Silent Spring Revisited

Machine stitch illustration on repurposed cotton
with pink satin remnant from its past life

Rachel Carson, in a letter to a friend, wrote:

"I'm convinced there is a psychological angle in all this, that people, especially professional men, are uncomfortable about coming out against something, especially if they haven't got absolute proof the "something" is wrong, but only a suspicion. So they will go along with a program about which they privately have acute misgivings. So I think it is more important to build up the positive alternatives."

"Of all insects 90% are not only beneficial but essential as pollinators and predators in our ecosystems. Furthermore. "Of the destructive variety, more than 800 species have become resistant to one or more pesticides. This keeps the extermination industry constantly bustling to invent new pesticides."(From the book Women Pioneers for the Environment, by Mary Joy Breton, (1998) p 74)

This is great for the chemical business but is proving disastrous for many living things. How many chronic human conditions are enabled or caused by our chemical contact? I mean, fibromyalgia is no doubt caused by exposure to nerve agents aka pesticides; probably the result of small doses over long periods, which makes a direct "cause = effect" proof difficult. But common sense says-dah yes!!

While I am guessing, (I am a woman after all :-) I am going to suggest that our bodies ability to handle toxins has been disabled by processed food stuffs. Our bodies natural repair mechanism needs real organic compounds with their buddies the phytochemicals to adequately sustain healthy functioning.

Thanks to monocropping and thinking of food as a "product" our agribiz giants went for fast growing, easy harvesting crops, aided and abetted by the chemical industry and bio patents (90% of the corn and soy in USA are GMOs) Edible food stuffs that trigger addictive behaviors, have long shelf life and are easy to transport are great for the corporate bottom line. But what are they doing to people and the planet's ability to sustain healthy diversified ecosystems that support healthy living things?

Look around and witness the world. Wall Street is the visible mechanism that feeds corporations
and applauds their alliances. Occupy Wall Street is the public immune system shaking off the trance.

For the Record

photo of mural detail in Olympia + atomic symbol

"In Global Citizen, Donella Meadows, charges that the government has continually lied about nuclear power from as far back as 1945.....The basic bureaucratic rules of operation are designed to blur information about nuclear power: Use obscure words to hide plain truths. Never confess mistakes, even though they are inevitable. Always pretend certainty, despite enormous degrees of uncertainty." (Breton, M. Joy, Women Pioneers for the Environment, 1998, p 87-88,)

To confuse with authority, what a plan!!! Why, as in why limit the world to such a small, possibly erroneous reality?" Wow, how many wrongs are in this plan?

I think we can replace nuclear power with almost anything that looks to be able to make a high Return On Investment. That is why scientists in so many realms are ignored, fought or belittled when research points against the interests of commerce.

Hazel Henderson, another heroic pioneer was "labeled "the most dangerous woman in America " by corporate CEOs " after her articles in business publications including "Ecologists vs Economists" in the Harvard Business Journal raised some ire. (p 191)

"One of the century's foremost "high risk social innovators," Henderson says she likes to intercept policy debates anywhere in the world....offering new directions, expanded contexts, connections and possibilitiesfor creating win-win solutions in our ever-shrinking, more crowded, polluted planet.
Economists called her the lady that was poisoning the well. Since then Henderson has become a respected and sought after authority on global economics and human development issues."

More than 25 years ago, H.H. embarked on a crusade to persuade countries to overhaul the way they each measure economic growth and human development. Calling herself an anti economist, she challenged the traditional economic assumptions- based on obsolete nineteenth century industrialism- that govern gross national product (GNP) and gross domestic product (GDP) statistics. "

The GNP overlooks unpaid work, often contributed by women, even though they contribute half the world's food. (see the issue? feeding a family doesn't count, export crops do!) "Nor does the GNP accounting system classify natural resources as assets: for that reason it fails to deduct from growth statistics the cost of diminishing or destroying natural resources during industrial processes. Ironically, the system treats cleaning up pollution and repairing damage (such as the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the Chernobyl nuclear accident) as additional production." (p 192)

"Henderson believes economics is merely politics in disguise. We need to send economists back to school to learn more sociology, cultural anthropology, and ecology before we trust their calculations."

Henderson and other environmentalists suggest that the narrow focus of economic courses needs broadening to include training in environmental and social sciences." (p 192)

We all need to know this in order to understand how choices are being made for us, sometimes against our best interests. Occupy Wall Street, Seattle, UK, Everywhere - has pulled back the curtains, now we need to make sense of what we are seeing and act in accordance.

