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I try to keep politics out of this blog as much as I can but i really can't overlook this one. I'm the first to say that there are things I don't agree with about Michael Moore, but when he's right, he's right. Check out his ideas for what we, the new owners of GM, should be doing with our new company now that they've filed for bankruptcy protection.
Dave
Monday, June 1st, 2009
Goodbye, GM
by Michael Moore
I write this on the morning of the end of the once-mighty General Motors. By high noon, the President of the United States will have made it official: General Motors, as we know it, has been totaled.
As I sit here in GM's birthplace, Flint, Michigan, I am surrounded by friends and family who are filled with anxiety about what will happen to them and to the town. Forty percent of the homes and businesses in the city have been abandoned. Imagine what it would be like if you lived in a city where almost every other house is empty. What would be your state of mind?
It is with sad irony that the company which invented "planned obsolescence" -- the decision to build cars that would fall apart after a few years so that the customer would then have to buy a new one -- has now made itself obsolete. It refused to build automobiles that the public wanted, cars that got great gas mileage, were as safe as they could be, and were exceedingly comfortable to drive. Oh -- and that wouldn't start falling apart after two years. GM stubbornly fought environmental and safety regulations. Its executives arrogantly ignored the "inferior" Japanese and German cars, cars which would become the gold standard for automobile buyers. And it was hell-bent on punishing its unionized workforce, lopping off thousands of workers for no good reason other than to "improve" the short-term bottom line of the corporation. Beginning in the 1980s, when GM was posting record profits, it moved countless jobs to Mexico and elsewhere, thus destroying the lives of tens of thousands of hard-working Americans. The glaring stupidity of this policy was that, when they eliminated the income of so many middle class families, who did they think was going to be able to afford to buy their cars? History will record this blunder in the same way it now writes about the French building the Maginot Line or how the Romans cluelessly poisoned their own water system with lethal lead in its pipes.
So here we are at the deathbed of General Motors. The company's body not yet cold, and I find myself filled with -- dare I say it -- joy. It is not the joy of revenge against a corporation that ruined my hometown and brought misery, divorce, alcoholism, homelessness, physical and mental debilitation, and drug addiction to the people I grew up with. Nor do I, obviously, claim any joy in knowing that 21,000 more GM workers will be told that they, too, are without a job.
But you and I and the rest of America now own a car company! I know, I know -- who on earth wants to run a car company? Who among us wants $50 billion of our tax dollars thrown down the rat hole of still trying to save GM? Let's be clear about this: The only way to save GM is to kill GM. Saving our precious industrial infrastructure, though, is another matter and must be a top priority. If we allow the shutting down and tearing down of our auto plants, we will sorely wish we still had them when we realize that those factories could have built the alternative energy systems we now desperately need. And when we realize that the best way to transport ourselves is on light rail and bullet trains and cleaner buses, how will we do this if we've allowed our industrial capacity and its skilled workforce to disappear?
Thus, as GM is "reorganized" by the federal government and the bankruptcy court, here is the plan I am asking President Obama to implement for the good of the workers, the GM communities, and the nation as a whole. Twenty years ago when I made "Roger & Me," I tried to warn people about what was ahead for General Motors. Had the power structure and the punditocracy listened, maybe much of this could have been avoided. Based on my track record, I request an honest and sincere consideration of the following suggestions:
1. Just as President Roosevelt did after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the President must tell the nation that we are at war and we must immediately convert our auto factories to factories that build mass transit vehicles and alternative energy devices. Within months in Flint in 1942, GM halted all car production and immediately used the assembly lines to build planes, tanks and machine guns. The conversion took no time at all. Everyone pitched in. The fascists were defeated.
We are now in a different kind of war -- a war that we have conducted against the ecosystem and has been conducted by our very own corporate leaders. This current war has two fronts. One is headquartered in Detroit. The products built in the factories of GM, Ford and Chrysler are some of the greatest weapons of mass destruction responsible for global warming and the melting of our polar icecaps. The things we call "cars" may have been fun to drive, but they are like a million daggers into the heart of Mother Nature. To continue to build them would only lead to the ruin of our species and much of the planet.
