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LadybugFlights
November 2009 Vol.11 #11
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Public Land in a Land of Private Ownership
from Adrianna Long
The ownership of land by a single party, or a collection of parties acting with a single interest, presents serious concerns in the modern world. Where should the line be drawn between individual rights and the broader concerns of the whole community? In residential real estate, these two interests, the individual and the communal, come closer together than in any other sector of land ownership.
From almost the beginning of the United States, there were advocates in the government and the public who supported the idea of acquiring land for public use, and this included land acquisition that went beyond that required for basic infrastructure. Such a plan may appear to be in contrast to strong advocacy for individual ownership but is not necessarily in conflict with the commitment to home ownership. Development of a base of public lands is consistent with the values of home that allow room for the idea that, in a democracy, citizen defined uses of land must be an obligation equal to that of governmental or business demands. Thus, the health and vigor of U.S. public lands policy is a gauge of respect for that citizen use and, in some ways, a gauge of government support for the ideal of individual home ownership.
By the early years of the 1900s public lands included 4.6 million acres of national park land, including nineteen national monuments. These lands were managed by the Department of Interior with a minimal budget and almost no work force. Public sites at the time generally complied with the European use of the word park, which had meant an undeveloped forest, usually for the use of the few, if use was made of the area at all. That was the status of the national parks in 1916 when a bill that would finally establish an independent National Park Service came before Congress.
Legislating the use of land, though, is a complex issue. There are extremes on every side of each of the issues involved, both then and now. Should the national parks be a place for citizens to visit and enjoy? Or should they represent a preservation of the earliest possible condition of forests, valleys and deserts, a sort of reserve for future reference? Should they be kept free from intrusion by service businesses? Or should visitor convenience dictate the kinds of services allowed? Should land with no immediate public use be leased or sold to individuals or corporations with an interest in their development? And, of course, there are even more basic extremes that reflect the attitude that national parks are an inappropriate use for federal funds and the land in question, and, the opposing view, that wherever a site can be turned over to the park system, it should be acquired for preservation and the common good.
These are not easy questions, and the new National Park Service avoided them head-on, incorporating elements from both sides of each argument in its charter. The most serious issues of public land are, thus, dealt with on an administration-by-administration basis that keeps the debate fresh and final resolution of the issues an impossibility. Perhaps that is not an entirely bad approach as this open-ended charter forces continual examination of the questions.
Questions of public use and public good are deeply entwined with the concept of home ownership. They are important indicators of a society's attitude toward the land it inhabits. In this context, land is more than a resource; land is a philosophy. When the rights derived from ownership become too absolute, the societal value of the whole is diminished. When those ownership rights are themselves diminished by short-term or arbitrary demands by society, the equilibrium can tilt the other way. Without a balance between common good and individual rights, society will teeter away from that fulcrum point on which democratic ideals are so precariously perched. In this way the management of national parks has become a kind of bellwether of our ideas about land, home, and value, just as the concept of home is a bellwether of democracy.
In the United States there is increasing recognition of the communal value of land. The land itself is a defining factor in communities and decisions about its use, if regulated, are basic to the character and ultimate human value of the community.
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Read this feature from past issues.
You can see more by David Donar at http://politicalgraffiti.wordpress.com/.
Read this feature from past issues.
Reprinted from November 2001 LadybugFlights
My Father is a retired Army Officer. We went to several different countries during the time he was in the service, some absolutely wonderful from a child's point of view. Now, as an adult, I have to listen to the news about how we might have to blow up part of a country I loved…Afghanistan.
My father was stationed in Afghanistan in 1961 when I was 8 and my older brother was 11. My brother and I had a ton of fun while we were there. We participated in the kite fighting… That is flying a kit with the last few feet at the top coated with broken bits of glass. We used to go to the kite shop just to watch the man put on gloves and first cover the string in glue then roll it through glass that was broken into tiny bits. There was a man who came to our compound and, for a little bit of money, would perform magic tricks. The best trick he did was as follows: he would jerk his whole torso, then make noises that indicated he was going to throw up. Then he made a loud belching sound, and after a few belches he would produce a big rock…Yes that's what I said, he would belch up really big rocks. You could take the rocks and bang them on other even larger rock and you would be convinced.
The Afghan people I knew while I was living there were wonderful loving people. They were concerned with one another's welfare. The flip side was corporal punishment, we saw men crawling on their hands and knees to get from one place to another, because their feet were chopped off for stealing. It was no wonder the crime rate was so low
Afghanis who went by the laws of Islam, were very proud people in some ways, but in other ways they were very sincere caring people. The man who had been hired as our house cook and manager was a wonderful man. His name was Dustigere. We call him "Dusty". On several occasions, when my parents went to a cocktail party, they would ask Dusty to stay and watch us. It meant one less day of seeing his own children. Dusty wasn't just a family man, he was the head of his clan. My brother and I loved it when he would stay and watch us. His cousin worked for us as a butler type of person, and if Dusty stayed, then he stayed as well. His name was "Sam." He said we wouldn't be able to pronounce his real name.