Timely or ?

half moon 12/2/11

I wish i had read this last Sunday.

However it is still appropriate. Life tends to repeat until we get it -ie learn and change our response.

Assuming Value Everywhere by Viral Mehta, is a nice reminder. As our world becomes ever more complex, it is natural to try to sort information quickly. In that process we might be losing important affirmations of "life." That is too valuable to dismiss.

"Well, everyone is good at something. You just have to listen long enough." This quote from a 14 year old who, along with his best friend, "decided, of their own accord, to spend much of their summer creating spontaneous and mostly anonymous opportunities to grow in kindness."

The power of listening to multiple views comes from the flexibility of mind it affords. It frees me from the unconscious hold of unexamined views -- and much of my sense of self is derived from an amalgamation of such views. My 14-year-old cousin was onto something profound: Whether it's listening to a person or otherwise, if I listen long enough it creates an opening. In every such opening, I can choose to accept or put aside whatever I do discover. In the process, though, if I can embrace the unknown -- while being firmly rooted in developing wisdom through my own experience -- I am freeing myself from the prison of a limited identity."

nice!

Emphasis

tree cozies in Seattle

After Monday's aha, this illustrates the "aware" dynamic of how keeping faith with the universe, or how "life calling to life' seems to respond well when given attention.

(Cage the Elephant -Shake Me Down playing in the background - ok as my Senior Synthesis oral presentation starts with the image of Banksy's Elephant, this just got better! )

Tuesday morning on the bus to Tacoma, I opened the book, "Women Pioneers for the Environment" by Mary Joy Breton (1998) and started reading from that chance page.

The book is one of the texts for my class "the Power of One" taught by Dr D. Anderson (Psychology) and Dr F. Soloman (Environmental Biology) at The Evergreen State College (Tacoma branch) -Like!

So I found myself reading about Mary Sinclair, a scientist who took on Dow Chemical and the Nuclear Industry.

"In 1967, ..Sinclare's interest in nuclear power became more than scientific. She learned that the local public utility company planned to construct a nuclear power plant two miles from her home in an area of 100,000 people. Dow Chemical, the city's primary employer (ouch) had contracted to purchase nuclear power from the utility. Sinclair knew that there were still serious problems with the technology. She recalls, "This is when my concerns for the fate of the earth in a nuclear age really brgan to take ahold of me. " (p 88) She decided to take her concerns to the community.

"The combined level of power and money represented by Dow and the local electric company intimidated the people of Midlands. (Michigan) One in six residents worked for Dow. Sinclair herself had been a research librarian for the compnay and she also did freelance technical writing for it. The utility and the chemical maker launched an intensive campaign in the community to promote the plant. Sinclair could not believe the picture they presented:

"What enraged me the most...was the fact that so many lies were being told to the public about such grave matters....I was enraged that without resolving these grave issues, huge financial commitments were being made to promote and spread this technology without full disclosure to the public of the impacts to them..and future generations"

To stimulate discussions of her concerns in the community she wrote what she believed to be mild -sounding letters to the Midlands Daily news. Hostility exploded on all sides. friends stopped talking to her and avoided her in shops and on the street....After her first letter to the newspaper, Sinclair could not get a job in Midland.

Facing ridicule and social ostracism in Midlands, Sinclair began an intense study of the nuclear safety issue. Staying on top of a highly technical subject required an enormous effort. She worried she might be wrong. If so , she would willingly admit it." (p 89)

"She attended a seminar in NYC on nuclear energy where she heard objective, unfiltered information." She also discovered other citizens groups throughout the country. Sinclair photocopied the best papers from the seminar and mailed them to 20 scientists she knew at Dow. "One or 2 scientists at Dow called her, admitting they agreed, but said they could n0t speak out because it would jeopardize their jobs." (p 90)

The local newspaper refused to print any more of her letters, telling her she would have to buy advertising space to air her views.

The licensing hearings for the construction permit took two years. "In the main, the delay arose because serious problems kept surfacing throughout the nuclear industry." (emergency cooling tests failed, more serious effects at allowable levels of radiation than had been thought, more) In spite of all this the AEC granted the building permit. (1972)

Sinclair continued, getting her Masters in environmental communications from the University of Michigan and later a doctorate from the university's School of Natural Resources.