The other front in this war is being waged by the oil companies against you and me. They are committed to fleecing us whenever they can, and they have been reckless stewards of the finite amount of oil that is located under the surface of the earth. They know they are sucking it bone dry. And like the lumber tycoons of the early 20th century who didn't give a damn about future generations as they tore down every forest they could get their hands on, these oil barons are not telling the public what they know to be true -- that there are only a few more decades of useable oil on this planet. And as the end days of oil approach us, get ready for some very desperate people willing to kill and be killed just to get their hands on a gallon can of gasoline.
President Obama, now that he has taken control of GM, needs to convert the factories to new and needed uses immediately.
2. Don't put another $30 billion into the coffers of GM to build cars. Instead, use that money to keep the current workforce -- and most of those who have been laid off -- employed so that they can build the new modes of 21st century transportation. Let them start the conversion work now.
3. Announce that we will have bullet trains criss-crossing this country in the next five years. Japan is celebrating the 45th anniversary of its first bullet train this year. Now they have dozens of them. Average speed: 165 mph. Average time a train is late: under 30 seconds. They have had these high speed trains for nearly five decades -- and we don't even have one! The fact that the technology already exists for us to go from New York to L.A. in 17 hours by train, and that we haven't used it, is criminal. Let's hire the unemployed to build the new high speed lines all over the country. Chicago to Detroit in less than two hours. Miami to DC in under 7 hours. Denver to Dallas in five and a half. This can be done and done now.
4. Initiate a program to put light rail mass transit lines in all our large and medium-sized cities. Build those trains in the GM factories. And hire local people everywhere to install and run this system.
5. For people in rural areas not served by the train lines, have the GM plants produce energy efficient clean buses.
6. For the time being, have some factories build hybrid or all-electric cars (and batteries). It will take a few years for people to get used to the new ways to transport ourselves, so if we're going to have automobiles, let's have kinder, gentler ones. We can be building these next month (do not believe anyone who tells you it will take years to retool the factories -- that simply isn't true).
7. Transform some of the empty GM factories to facilities that build windmills, solar panels and other means of alternate forms of energy. We need tens of millions of solar panels right now. And there is an eager and skilled workforce who can build them.
8. Provide tax incentives for those who travel by hybrid car or bus or train. Also, credits for those who convert their home to alternative energy.
9. To help pay for this, impose a two-dollar tax on every gallon of gasoline. This will get people to switch to more energy saving cars or to use the new rail lines and rail cars the former autoworkers have built for them.
Well, that's a start. Please, please, please don't save GM so that a smaller version of it will simply do nothing more than build Chevys or Cadillacs. This is not a long-term solution. Don't throw bad money into a company whose tailpipe is malfunctioning, causing a strange odor to fill the car.
100 years ago this year, the founders of General Motors convinced the world to give up their horses and saddles and buggy whips to try a new form of transportation. Now it is time for us to say goodbye to the internal combustion engine. It seemed to serve us well for so long. We enjoyed the car hops at the A&W. We made out in the front -- and the back -- seat. We watched movies on large outdoor screens, went to the races at NASCAR tracks across the country, and saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time through the window down Hwy. 1. And now it's over. It's a new day and a new century. The President -- and the UAW -- must seize this moment and create a big batch of lemonade from this very sour and sad lemon.
Yesterday, the last surviving person from the Titanic disaster passed away. She escaped certain death that night and went on to live another 97 years.
So can we survive our own Titanic in all the Flint Michigans of this country. 60% of GM is ours. I think we can do a better job.
Yours,
Michael Moore
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Goodbye GM
Monday, June 1, 2009
Newlygreens Interview
This is an interview I did back in February for a show called Newlygreens. It's a bit long but I figured I'd throw it up anyway.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Inspiration
Wow. All i can say is if these deaf kids from China can do this, kicking your plastic bag habit really shouldn't seem like such a challenge.
Enjoy.