So, once the dinner mess was cleaned up, we would go into the living room and Dusty would turn on his radio and he and Sam would dance for us. Listening to such strange music and watching the two men dance was hysterical, unlike anything we had ever seen before. After a few minutes my brother and I were put up on the shoulders of one of them and they would start singing "Hava Nageela" by the time the dancing was over, there were two small Americans ready for bed. I bet Dusty and Sam were glad of that.
We were quite a handful, I'm sure, but my dad trusted Dusty so much that he allowed us to go and spend a weekend at his house. While we were there, there were two rules: Never go across the creek, and be easy on the horses. Not much limiting there…I felt such freedom riding around without an adult constantly watching over me. That evening Dusty's wife cooked. Dusty would not take her dignity away. The woman is in charge of the house, and does all the chores within it. The man does all the jobs outside of the house. When a man is outside with his wife she keeps her face covered, out of respect of either her father or husband, so we were taught it says in the Qur'an.
When we went out horseback riding we were reminded not to cross the creek, after all who would know that we American children out for a ride on a horse. While we were riding that afternoon, one of the members of Dusty's clan came and told us we had to leave, so as quickly as possible we rode back to Dusty's compound, then went inside to get our stuff packed. It was already done Dusty said my Father's car would take us home and should be there at any moment. Dusty told us when the car came to stay low to the ground and hurry into the car. A few minutes later we found ourselves doing just that. We asked Dad why he had asked us to hurry and get ready for the trip home. When we arrived, the driver had dropped us off at the compound gate, and rung the bell so someone would come out and help us.
Off he drove into the night. We were curious, but it was never explained to us so we figured it was better to remember we had fun there and leave it at that.
When the weather turned cold, my mother noticed that the children of the "taxi" man were not wearing much of anything that would keep them warm. The family across the street had a "horse powered taxi". My mother developed a system with the woman across the street: She would leave the things nicely wrapped in our garbage cans. Before leaving, my Mom would make quite a racket getting the lids back on. The lady from across the way snuck out of her compound, looking around to make sure no one was there to see her; she then ran across the street, opened the can, took out the bundle and left. Just before we would lose site of her she would wave her hand and step inside her compound. All of the clothes were neatly pressed and there were canned goods and cigarettes in the package as well.
When each of the small barrels was opened she was so happy to see the clothes and a full carton of cigarettes. Those American cigarettes were quite valuable. That's why we ran from the taxi when we saw it; they never allowed any of the members of my family walk anywhere. Sometimes it took five or six tries before my brother and I got to the swimming pool at the British Embassy. It was, however, nice when he came and took us home when it started raining. My brother and I were pretty fluent in "Pharsi" the language of that part of Afghanistan. We tried to tell the taxi man's wife that there was something important in the trash. We tried to be as quiet as possible, there was a 9:00 pm curfew on men. Then we kept saying thanks: We thanked the officials as well, and asked them to have a good night.
For me, the best time was when we got 50 Afghanis for our weekly allowance. That meant we were in for a visit (my brother and I) to the Kabob restaurant and if you spent your money wisely, you could get that and have enough for a kabob lunch and enough to go over to the bazaar. The winter was a time that carried with it only a few things a 10 year old would consider fun, so I was always grateful for the summer. We rode our own horse, Whitey, and he was a beautiful animal. We won several ribbons with him when we had Embassy get-togethers. When my Father's orders came for us to leave Afghanistan, I was so sad. Although I didn't like the winters, the other three seasons were wonderful. The kite flying and mountain climbing my brother did will stay in my memory. Dusty used to bring us a glass of water every time we got hurt and said "ow". In Pharsee the word for water was "ow". It was his little joke, and it always took the tears away.
The dreaded day came and we had to leave this wonderful land of King's and castles…
MaryBeth Strickland is a prolific writer who has recently contributed articles in the "Exceptional Women" and "Our Readers Reflect" columns of LadybugFlights.
And, we would like to bring this up to date by suggesting you listen to this interview:
Read this feature from past issues.
Computers, Computers Everywhere
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When the tire pressure on my Prius gets low, a light on the dash alerts me. An input from the tire plus a processor plus output... there's a very specialized computer that tells me what is happening in my car. Other similar systems control and monitor other components to keep the car running in tiptop shape. A series of articles at techonline.com illustrate the complexities involved.