"Sinclair believes that because women are the bearers of life they think more deeply than men about children's health." (p 92) Men were motivated by the idea that they wouldn't be able to insure their homes against a nuclear accident. Eventually she got a few other people involved in the work.

Technology and construction delays began to erode Dow's enthusiasm. However under threat of suit by the electric company Dow just renegotiated the contract instead of backing out. Sinclair and her citizens group acting as intervenes, had accumulated and documented 18 reasons the operating permit should be denied.

In a 1983 public meeting, Mary Sinclair finally heard cheers not jeers and
as of 1996, Mary Sinclair was still actively involved with nuclear issues.

"We have a safer world because of her and others like her." (p 94)

Thank you, Mary and thank you universe.

This is why the Peoples Media Arts Uprising 2012 is important. We need to share our knowledge, our stories and connect. What happened in Midlands is a micro of a macro drama that is taking place around the world. Looking to profit at the expense of health and well being is a cancer that must be stopped before life's ability to renew is totally fouled.

The Trap

bus lanes graffiti

Last Monday, at a bus stop in Tacoma, i chatted with a man on his way to the B & I. He asked if the dragon on my hand was a scorpion, fairly soon we were speaking of other things.

He had recently lost his mom, which changed the direction and tone of the conversation quite radically. We spoke of pain and changes. He told me how he had stopped drinking and was believing in God, not the old skool version, but still a faith thing. I agreed.

Since we had gotten so far so fast, i told him how i had been experimenting with life. That i am following my heart voice and not just the voice of authority that has proven to be so mistaken or worse. (Lies My Teacher Told Me, Loewen) Whatever the intent, that voice has led us into a big, unsustainable mess and continuing that road is crazee, so why not follow "knowing," the voice from our heart core.

Then I told him how my becoming more sure footed on this path, has seemed to attract strange verbal attacks. These "stones" are coming from acquaintances, old friends, family even and I am trying to understand what this is about.

I suspect that denial, "kill the messenger" stuff is going on. I think we want to believe someone/thing is looking out for our well being, I mean that is what we are taught in school, right? So letting people know they have to research the toxic load and question almost everything is huge. It is far easier to deny the responsibility than to acknowledge that our trust has been abused.

That is when he said, "the devil wants to pull you back" Wow, whatever the name given to the reason, that was a message I needed to hear. Thank you, sir, for your voice in my life. You helped me clarify the chaos, to shoulder the pain.

With so much of our time and attention used in navigating the ways and means of the man-made construct, we have forgotten to listen to LIFE. Life shows up when we are aware and willing to hear, see it.

Life wants our attention and that is big, very big indeed. There is so much more going on than the headlines and the skyscrapers and what Sally rides. We really need to shake off the mantle and claim our higher potentials, starting now.

Grateful

Grateful yes, Thanksgiving, no.

Cranked Turkeys, GMO produce, pumpkin pies infiltrated with BPAs and the other "edible stuffs" showcased today on tables across the USA, has me freaked. While killing us slowly with dead "food" is good for business (as are patents , long shelf life, addictive qualities) it is also doing a huge number on our hearts and souls.

How can anyone feel good about themselves when they knowingly are part of the dis-ease. How long can anyone justify, tolerate or otherwise accept those sic old premises, now that the consequences are known? How much $ or fear, does it take to look the other way?

Isn't this set up a crime against humanity? Against life itself?

That T-Day is topped off with loads of "Black Friday" propaganda, designed to goad the stuffed yet ever famished into shopping frenzies, is perfect. Consume my little chickadees, consume!!!

I suspect this is just a plot for some mad science horror show.

the Aha!

torn from huge voter issue postcard

The Money Fix, is that last aha doc. it really rounds it all up. Under all the distortion, damage and unreal "reality" is an antiquated system based on false premises and untrue beliefs. That system has been massaged, abstracted and bolstered into global dominance and that system is money.

The chit ($) is actually an IOU. We pass it around until one day the bank calls in the loan (the IOU is made by the banking system and regulated by its very own federal reserve) and guess what? Someone now owes the interest on top of the chit. If that person hasn't exchanged upwards, hasn't gained or profited but instead has been ok with enough, well guess what? That person can't pay up ( can't pay the "interest") so now falls into the web of debt.