Dave
Monday, May 18, 2009
An Open Letter To President Obama
I actually wrote this back in January and posted it on Care2. Someone just pointed out that I never posted it here, so here goes.
First off, let me congratulate you on your win in November and your officially taking office today. By now you have no doubt been sworn in and the parties are in full swing. Having said that, I truly appreciate your taking the time to check out what’s new on Care2 in these, the first hours of your new presidency.
I don’t need to tell you what a grave task you have ahead. You’re an intelligent man and know far too well the hurdles you (and we) will face in the coming weeks, months, and years. The decisions you make will no doubt set the path for future generations and may in fact be some of the most important a president has had to make.
While other American leaders have no doubt had their hurdles–Lincoln had to keep the union together, Hoover had to deal with the depression, Bush had to deal with 9/11–the tasks that face you in the coming years may have greater significance for the planet as a whole than any of these presidents could have fathomed.
Sadly I have no solutions to the problems at hand (although I promise to e-mail them along when I come across them), just a piece of advice. I’m sure you are getting very little of this from anyone right now (ha, I kid because I love), but my guess is that very few people will offer up what I am about to.
As decisions cross your desk, please take the time to speak to as many experts as you can, on all sides of the fence, so that you can make as educated a decision as possible. Ask your cabinet, ask scientists, ask the lay people in the fields you are contemplating. Call on as many people as you can to get the information that you need to be objective. Take all of the different parties into account, all of the vested concerns, your common sense, and the national interests, and then make your decision.
But before you sign that bill, veto that resolution, or close that discussion, I would ask you to take one final step.
Ask your children.
I know that this may sound insane, and of course, I’m not implying you ask them about things like Guantanamo or death penalty cases, but hear me out for a second.
You and I are very much alike in that we have two daughters. Yours are 10 and 7, and mine are 7 and 4, so the age difference is pretty similar. I’m also going to go out on a limb and assume that you’d agree that we both have very intelligent daughters (not because you know me or I you, but because we’re both dads, so of course our kids are smart).
Ask them if it makes more sense to have power made on the roof of your house or come from a thousand miles away, generated by a finite source that needs to be dug from the ground. Ask them if the cars and public transportation they will one day use should be powered by the sun, or by a finite resource taken from hostile environments. Ask them if packaging should need to be thrown away or recycled, or if it would be better for it to biodegrade or if it’s necessary at all. Ask them.
I know I’m probably going to get a lot of flak for this letter as people say that a 10-year-old and a 7-year-old don’t have all the facts, and that’s exactly my point. They don’t have all the facts, the special interests, the politics and deal making, the years of favors owed and accepted. And for just that reason, it makes their opinions matter all the more. They have the ability to look at these problems in black and white terms and see the greater issues, the issues that will matter to them and the generations that come after them.
So there you have it, my one big piece of advice for you. I don’t envy you the job ahead but hope that you will consider your children, their children, and the children seven generations after them when you make your decisions. While Washington may have its sway, if you use your daughters as a litmus test, and ask them what they think, or at least ask yourself if you are doing right by them in the long run, I have no doubt that you will do what needs to be done, and put us all on a path towards a better future and a sustainable planet.
Best,
Dave Chameides (father of two)
P.S. If you could retool Detroit and get those people to work building renewable energy equipment that’d be huge. It worked in WWII (well, they built tanks instead of cars anyway) so why wouldn’t it work now?
P.P.S. And maybe throw those solar panels back on the White House, the ones that Carter put up but Reagan took down. That’d be cool too. If money is an issue, let me know. I know a guy.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Leftovers (or making the abnormal, normal)
From a piece I wrote for Care2.
I was interviewed on the radio last Friday about my 365 Days of Trash and an interesting thing happened. I was talking about some of the things that I started doing last year (and still do) in order to waste less and the subject came around to eating out at restaurants. I mentioned the simple ones–try to stay away from fast food, tell them you don’t need the straw, don’t order more than you think you’ll eat, and then I mentioned doggie bags.
