Stop Protesting and Start Doing Something

I am starting to get (well, okay let’s face it, I have been) really annoyed with people who are convinced they can change the world with peaceful protests. When I was in college I was in a “peace” group, but we did a lot more than protest. We were more a group that spread the opposing viewpoint’s opinion on major issues (Veterans Against the Iraq War, etc). But now I talk to my friends who are still in college and all they seem to do is plan marches, and march against war, for LGBT rights, and many other things. I am quite frustrated. These are some of the most intelligent people I know, and they are wasting their time walking down streets with signs when they could be doing something that might actually change the world.

GreenPeace can hang all of the banners they want off of the sides of buildings and bridges but if they believe that the hardened heartless CEOs and politicians are going to change their consumer driven goals because of a banner they see, they are sorely mistaken.

The fact that we even “need” an Animal Planet channel is sad in and of itself. If the network thinks they will change things by spreading the word and knowledge about endangered and extinct animals that lived half a country (or even half a block) away from the couch the viewer is sitting on they are wrong.

These silent campaigns are far too easily ignored by both the general public and the leaders of Western civilization. Activists and protestors that go far enough to actually start to change something are promptly silenced and most of the world continues on without even realizing it happened. The news media will cover a business opening (or re-opening) before it will cover the loving soul who is living in the branches of a doomed redwood.

So, what should you do? Well you can continue signing your petitions and making your signs and practicing your chants for your marches, or you can actually change the world. You can join that activist in the tree, and bring a camera along. You can stop the pollution that is constantly streaming into our already quite toxic waterways. You can plant a garden for yourself. You can do all of these things but still it is not enough. It is never going to BE enough when our planet is dying before our eyes. Let me rephrase that, our planet is being murdered before our eyes and we pay less attention than we do to a mid season recap of American Idol.

This world will change all on its own in time, as the oil runs out and the infrastructure crumbles. I, personally, am not willing to wait for it to happen on its own. Humanity may not even be around to see it. 90% of large ocean fish are definitely not going to be around to see it. 23,000 dolphins a year will not be around to see it. The salmon, koala bears, arctic foxes, polar bears, emperor penguins, and clownfish might be gone as well, along with so many other beautiful and intricately necessary species.

So what are you going to do?

Book Review

Walking on Water

By: Derrick Jensen

As I am sure most of you know by now, I am a huge fan of Derrick Jensen. I have read several of his books and each time I am enthralled. I start sending quotations and statistics from them to friends who (typically) ignore me and hope I’ll finish reading soon. The most recent book I read by him, however, is one that even my least liberal of friends would appreciate: Walking on Water.

This book is, on the surface, about the education systems in western civilization and how they form children into the wage slaves they will need to be in the “real world”. Derrick Jensen reflects on his own experiences as a student as well as those as a teacher at both a prison and a university. He mentions numerous times that the places didn’t vary “as much as you’d think” when it came to the classrooms.

What interested me the most about the book were the descriptions of how he taught creative writing classes in both the university and the prison. As an English major myself there were many aspects of his teaching that I recognized from my own experiences (arranging the desks in circles and being respectful while using praise in work-shopping to name a few). There were, however, many examples of things he did in his classrooms that I wish would have been done in mine.

He made sure that throughout the course he read an example of everyone’s writing. (He points out the fact that we have all felt left out at one point or another waiting for a teacher to read a “great” example of something we did only to have them reach the bottom of their good examples pile and read nothing of yours).

The level of respect he fosters in his classrooms is also a commendable thing. Although his views vary greatly from some of his students he finds a way to not let that effect his grading practices. The answer: don’t have grades. The struggle of creating a classroom with no grades when he is required to give them by the university is played out well in the beginning of the book.

All of these things were fantastic in the book, but the most important and powerful thing Jensen did within it is to teach readers how to find who they are. He talks about exercises he did with his classes not to make them better at grammar or to teach them the forms of poems, but rather to have them find out who they are. He challenges his class (at the end of the book) to “walk on water”. What he means by this should be clear to you by the time you get to the conclusion.

I read the entire thing cover to cover in less than a day, refusing to set it down for anything. This is a faster (and shorter) read than most of Jensen’s other works and I’d definitely recommend it. For those readers who are less radically-minded than me this is a good place to jump into Jensen’s works, for those that generally agree with me it will be an amazing supplement to your current reading base.

City Sidewalks

Today was a hard day for me to live in the city.

There's something magical about the first snow of the year here in Wisconsin. Something...sacred, special, and unique. The first snow in the city however, is just sad.

I went for my yearly walk to take pictures of trees and snow and cold and the progression of seasons, and found myself more worried about getting hit by people driving recklessly than noticing the season shift. I found some trees, but they looked lonely with only houses to keep them company. The snow seemed to hang sadly in their branches, upset that it was mostly buildings that caught it in its fall to the ground. A roof is a far more depressing resting place than the crook of a tree.

