Showing posts with label changing the world. Show all posts
Showing posts with label changing the world. Show all posts

Friday, April 24, 2009

flotsam in the ocean

plastic in the ocean has absorbed me today. i find it strange that i have an attitude of disbelief and amazement when confronted with the effects of our throwaway societies. i mean, where do we think all this trash is going? talk about denial on the deepest level.
anyway, here i have provided some videos and links so that, you too, can become absorbed and hopefully, act accordingly.


Watch Toxic Garbage Island

Algalita Marine Research


Thursday, April 23, 2009

inspired by::green

whether we are talking about the new green buds on the trees or the "be green" movement that is gaining momentum, i am all about green these days.
i am thoroughly enjoying the renewal that spring brings. the proof that life is an everlasting circle, and the rejoicing that happens without fail and without matter. one can always put stock in the fact that nature will parade it's wares.
the colors! the bursting forth! the declarations!
all of it is spectacular.

another thing that i think is marvelous is collaboration of ideas and solutions on how to pick ourselves out of this environmental and social ignorance that has never suited us well. i believe the human race to be compassionate and conscious and there are so many groups and organizations out there proving my hunch correct.
a small offering:
The Hunger Project
We/Repower America
Equality Now

Monday, November 10, 2008

what he said....

lately, i have been steaming over the passing of prop 8 in california and can't fathom why people are so damn mean. this commentary puts into words what i have been thinking this past week.
watch and act accordingly.
keith, i want my name in the book of love!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

can't stop smiling

peace wins.

kindness rules the day.

love is alive.

As I hold my son on my lap watching President Obama, my heart is full and my eyes are teary. I can now give my children the promise that change and hope are never extinct. I have seen the unbelievable with my own eyes. I have witnessed history. I have seen that when we stand up together and join our voices and our hearts, nothing is out of reach.

Monday, November 3, 2008

the little vote that could

i've been quiet lately, i know.
i've been very distracted by this upcoming election, moving, and frozen yogurt.
can you even believe that election day is tomorrow?
i am letting myself feel pretty confident that things are going to go my (and america's) way and am pretty sure that i won't be eating my words on wednesday morning.
go hope!

here is my plea:
vote, vote, vote!
if you have already voted, you are awesome, but make sure you are doubly awesome and take some food and drink to those in long voting lines. or, drive all your friends to the polls. or, make calls and emails to everyone you know and remind them to use their magical voting powers.

alright, that all i got right now.
vote!

Friday, September 12, 2008

raise your voices

another letter i received that i thought was important enough to spread the message. please visit their blog and make your voice heard. also, please see my new sidebar of links titled do something!
hundreds of thousands of woman all speaking out together in the name of change is breathtaking.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello there--

Friends, compatriots, fellow-lamenters,

We are writing to you because of the fury and dread we have felt since
the announcement of Sarah Palin as the Vice-Presidential candidate for the
Republican Party. We believe that this terrible decision has surpassed
mere partisanship, and that it is a dangerous farce on the part of a
pandering and rudderless Presidential candidate that has a real possibility of
becoming fact.

Perhaps like us, as American women, you share the fear of what Ms. Palin
and her professed beliefs and proven record could lead to for ourselves and
for our present or future daughters.

To date, she is against sex education, birth control, the pro-choice platform, environmental protection, alternative energy development, freedom of speech (as mayor she wanted to ban books and attempted to fire the librarian who stood against her), gun control,
the separation of church and state, and polar bears. To say nothing of her complete lack
of real preparation to become the second-most-powerful person on the
planet.

We want to clarify that we are not against Sarah Palin as a woman, a
mother, or, for that matter, a parent of a pregnant teenager, but solely as a
rash, incompetent, and altogether devastating choice for Vice President. Ms.
Palin's political views are in every way a slap in the face to the
accomplishments that our mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers so fiercely
fought for, and that we've so demonstrably benefited from.

First and foremost, Ms. Palin does not represent us. She does not
demonstrate or uphold our interests as American women. It is presumed
that the inclusion of a woman on the Republican ticket could win over women voters. We want to disagree, publicly.

Therefore, we invite you to reply here

with a short, succinct message about why you, as a woman living in this
country, do not support this candidate as second-in-command for our
nation.