My wife and I have two young kids, so more often than not we are left with food on the table. So, assuming we knew we were planning to eat out, one of us will usually bring along a small Tupperware type container and put it in there. As I explained to the gentleman interviewing me, this allows me to save the food that would otherwise get trashed, but negates my need for a Styrofoam take out container.
Now I’ve been bringing my own for a while now, so it pretty much seems like second nature, but the radio host saw it a different way. “Really?” he said, “Isn’t that sort of embarrassing?”
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard that kind of reaction and I’m sure it won’t be the last so I wasn’t taken aback, but it did get me thinking. Why is the idea of standing out, of being so different, so scary?
Now I know that there’s human nature, the desire to not be seen outside of the herd and all. My guess is this comes from not wanting to be eaten first by predators or some such subconscious remnant from our pre-wheel, spear-throwing times (as an aside, it fascinates me then that loud Hawaiian shirts are so popular). But no one at Bo’s Bar and Grill is looking for any human flesh these days so it seems like Tupperware shouldn’t be that scary?
I know I’m rambling a bit here, but bear with me for a second. It seems that my generation has sort of woken up over night and discovered that something is very wrong. We were brought up in this pre-packaged, single-serving, don’t-sweat-the-ramifications-of-what-you-are-doing-because-someone-else-will-take-care-of-it society and suddenly (well it started 20 years or so ago) we are beginning to realize that it doesn’t work so well. We are beginning to wake up and recognize that we need change and we need it fast.
So maybe what we need now is for more people to act differently, to make some noise, to risk being embarrassed. And maybe by doing so, enough people will see what we are doing, follow our model, and then we won’t risk being embarrassed anymore, but will once again be able to disappear into the herd as we pull out our take home containers and pay our checks.
And while we, the “adults” struggle to change our ways and try to do what’s best while still fitting in, maybe we’ll realize that this is a short term problem. Because as we start to make a stand and change our ways, our children will be watching. And if we show them that what we are doing is “normal”–that Tupperware take-home is “normal,” that steel water bottles are “normal,” that turning the lights off and walking to the store are “normal,” maybe that’s just what they will eventually become, normal. And then we’ll have done something.
So what am I getting at? Don’t try to hide your Tupperware, or your water bottles, your reusable bags, or your travel coffee mugs. Walk to work and let your co-workers know you did it and why. Challenge the status quo and throw it out there that what you are doing is not embarrassing, but empowering. And let your children know that being different isn’t something you should be embarrassed about, but something you should be proud of, because you are doing it for them.
Trust me, as the father of two girls who think that scrap paper should be given to the worms in their composter, I can assure you that when abnormal becomes normal, it’s pretty cool.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Pixar Misses the Point
I've always been a big fan of Pixar pictures and as I wrote this past summer, liked WallE for the reasons you might expect. An animated movie from one of the best studios going, about a trash machine that is cleaning up the planet after humans have trashed it due to unchecked wasteful practices. Sign me up.
So I was quite dismayed when I visited a friend down the street the other day and found what had come in their Los Angeles Times that day. A 10 oz, glossy printed, beautifully bound, 12" x 9 1/2" booklet on the movie. You see here in Los Angeles, Oscar fever is already starting and apparently the folks at Pixar wanted all of the voting members of the Academy to think of WallE. And what better way than to send them to all 815,723 subscribers (I'm guessing here but if the neighbors and several other non voting, non industry folks got them, I'm assuming a lot more did).
What an incredible waste. A waste of resources (paper, ink, time) and a waste of energy (to print them and then to deliver the extra weight). But it doesn't stop there.
WallE was all about how we as a planet need to shape up and start wasting less, start living a little cleaner, dare I say, more sustainably. So I opened it up hoping to find tips on how to waste less, conserve more, recycle, repurpose, you name it. Instead I found quotes from the top film critics on how great the movie was, and truly beautiful images from the film itself. The only thing remotely environmental was on the bottom left corner of the back cover of the entire thing.Amazing. Amazing and sad all at the same time. Pixar, I give you an A plus for the message behind the movie, but a D (I'm being generous) on not recognizing that the message should apply to us all.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Black Friday and the Ten Commandments
I wrote this up for Care2 and thought some of you may find it of interest.