Two years ago I slipped on slick pavement and broke my wrist in several places. Ever since, even with proper footwear, I find myself grimacing whenever walking on slick sidewalks. I longed for the happy crunch of freshly frozen grass, the way I could feel the mud beneath refusing to freeze just yet. Moonlight and snow are amazing things when combined correctly. A winter's night in Wisconsin can be nearly as bright as a summer morning if the moon is out and the ground is coated with the right kind of snow. I'm talking of that kind with the crust of ice on top and thin fluffy flurries underneath. The type that dogs and cats try to balance on, and look devastated as they fall through.

Winter in the city just reflects the street lights, drivers' fear accidents, and everyone praying to make it through.

I'm going to join the prayer. The city is not for me.

Architecture's Hidden Truths

I have been struggling to think of something to write about since I got back from visiting my home town for Thanksgiving…I’ve decided to expand on a topic I brought up in a forum I’m a member of.

Architecture.

It amazes me that some of the most valuable architecture in the country (houses, office buildings, etc.) is modeled after the nature it inherently destroys. The more windows, skylights, patio doors, balconies, wood flooring, exposed trusses, the better.

It is true that having the feeling of being outside is comforting (consciously to me) apparently unconsciously to most. This civilization has so skewed the way people look at where they live that they have made the indoors as much like the outdoors as possible without it being “wild” or “uncontrollable”. In a mansion covered with windows you can successfully disconnect from nature while still watching and hearing the rain.

“Buildings, too, are children of Earth and Sun.” –Frank Lloyd Wright

Yet what is a spring shower without the drops pummeling off your face as you grin from puddle to puddle?

Folks will sit out on their balconies and patios for hours reading, writing, watching…yet they do not sit in their (often well manicured) yards, or go explore the last remaining stand of wood in their communities.

Property sells for more when located next to a city park than it does when located next to barely charted wilderness. This is a good thing for those like me that love the wilderness, but it’s strange to me at the same time. People want only concentrated and well controlled doses of nature in this society.

A potted plant, a skylight. Mention a large expanse of unfenced wood or a day out in rain gear splashing through mud and these same people who paid top dollar to feel close to nature will cringe in fear.

“God is the great mysterious motivator of what we call nature, and it has often been said by philosophers, that nature is the will of God. And I prefer to say that nature is the only body of God that we shall ever see.” –Frank Lloyd Wright

This applies on a large scale as well. Let’s take central park for instance. Humans need greenery, nature, life, and so we put it in the middle of our zones of destruction and death (cities). The apartments/condos overlooking the park sell for more money than I and ten of my friends will likely make in a lifetime.

The Smothered Scream of a Wage Slave

I’ve been thinking today about passions, dreams, goals (all of the things our society sugar coats into meaning success, money, and promotions). What really and truly makes me happy? Well, writing of course. Not the manual writing I do for my job or the editing I do for extra money….ACTUAL writing. Soul bending, heart tearing writing. Writing that stops me dead in my tracks as the muse takes over and I stare, dumbfounded, at the page.

If I were to break it down in a more scientific sense I would say that the higher the percentage of concrete is when compared to the percentage of trees is in an area the lower my productivity falls. Basically, cities suck the soul right out of me. It’s hard to write when I look around and no longer hold any hope for humanity and limited hope for the earth as a whole.

“Poetry has been able to function quite directly as human interpretation of the raw, loose universe. It is a mixture, if you will, of journalism and metaphysics, or of science and religion.” –Annie Dillard

It’s in and surrounded by nature that I feel at peace. Not so at peace, mind you, that I would only write sappy love sonnets and the like, but at peace enough that my heart isn’t racing in such fear that putting pen to paper is inconceivable. Sunlight helps, as do stars that aren’t diluted by city lights. Crickets (not of the sound machine variety) calm me like no lullaby ever could.

So, I suppose the problem isn’t knowing what I need to be happy and to write—it’s getting what I need. I won’t get it working my 9-5 job (now complete with overtime) in a building with one window surrounded by the most “city like” parts of my city (pavement, too much traffic, and industry everywhere). Yet how do I go live closer to nature and still make enough money to survive in this society?

I really don’t know the answer to that.

“Yes, there is a Nirvana; it is in leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem.” –Kahlil Gibran

My daily schedule is enough to drive anyone insane. I wake up at 5:20am (and it’s dark) get to work by 6am and don’t leave until 5:30pm (when it is also dark). If I want to see daylight at all I need to leave at lunch, where I can get a 30 minute dose of daylight. I get home and all I do is sit, or lay, since I’m so exhausted from staring at a screen all day. Sometimes I try to read, but typically I just fall asleep.

