more solutions? Have we perfected the human kingdom? I don;t believe we have no more need for imaginative adults, or children who find music to be their medium for relating to and sharing love? I wish this were simply an issue of whether or not to support new lights for the football stadium, but it is an issue about encouraging and supporting our children’s imagination. It is about the future of our country and the degree to which her people will think freely. Change takes a long time, and according to Maslow, our pyramid has been crumbling, piece by piece. We must understand the evolution of our society and see change for what it is: tiny deviations from the norm.
As a benefactor of a music education, and a adventure who climbed mountains following his imagination, I look behind me, to the class of my nieces age to see who is following. I am hopeful more now than ever for the confidence is gone. I listen to popular music and look at popular art and see little to do with the world we live in. The songs Marvin Gaye sang have yet to be heard it seems. We still can’t remember what Willie Nelson meant when he started Farm Aid. There are artists today holding on to the true inspiration, that love is the first mover and life is the vehicle to express it. We must support art, from top to bottom, from left to right. We must encourage our children to create, not from technique but from free creativeness.
It is not enough to vote for most political promises never breach the ether. To stand up for our children’s right to self expression, is the least we can do, for it is clear the educational system stands for something else.
We can organize our taxes and a quantify the protion used for education and put it into our communities ability to educate our children. We can pay teachers, house them; support those who provide our children with the most valuable thing: Education. We can make a discision to invest more into the future of our, the people's, country through true education of our children; tach about the attrocities our country committed and to this day finances; teach about the ways the native americans lived on this land 10x longer and left not a scratch; teach them money is simply a means and freedom is walking down the sidewalk not sitting in a car in traffic. We can, through organization make the educational system work, we must eliveate this responsibility from our government for it is clear, the incompitence with which it deals with the minds of tomorrows thinkers.
1/9/10
good car
I'll admit, I have a soft spot for rusted out, unservicable automobiles. Though its hard to get by without one, I still think the sooner we retire them all the quicker we'll have honest public transit and urban (re)design. Be the change, get a bicycle and suffer for the love.
Love, Good Food and Peace
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