I’ve been trying to write up the piece I had planned for today and I just can’t do it. It’s tough to talk about a little pink mouse when there is a huge white elephant standing in the room, stepping on your toe. That white elephant of course, is Black Friday.
What exactly is going on people? Are we really killing each other to save $10 on wii? Have things really gotten that out of hand?
For the few of you who may not know what I am talking about, here’s a little update. While the rest of the world spent Thanksgiving day waiting for word on Mumbai, wondering whether the Thai government will step down or not, and watching the latest in the Somali pirating sagas, many US citizens were getting their track shoes out, warming up their already maxed out credit cards, and, in at least one case, loading their weapons.
Why you ask? Because Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is what has come to be known as Black Friday here in the US, an eagerly anticipated event that stores build up to with a fevered pitch, where “stuff” is on sale. As a result, many stores will open at midnight to throngs of shoppers mad to get $10 off on their child’s favorite Christmas toy or a new blender for the holidays. And as a result, people often get hurt, and as in this years case, killed.
In Long Island, NY, a frenzied crowd outside a Walmart stampeded in as the entrance was opened “ripping the doors off their hinges”, injuring 4 people including a woman in her eighth month of pregnancy, and trampling and killing a 34-year-old employee. In an effort not to be outdone by the East coast, hours later, two fathers in a Toys R Us in California, shot and killed each other after a dispute between their wives. It remains unclear as to what started the dispute (it may have been gang related), but they were there for the sales, and I’m guessing their kids’ lives will never be the same.
All over the country, crowds surged, people shoved, mothers grabbed, fathers ran, children cried – all in all a really wonderful way to bring in the holiday season don’t you think? Ain’t the US of A great?
OK, if you read my articles, you are probably asking yourself, “where’s the wacky guy, we usually like to hear with the tips and ideas?” Well, I’m still here, I’m just a little upset right now. For starters, shame on the stores for allowing this to happen. Shame on them for lighting the fires of anticipation with their circulars and shame on them for allowing these mad dash events to occur. Remember the WHO concert in Cincinnati where all those people were crushed back in the 70s(http://www.enquirer.com/editions/1999/12/03/loc_concert_industry.html)? That changed things, shouldn’t this?
And shame on the shoppers. I recognize that people like a good deal but there is a point. When we forget about human decency and are able to trample a man rather than stopping and trying to help, we’ve gone too far. There has been talk about a mob mentality, and there is truth to that, but a mob is made up of individuals and each of those individuals has the ability, nay, the responsibility to step out of the mob, no matter how tough it may be. I think my favorite headline from yesterday was a CNN piece that read “Walmart Trampling Death Could Have Been Avoided.” Really? Ya think?
Anyway, enough with the sadness and condemnation. Here are a few things I’d like to see happen next year.
For starters, let’s take a stand and stamp out Black Friday. Adbusters (http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd)(a cool org by the way) has a great site devoted to Buy Nothing Day, their version of Black Friday. As protests go it doesn’t get any simpler than this – do nothing. Next year, instead of rushing to the stores, send the merchants a message and don’t show up at all. Can you imagine how disappointed everyone will be when no one is there to rip the doors off in anticipation of buying the first Hannah Montana Pees A Lot Doll (if that takes off I want my cut by the way).
Secondly, let’s all relax, take a deep breath, and take another look at the Ten Commandments, but with a capitalist twist. I mean no disrespect to anyone here, but this is a list that a large number of us know and it does have a few good pointers. To keep it simple, I’m going with the Wikipedia translation.
1. I am the Lord your God – Recognize that stuff isn’t going to make you happy, but faith in whatever it is you believe in, love, and understanding are what’s important. The iPhone can wait.
2. You Shall Have No Other Gods Before You – That wii may be cool, but making it the focal point of your life isn’t doing anyone any good. Get yourself out into nature for a few minutes. Play with your kids. Read a book.