Please include your name (last initial is fine), age, and place of
residence.

We will post your responses on a blog called 'Women Against Sarah
Palin,' which we intend to publicize as widely as possible. Please send us your
reply at your earliest convenience. The greater the volume of
responses we receive, the stronger our message will be.

Thank you for your time and action.

VIVA!

Sincerely,

Quinn Latimer and Lyra Kilston
New York, NY
womensaynopalin@gmail.com

drill, drill, drill

the following is a letter that was sent to me by email. i sent it to as many woman as i could but wanted to share this on my blog as well.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Drill, Drill, Drill

I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.

I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.

But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.

I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.

Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, 'It was a task from God.'

Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.

She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.

Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.

Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.

Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.

I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.

If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, 'Drill Drill Drill.' I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.

Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?


Eve Ensler
September 5, 2008

Thursday, September 4, 2008

on politics

i can't seem to pull myself away from the madness of the political climate right now. i have listened, read, and thought a lot about sarah palin and why exactly i'm even thinking about this woman.....i'm at a loss.

i watched her speech last night at the GOP convention and frankly, i was absolutely horrified. she talked nothing about her qualifications, experience, or how she plans to help americans. not a word about the real issues facing our country were uttered. all i heard was drill now! and more nuclear reactors! and, oh yeah, mean spirited, untrue attacks on barack obama. i was and still am sick to my stomach.

what i appreciate about obama is that he feeds our belief that humanity is overwhelmingly good and kind, that we are all connected by the common desires of freedom, safety, and happiness. what i heard last night was the fuel for fear.

i felt more hopeful after reading this. it's smart, well thought out, and anti-dramatic.

i also felt more hopeful after visiting the official barack obama store and purchasing t-shirts and a yard sign. i like to think that i am turning this frustration i am feeling and directing it to something positive, something that will help.

and because john stewart is funny, i watched this. he hits the nail on the head every time.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

be still my heart

all this week i was wishing that i could be in denver partaking in the democratic national convention. just my type of fun. being able to hear motivational speeches all week that get your heart thumping and your blood pumping and your heart soaring.....magical.

i watched most of the major speeches and my favorite was baracks.
he is brilliant.
and he is my president
if you have been living under a rock this past week, here is his nomination acceptance speech in all its glory.

Monday, July 21, 2008

solving problems



please watch.
then act.
this has me happy beyond belief.

hurray!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

untouched place

my grandma is on the airplane right now making her way to us. we are looking forward to spending a long weekend with her. it's been awhile since she has seen the babes and i know she will want to drink them in like honey.
contrary to what might have been said here in the past, both my kids are oh, so sweet.

i ran across the a poem that i wrote in middle school and was struck at how the issues i raise in my poem are the exact same issues that weigh on my mind and heart some 15 years later.
enjoy...


Untouched Place

All vegetation is plentiful and green.
Plenty of fish swimming in the stream.
Oh, how I wish this wasn't a dream!

There isn't a gaping hole in the sky.
Birds of extinction again start to fly.
No more little children have to die.

Wars and contention between neighbors will stop.
From the clouds only clean rain would drop.
Farmers assured of a plentiful crop.

All starving nations get to be fed.
The homeless and weary find the warmth of a bed.
Injustice and prejudice no longer said.

Education and knowledge no longer denied.
Society no longer based on money and pride.
Our dreams and ambitions we no longer hide.

For every disease is found a cure.
Understanding and love are given much more.
All of our worries we no more must endure.

Would we know how to live in this place?
Could we treat it with love and with grace?
Or again must it be destroyed by the human race?




Sunday, June 8, 2008

shift


i am in need of a discussion.
some feedback, if you will.

my head is so full of thoughts about the end of the world as we know it (i know dramatic, right?) i seriously think it's going to explode. seriously. i have been getting migraines which i have never, ever experienced before on a weekly basis. like lightning striking on the interior of my brain.