Computers have moved far from the original boxes. I have a Nikon Digital camera, which has Nikon's Expeed image processing technology. It takes wonderful pictures, and as far as I can tell, it has more processing power than the University of Minnesota did when I learned computer programming in the punchcard days.
Recently I acquired a new Phonak Naida hearing aid, a true electronic marvel. With four different programs which analyze and amplify the incoming sound appropriately for my hearing loss to help me function in different hearing situations, from noisy restaurant conversation to musical performances. It functions as a marvellous tiny computer, even booting up with musical tones reminiscent of Windows whenever I turn it on. When I bragged about it to a friend, she told me that her hearing aid talks to her! I'll look for that next time.
Aren't computers wonderful in all their modern incarnations?
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Read this feature from past issues.
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Cloudy With a Chance of Returns
I saw a billboard for a nearby casino that bragged they had a 97.4% return rate on some machines. I am not a gambler and don't even pretend to understand why any return rate under 100% would be appealing. Apparently, that information was worthy of a bulletin board. However, I wondered who would think that was really a good deal. Instantly, I picture people jumping around excited about getting back 97.4 cents on every dollar. The overflowing coins rolling from the machine might take away the sting that 2.6 cents was missing from every dollar.
As a mom, I have received varying returns from my kids during their childhoods so far. I have given out one grape that was returned as a gush of vomit worthy of a horror movie. I have read a book one time with a return rate of eleven times to the same story in the same night. One day's worth of labor has netted me a lifetime of days as a mother. I find it interesting that one glass of juice can turn into a lake of returns on the kitchen floor and several permanent stains spilling over into the carpet.
On the other hand, I have spent an entire night awake with a sick child (and not-so-sick child) that netted me no 0% percent sleep. Somehow, I can't picture any pit boss calling out for players at that table. I can picture myself as the "bed boss" standing over the respective child's bed offering everything from waffles for breakfast to a new Corvette at age sixteen if they would only go to sleep.
I can also compare motherhood to pulling the one-armed bandit handle. There are some days when it doesn't matter if you put in one dollar or ten, there are going to be three lemons across the bar. Fortunately, there are more days when there is a jackpot of hugs and kisses and I love you and report cards full of A's and cards proclaiming "best mom ever status".
As the holidays approach, the return chances are definitely changed as I look more carefully at the jackpot occurrences. While they are all well-founded from a good place, there is a 97.4% chance that any favorable behavior from November 1st through December 23rd is related to the potential jackpot under the Christmas tree.
I do think of future winnings. Will the eighteen years of school and home education and extracurricular activities and trips to museums and educational vacations net children that go to college? Will a good home environment and love and church and culture and actual nourishment turn them into gentle, loving, good citizens?
Right now, I focus on the immediate returns but I am stockpiling coins from their childhood. There will be a point when their lives depend on what they put into them. I want them to get more than a 97.4% return on their lives. I want them to achieve. I want them to love and grow and encourage. It is my job right now to feed them in so many ways.
To me, there is so much more importance in this feeding than in sliding quarters into a slot machine but the uncertainty can be the same. I want them to find themselves fifteen years down the road with a wonderful, deserved return. I want their life's billboard to read 1000% return. I want them to face adulthood with a fantastic jackpot of education, love, and backgrounds that far rivals any monetary amount. At their current ages of seven and four, I do picture them preferring that literal gigantic wave of shiny coins. It is after all almost Christmas.
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Read this feature from past issues.
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Surviving Hardship Through Gratitude
Hard times are a stranger to no one. Did you know they can be your greatest teacher in life?
When we go through difficulties, it is so easy to fall into the trap of fighting with our own lives. With hardship often comes a feeling of darkness, and we think that if we fight against the darkness, it will move us towards the light. We think that by fighting darkness, we are doing something positive for ourselves and maybe even others. So we brace ourselves for battle. We adopt a grim determination 'against all odds' and become rigid, thinking it somehow makes us strong.
What we don't realize is that by fighting against the darkness, we are actually inviting the darkness in. We are giving it energy. Even worse, we are giving it ourselves as a target. By becoming grim, you cut yourself off from the light. By becoming rigid, you give up the ability to bend and sway, to move with the storm like a willow in the wind. It is precisely the lack of rigidity that allows the willow to survive.
My teachers, forty-four women healers from five different continents, always say that when darkness comes, you honor it for the lessons it has come to teach you on your pathway towards enlightenment. You honor the darkness, but you do not become the darkness. Instead, you light a candle for it and ask it to teach you. Then you turn to the light to illuminate your pathway through the difficulty.
In the shaman's world view, you don't fight against anything. Instead, you become what it is you are seeking.
So when darkness comes, you become the light. When difficulties arise, you become the solution. Actually imagine what it feels like to be in the solution instead of wallowing in the problem. Then allow that feeling to come into you, and become it.