3. You Shall Not Make Wrongful Use of the Name of Your God – As in “So help me god, I’ll kill you if you don’t let go of that Suzie Barfs A Lot Doll” - that’s just not neighborly.
4. Remember the Sabbath and Keep It Holy – A stretch on this one, but maybe we could all take a day or two off each week from consuming and do some good instead? Just a thought.
5. Honor Your Mother and Father – Ask yourself “Would my parents be proud of how I’m acting?”
6. You Shall Not Murder – Ya see, it doesn’t say, “unless something is 20% below cost,” it just says don’t do it. Simple.
7. You shall not commit adultery – Not touching that one (pun intended).
8. You Shall Not Steal – Let that little girl have the doll she’s holding. Sure you’re bigger and can take it before her mommy sees, but come on.
9. You Shall Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor – Allright, this one doesn’t work so much, but it’s still a good idea to keep an eye on no?
10. You Shall Not Covet Anything That Belongs To Your Neighbor – Simply put, let the Joneses be the Joneses and let the Smiths be the Smiths. The things that you have that are important can’t be bought and can’t be sold. They are learned and passed along from one generation to the next. Take a look at who you are, and stop worrying about everyone else.
Bottom line is this – we all need to wake up and recognized that we are being played. Somehow we’ve bought into this notion that owning bigger and better stuff makes us bigger and better people. When in fact it makes us shallower and hollower. Last Friday proved that quite well. So here’s to next Back Friday when the stores are empty, the aisles deserted, and everyone is home with their families having made a decision about what is truly important, and acted upon it.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
T-Day and A Really Black Friday
Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone, Black Friday/National Buy Nothing Day has come and gone, and sadly, I missed every opportunity I had to talk about any of it. I had planned to write something up about Thanksgiving on the day, but got kind of caught up in friends, kids and stuff and figured I'd write up something the following day. The next day, I woke up and found that our dog was in serious dire straights. I'll spare you the details but suffice it to say it was a really ugly day spent making some impossible decisions and T-giving and Black Friday were the last things on my mind (although, as the title suggests, it was a darker day than I had expected). Thankfully our beloved Biscuit is home snoring in the other room, but sadly, I think that we may have simply bought her some more time and are nearing her eventual demise shortly.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Why Recycle At Home And Not When You Are Out
I took my daughters to the park today as it was a nice day out and they had a bit of energy that needed sapping. AS they ran around on the play area I sat and watched people going by, something I must admit I enjoy doing form time to time. Now i don't know if it was my heightened awareness due to this project, or a jackpot time to be there, but i was fairly shocked at what I noticed.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Monthly Totals
I just got around to tallying the numbers for Oct 1st (I know a bit late as usual) and they seem to have stayed almost the same on many levels. I'm guessing that this is due to my scale and the fact that i have trimmed things down so significantly. On top of that, the stuff that's going down there is pretty light for the most part (again, the scale that only goes by .5 lb increments is partially to blame here). Amazingly, the paper actually dropped by 1.5 lbs which means that i have more going out (the worms) than coming in (junk mail is all but gone with a few pesky holdouts). Pretty cool.
I also spent about an hour cleaning the garbage in the basement (yes I know how psychotic that sounds) and thankfully found nothing more than the expected basement dwellers (small spiders, a few moving little guys I couldn't recognize) but nothing serious. It made me realize how allergic to dust i am, but that's got nothing to do with the trash. I will admit that i opened things/moved things with a tad bit of trepidation as I was totally afraid that I'd pull one box or move a tub and cockroaches would swarm out all over me. Thankfully, no such swarming.
I should add that the entire time I was down there, any noise that i made elicited a "what, what did you find" response from my wife upstairs as she was certain that i would find all sorts of things down there (although she'd never admit it). Once I realized it, I can't lie, i definitely threw a few "oh dear lords" out there just to get her going. Ahh, she's a saint, but ya need to keep your sense of humour about you when you're hoarding and ya need to keep it all clean.