i have been having nightmare after nightmare about what would happen if we woke tomorrow with no water running from the tap or electricity that worked like magic. i can't stop thinking about whose diet would stay virtually unchanged if we no longer had the option of going to the supermarket or the fast food restaurant for food. i am feeling more and more disenchanted with consumerism and that our whole lives are built around money, accumulating more and more worthless shit, greed, and power. i feel saddened at the fact that even while standing in the middle of a crowd, i am still alone. that i live in a neighborhood surrounded by people, yet i am isolated. i am irritated that our public discourse is on how to make driving cars "greener" rather than why the hell do we need these cars in the first place. i have been dwelling on the simple fact that we are so out of balance with our natural world that it is inevitable that she will bring herself back into balance sooner or later. most likely sooner.
most of all i am so annoyed at myself that i am thinking about all these things from a place of fear, lack, and panic.
bottom line-i am annoyed at myself for being annoyed about thoughts that are totally annoying me. quite possibly consuming me. yikes.


how do i move on from this place of yuck?

how about i flip this fear coin and look at this issue(s) from a place of positivity? to see the silver lining. yes, our world is changing, no question, but why all the drama and fear of change?

i have been hearing a lot about a current shift in our collective human consciousness. a sweeping change in thought about what it means to live joyful lives that are no longer fighting against the very earth that sustains us. i know that i am not the only one out there thinking, wondering, and dreaming about what our lives will be like when we are more in line with the natural world. it seems that there are a lot of people that had never identified with phrases such as "saving the earth" in the past are beginning to act on making their footprint a little lighter.
that, to me, could definitely be seen as one of many silver linings.

so, now i am inviting you to ramble. let's get this philosophical party started! a few questions i've been chewing on......

what is the last civilization/tribe/group of people in history that you think lived most in balance with nature?

do you think there are real implications to living the way we do? or is it a bunch of new age hooey?

should we continue exploring on how to make our current way of life more earth friendly, or do we need to backtrack and redefine what it means to live a good life?

p.s. i don't mean for this to seem totally dorky or teacher-like, i am just in need of getting these swirling, often conflicting, ideas out of my head and into a more productive form. (i.e.-keeping myself from going crazy.)
xoxo

Thursday, April 10, 2008

spread the love


i was reading jen lemen's blog today and was brought to tears at the confirmation that each of us hold the power to do the impossible, that dreams come true, and that love rules.

please read about her project here and donate if you can. she has already received more than her budget, so in her own words,

All the contributions we get above and beyond our budget from now until May 8th will go directly to empowering girls to get to school and stay there until they have the skills they need to make their dreams come true.

yes! yes! yes!

and if you can't donate moola, you can still help by sending hope notes.

join in and spread the love.


Friday, March 28, 2008

the writing on the wall

i like to think there is a bathroom wall writing fairy guru spreading messages of love and peace in public bathrooms all over the world.
don't you?

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

emerging



breaking through the layers of frozen ground.
diligently wanting the warmth of the sun.
instinctively knowing how to grow and change.
how to bloom.
it is just the beginning of something big.
of something wondrous and earth shattering.
something small, but never insignificant.
for it will change the entire landscape.
bring beauty and hope to all who see it.
and beyond.
just watch and give thanks.
for this is the beginning.



Monday, February 4, 2008

hope

I have considered writing a post in support of my candidate of choice, Barack Obama, for awhile now- but something has stopped me. Not sure what exactly what has stopped me, but I feel strongly about using this space to explore and talk about things that speak to my heart.

Obama is one of those people that speaks directly to my heart.

When there are so many issues to look at and weigh, so much crap to cut through, so much venom and greed and ego involved in campaigning, who really ends up knowing anything besides how they feel about a candidate in their heart? When we look into our heart we will find the leader that rings true. We will find the leader that fills you with hope, and tingles, and tears of joy.

This is how I feel about Obama.

I first saw this video on Boho's blog and I couldn't stop watching it. It is beautiful, powerful, and filled to the brim with hope and the wish for change.

For some reason I am having problems uploading the video so please link to it here.

Please vote.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

stuff

Oh, yes. With all my silly stuff earlier I almost forgot the most important stuff of all.

The Story Of Stuff

Everyone and their Mom, and dog, should watch this.

In fact, my dogs are watching right now and taking notes.

Mom, get to it.

Monday, October 22, 2007

something happening here

I loved this video.
Hopefully, you will too.
Then we can stand together amongst those that are aching for change.

http://pol.moveon.org/nukefree/o.pl?id=11429-3657713-ZB9oM3&t=5