No problem, prices on the necessities will rise to cover the loss. Corporations that make, distribute and control the majority of goods depend on the banks and they aren't going to blow their good thing. Therefore, we the public, assume the loss and then government loses tax revenue but so what, once again it is the general ( not the privileged) public that suffers. (another huge issue connects at this point, later gator)

So greed comes into the system as a no brainer. Greed is a defense mechanism. That it makes for a human developmental issue is neatly boxed into psychology and somehow subtracted from the whole. However, in reality greed is encouraged to blossom, in fact we dress it up all sparkly as material wealth and flaunt it as a sign of success.

That it is as inefficient as it is socially unjust should make it an intolerable thing, but because of its power (and its ability to dodge by creating its own gamblers vocabulary, like derivatives, futures-i didn't say it wasn't clever!) it it is now bullying all monetary systems to agree with it.

This money system is like a game of musical chairs. (please watch The Money FIX!) Someone has to lose. Eventually there is only one chair left, winner take all! Only thing is -that win is the biggest loss humanity can suffer. For as connected beings, winning is now not a win at all, but an ultimate loss of all that makes us truly human. Is it just me or is this not totally ridiculous?

So as we talk about win/win we are actually desperately ignoring or justifying the fact that we are engaged in a win/lose construct. We made a very scary monster and yet we seem to be trying to pretend it away.

Meanwhile, this construction continues to eat away at the best of us. Its capacity to devour everything grows the more it devours. As long as we give it energy it lives and the energy we give it can't be used to create something else. That is the take away point.

This might not be noticed (marketers sway ideas and distractions rule) except that as it is happening on a finite planet. Sooner or later nature will collapse the system, which means the monster will die, but by then the quality of life on this planet will be diminished.

The moral of the story: Rise up, escape and build new systems that align with nature, health and well being. We do not have to await permission from those blinded by "reality ruts," the whole of another vision is dawning. Get out of the rut, you can't breathe, live or see from that viewpoint - climb out and the world opens.

grounding

print transfer to fabric, appliqued and in progress, but 11/7/11 had to have a post

I have to check out the science, but mom always said working in the garden "grounded her." I am thinking this is probably mega true in many ways.

Today

twice is nice.
Real signs near Elephant Car Wash, Antioch in Seattle.

Peoples Media Arts Uprising 2012

fog lifting

I have spent a little time at Occupy Seattle though my protest days are over. I agree that large gatherings get attention and help people unite for a cause, feel empowered, hopefully heard and even more hopefully, will result in some real changes.

However, so far, it seems the changes made in social policy have not actually changed the economic construct (class system, exploitative inequity that protects the wealth of the few- see Howard Zinn). In fact keeping people believing in the American Dream has been necessary in order to keep business as usual.

The illusion of meritocratic and just access to the Dream is a myth perpetuated by just enough examples to keep the tease. Now i think the very idea of amassing wealth needs to be opened up for discussion. Wealth pulled from resources leaves a gap and now that gap is showing up in the declining health of many people, the environment and most other systems nature provides to enable life, all life. What are we doing?

So, I am playing with the idea that protest and reactionary means, even when not in a direct confrontational scene are aspects of the male archetype. That archetype has been ruling "civilization" for a long time and is in terrible need of balance.

"Peoples Media Arts Uprising 2012" is bringing in the feminine archetype. By putting energy towards a solutions model, we are building a new nest. Instead of aiding and abetting the rut, putting energy into turf wars and bellowing, we are preparing "home." Creating the safe space for the tired, the wounded and those in need of solace. Creating the haven that even the most victorious warriors eventually crave.

However this is beyond the tussle. We are creating space for the heart, mind, spirit, the whole body, whole systems "next reality," that trusts potentials and possibilities. This will enable relationships to move us towards the new street up economy.

Can you dig it?

PS Archetype - not gender specific, just classic models dumped on our culture.

Street art North Seattle

We were not born just to consume.

Occupy Everything

Street Jacks for Occupy Seattle, so yes.

Street or Plaza art that has a message just tickles me. Nothing like a great simple poignant, right on target message. Street art, beats Wall Street ads over and over again. So once again the Banksy enabled street art documentary comes to mind. Now on youtube....enjoy.

Exit Through the Gift Shop,

Is Occupy Wall Street the manifestation of the international street arts movement? Both stake claims on public spaces, both are about waking up from the stupor of consumerism and privatization, both give systems as usual conniptions. Both speak to things money can't buy, and some how that relegated the best of us to the scrap pile during systems management and "budget " cuts. Living to create wealth is a major social handicap, I am thrilled that it is being recognized!