Dave
Friday, October 3, 2008
October Website of the Month - Fallen Fruit
"When you reap the harvest of you land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger." - Leviticus 19:9-10
A comment on comments
I felt that I should post a little thought on comments as i just got through rejecting more than a few. I set up comments to be moderated (they need to be OK'd by me before they are posted to the blog) back in Feb as I was getting spammed with ad garbage that i didn't want.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
OK, So I'm A Hippy, So Sue Me
I just realized that today is Sept 11th.
Thanks
Dave
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Wow, things are backwards
I was driving in the car yesterday listening to the radio and there was a story about obesity becoming a problem in Iraq. It seems that as a result of the violence there, a large number of Iraqi citizens choose to leave their houses only when necessary and as a result have become quite sedentary. Add to this the ability to have TV in there houses and the picture gets much worse.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Camping
As you may have gleaned form the odd assortment of trash & recycling from this weekend, my wife and I took the girls camping. This is a twice yearly event for us with a large group of really cool, slightly eclectic, and ever growing set of folks who have been kind enough to include us in there bi-yearly outings.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Weights and Measures
I just got through posting the new weights and measures for this month and it's interesting to see what is going on. Garbage wise I have really not gone up much in the last month or two. If I'm reading that correctly I'm assuming that means the habits I have learned are sticking and the choices I am making are not causing me to send more stuff the the landfill. It'll be interesting to see if at the end of the year the majority of my trash was created in the first few months. And don't think it's not lost on me that I'm also lucky that the dishwasher hasn't broken, but that'd probably be in it's own category anyway.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Ripples of Hope - Do Something
A post I just put up on Care2.
“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the life of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends a tiny ripple of hope, and those ripples, crossing each other from a million different centers of energy, build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” –Sen. Robert F. Kennedy
I want to tell you about four people I know who are true heroes.
The first three are my good friends Marcus, Joel and Anna, who last week accomplished something that many thought to be impossible. Marcus and Joel sailed into Honolulu 87 days and 2,600 miles after leaving Long Beach, Calif., back in late May on board a raft made of 15,000 plastic bottles, a Cessna plane fuselage, and a host of various and sundry other disposed of items.
While what Marcus and Joel have done, along with their land-based counterpart Anna–without whom they would not have accomplished this incredible feat–is truly amazing and inspiring, that is not what makes them heroes in my eyes. Many would say that they are heroes simply because they put themselves in harm’s way. Many would say that they are heroes simply because they took on a Herculean task for the greater good, and accomplished it tenfold, having their message heard around the world. Many would say that they are heroes because they persevered through what at times must have been the intense emotions that accompany any undertaking such as this. And they would be right.
But what truly sets Marcus, Joel and Anna apart, what makes them heroes in my eyes, is that they did something. Plain and simple, they saw a problem and rather than sit idly by, they stood up and said, “How can I make this better?”
Marcus, Joel and Anna threw a huge rock in the pond and created mighty ripples that are changing the world for the better. They are heroes.
The fourth person I want to talk about today is my Uncle Bob.
Uncle Bob passed away last week. He had been sick for quite some time. I was not able to attend the funeral as it was across the country, but my mom e-mailed me shortly after the ceremony and told me about all the people from the community who came to bid Bob farewell.
Bob owned a gas station back when he was younger and pretty much ran it most of his life. He wasn’t a wealthy man, yet my mom told me how time and again, people kept coming up and telling her how, when they didn’t have enough money, Bob would give them free gas so that they could get to work or get their kids to school. They told her about how Bob would come with his plow and clear out their driveways when the huge snowstorms hit, even if they didn’t have the money to hire him to do so. They talked of his service in the Korean War, of his gentle smile and of his amazing harmonica playing abilities.
Of course, we’ll probably never know how many people Uncle Bob actually helped out in this way because he wasn’t the kind of guy to make a lot of noise about such things. To him, that’s just what people do. You see a problem and you take care of it. He did something.
Uncle Bob threw a small rock into a small pond, time and again, and created mighty ripples that changed his community for the better. He is a hero.