Am I happy with this job? Of course not. How could I be? Yet I sell my life away…

The only semi-agreeable option I know of right now is to go to grad school for my MFA in creative writing. The problem is the school itself is in a city. Yet, at least I won’t be working an office job anymore…

“You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.”
-Desiderata

To Cage a King

An interesting article I read today reads as follows: LINK

SILVER SPRING, Md. (WUSA) -- Rob Ephraim was holding a small point-and-shoot digital camera as he walked around the National Zoo in Washington with his girlfriend on Sunday.

While the pair were passing through the lion exhibit, Ephraim said there were shouts and a splash as something fell off a 13-foot high concrete wall above the moat surrounding the enclosure where two female lions were lounging in the sun.

"Everybody is freaking out thinking that a kid has just fallen into the lion exhibit and all of a sudden, out pops a little deer head," Ephraim recalled.

Relieved to see a deer rather than a child swimming in the moat below, attention went immediately to the lions.

"They reacted right away," Ephraim said. And the 25-year-old was prepared with the camera.

The resulting video, posted to YouTube, has been seen around the world.

First, the lions shadow the deer as it swims to one end of the moat. One lion jumps in to get the deer, but breaks off the attack.

Later, the lions corner the deer in a stairwell as concerned zookeepers look out a window safely behind steel doors.

"Everybody pretty much thought the deer was done but maybe five minutes went by and you all of a sudden heard some yelps and the deer literally came flying out," Ephraim said. The lions again chased the deer across their yard as it jumped back in the water.

"They were like big house cats toying with a bird that flew in the house," Ephraim said.

Shortly thereafter, police showed up and cleared the area.

Zoo officials say the lion keepers were then able to lure the cats to their secure indoor enclosure.

With the yard safe, staffers tried to rescue the deer.

It was so badly injured, a veterinarian was forced to euthanize it.

The deer most likely entered the zoo property from the adjacent Rock Creek Park and took a wrong turn in a panic, according to zoo officials.

Ephraim said the deer "appeared out of nowhere" and jumped through a crowd of people as it leapt over the concrete barrier blindly down to the moat.

"This is what they do," Ephraim said about the lions. "Seeing them in a caged enclosure is not that interesting. Seeing them actually go after something in the wild and use their instincts is very interesting. I'd pay to go to Africa to see this!"

Written by Scott Broom 9NEWS NOW & wusa9.com

I had to think about this for awhile to figure out what my take on it was. I obviously felt horrible for the lions, as I do for any animal kept unwillingly in a captive situation. I also felt bad for the deer, since its own natural habitat had obviously been so encroached upon that, horrified, it ended up in a zoo and ultimately in a lion’s cage.

I don’t think that there’s an easy answer for what should have been done by humans in this situation since creating the situation in the first place was a mistake.

I find it sad that the lions still remembered (at least slightly) how to hunt, but not how to kill their pray. The deer still knew to try to run, but not to avoid humans in the first place (which would have kept it out of the zoo). Euthanizing the deer after the lions had attacked it seems like a strange move. Many people that commented on the article said that there were “children watching” who didn’t need to see an animal killed and eaten by wild animals.

How sheltered are children these days? It’s okay for them to watch it on Animal Planet but not in real life? Children need to know that in what’s left of the wild animals don’t go shopping at Pick N’ Save for meat, they hunt it.

I guess I’m pretty much disgusted by the whole situation. I don’t think that killing the deer and tossing its body was the solution. Letting the lions at least eat what they had hunted would have been fine.

What the Caged Bird Isn't Singing

Why our nation is doomed....

Two words:

Big Bird.

Now you may all be laughing right now, shaking your heads and wondering how on earth a cuddly yellow bird could possibly be responsible for the eventual downfall of America. Well, friends, I intend to tell you.

It’s really quite obvious when you think about it. Sesame Street has been around since 1969. That should make the characters that have been on it the entire time (Big Bird included) 40 years old this year. Did the beloved birdie turn 40 however? Definitely not.

Instead of having their characters age like normal individuals on any other street that isn’t Sesamied on earth the Sesame Street gang have decided that Big Bird should turn the same age each year. Until 1991 Big Bird had been four years old for quite some time. In 1991 he turned six (jumping two years somehow). So now, there’s a 40 year old giant bird with a creepy sounding voice pretending that he’s 6 influencing the children of America and around the world.

No wonder our country is going to hell! We have entire generations of children growing up thinking that aging doesn’t happen. When I was young and pointed the enraging fact of Big Bird not aging out to my mother, do you know what she did? She sent me to my room for a nap! We keep sleeping on this major issue and LOOK WHAT HAPPENS. Ice caps melting, rainforests, gone, unnecessary wars!

Don’t even get me started on the fact that the poor bird lives in a city with barely any grass in sight…