While doing something huge on an international stage can be effective, doing something locally on no stage at all is just as important. It’s not the size of the accomplishment, it’s the act itself. That is what truly makes the difference.
How many acts of injustice, environmental, legal, social or otherwise, do we all see every day? How many of us actually get up and do something about them? How many of us stand up and scream at the top of our lungs, through our actions, or even in some case with our actual voices, “Enough, I will not sit idly by and watch while this continues to happen. I’m taking a stand, and while I may not have the solution, I will not be part of the problem. I’m going to do something and do it now.”
You see it doesn’t take a raft or a snow plow or any one specific ability to make things better, it just takes the desire for change, and the willingness to sacrifice a little bit of yourself for the greater good. Put the needs of others ahead of yourself, look around and open up your eyes, seek out injustices and then work towards fixing them. Scream out loud and don’t take no for an answer.
Pick up that rock and chuck it in the pond.
Be a hero.
Do something.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
It's JUNE!!!!!!!!!
Wow, time truly does fly doesn't it? How is it possible that i have been continuing on with this insanity for 5 full months? Definitely doesn't seem like it, but then again when I look back, a lot has happened as well. I dare say that i didn't truly think I'd be at it for this long (I figured my wife or my better judgement would have gotten to me long before this), but what do you know, here it is June and I'm still hoarding. Who knew?
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
John Mayer Feels Like Doing Nothing
Ok, I know this isn't the usual subject matter, but this has been really peeving me lately and I thought I'd throw it out there. I'm sure a large majority of you have heard the John Mayer song "Waiting on the World to Change", an infinitely catchy little ditty that sticks in your mind and is truly a great pop song. Well, if you are like me, you heard it the first time and thought 'hey, this is a good tune, and it has a really good message' and then you listened a little closer and realized what he was actually saying. Check out the lyrics below and you'll soon realize that this is not a call to action, but an excuse for inaction. AARRGGGHHH!!!!Basically what he has to say is that things are really bad, but until someone else does something about it, we should all just sit and drink lattes while someone else takes a stab at it (and he counts his millions). I even watched the video hoping for something I had missed and saw that it had even less inspiration than the song has.
Ghandi once said "You MUST be the change you wish to see in the world" not "Sit around and mope while the change you wish for hopefully happens on it own". I know the guy is only a pop singer but please, does he have to use his voice (I'm talking access and reach, not vocal abilities) to give this generation yet another reason to sit around and wallow in their own complacency?
We're all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing and
There's no way we ever could
Now we see everything that's going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don't have the means
To rise above and beat it
(Sounds like a plan...pretty much how everyone in history has taken care of things...I wonder what's on Youtube)
So we keep waiting
(waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
(waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
It's hard to beat the system
When we're standing at a distance
(Yeah, wouldn't want to get too close to that system, might get sucked in and have to do something, might actually have to get out there and make some noise, which seems like a lot of work...ooh, my latte is ready)
So we keep waiting
(waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
Now if we had the power
To bring our neighbors home from war
They would have never missed a Christmas
No more ribbons on their door
(If only we lived in a country where we could actually speak our minds and tell our elected officials what we think...then I'd...woa, Halo's up!)
And when you trust your television
What you get is what you got
Cause when they own the information, oh
They can bend it all they want
(Gosh, someday, someone will invent the technology so that anyone with something to say could broadcast it to the whole world, then I'd have another way to get info than that darn tv...ooh, American Idol is on)
That's why we're waiting
(waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
(waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
It's not that we don't care,
We just know that the fight ain't fair
(So we'll do nothing, yeah, that'll show em, we care, we just don't want to waste our time trying cuz time is too important to...pizza is here)
So we keep on waiting
(waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
And we're still waiting
(waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
(waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
One day our generation
Is gonna rule the population
(and we'll have no idea what to do other than sit on the couch and complain, but that should work right?)
So we keep on waiting
(waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
Now we keep on waiting
(waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
Waiting on the world to change(x4)