As you do, you feel your heart expanding and you become grateful for all of the things that are actually right in your life. You move into gratitude. Gratitude energizes you; it is a state of being which is filled with strength, wisdom and all the courage you need to move through hardship in an enlightened, intended way.
You become the solution by being conscious and fully present in the moment. When you are fully present in the moment, you discover a quality of being alert which I understand as coming from your very life force. This quality is not something you are likely to understand with your mind, which is probably desperately engaged in what it believes to be a life and death struggle with your problem. So leave the mind to 'figure out' your problem and instead, follow this alertness with your awareness.
If you let it, the energy and vision of being present and alert in the moment will move you into your own life force. This is when you realize that at your center, you are one with the Great Spirit and all of life. God is not something which is outside of you. God is within you and part of you, just as you are part of and within God. And you know that there is no greater power in the world than life force, which is God.
When you are one with the Great Spirit, you have transcended the dimensions of your ordinary life and are in your own higher consciousness, where your vision is unlimited. Now you can actually begin to see what it is you can do to change the circumstances of your hardship and create a positive solution.
Try this next time you feel weighed down by hardship and negativity. Sit in silence and allow your mind to empty of all its distractions. Sit in silence and meditate, or simply sit still until you find yourself moving toward a state of grace. You may have to try this a few times before it begins to work. That's OK. Just stay with it. You can do this.
As you sit in silence and empty yourself of distractions, you begin to find the alertness I just spoke of. Follow it to your higher consciousness, into the heart of your very life force where you are one with the Great Spirit and all of life. It will take you into gratitude. Gratitude is a state of being. It is our way of saying, 'Thank you,' to the Great Spirit for all the things which are still going right in our lives, for all of the gifts of life which surround us even in the most trying times.
When you are in gratitude, you are in the celebration of thankfulness and it is a great and an energizing force. You realize that light and darkness cannot exist together, because darkness is only the absence of the light. With this realization comes the knowledge that what you perceived as the darkness when hardship befell you is really only a shadow. You can choose to box with this shadow if you like, but it isn't going to get you anywhere, except ever deeper into the shadows.
Or you can choose gratitude and all of the love and energy and vision to which the life force of the Great Spirit opens you.
Hardship befalls all of us at various times in our lives. It is the nature of life in the physical realm. Follow the threads of your hardship into gratitude. Then celebrate all the gifts of your life with gratitude, and the solutions you seek will become apparent to you. In the Great Spirit, all things are possible.
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Read this feature from past issues.
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Stop Eating Emotional Stress To Build Your Self Image
Eating emotional stress is one of the single largest reasons people over eat. Stress is with us everyday and so is food. For that matter, a lot of other things such as cigarettes, booze, and drugs are too. So we are not looking for a means to stop emotional eating and have it only switch to another unhealthy habit.
Most of us think in terms as stress being something that places pressure on one such as deadlines, or bad news, or worries. But, basically it's important to recognize that there are two types of stress-the undesirable stressors and the desirable stressors. Yes, winning the lottery is a stressor after all, what are you going to do with all your newly acquired friends? Thus getting promotions, moving to a new home, doing a great job on the report… are all stressors. They are called eustress and the undesirable stressors are called distress.
Along with these stressors is often emotion such as happiness, joyfulness, excitement, exhilaration… And even though we like to have these feelings as opposed to the ones that come with the bad stressors-frustration, anger, depression, upset, confusion, uncertainty, boredom… how we handle both types of stress is often the same-we eat. Of course I know that there are those who only over eat when they feel frustrated and never when they feel happy and visa versa, but there's enough happiness or frustration in their lives to feed a whale and gain weight they do none the less.
For centuries being a bit overweight was ok and linked to a healthy self image. More recently in the last century, those extra pounds have a poor self image and in many cases modern science has proven them to be unhealthy.
And even though there is no substitute for exercise as basic as walking, it is important to gain a handle on handling distress and eustress.
True, a lot of this has to do with your learned perceptions, your attitude and frame of mind. However, the good news is handling them (although may be very useful) is not a prerequisite to handling emotions.
Ultimately the goal is to recognize the emotion and embrace it-feel it and let it disappear as you leave food or anything else out of the reaction.
However, even though attitude is not a prerequisite, there are a couple other prerequisites.
They are:
1 Self communication which can be like programming the brain and;
2 Handling the habitual aspect of food.
Overlooking either one can cause failure. Self communication statements that cause failure are:
1. I am not going to eat (something)
2. I haven't had desert for a week.
3. I am going to try to lose weight
4. I must lose weight
5. I'll eat today and diet tomorrow.
For many reasons-too numerous to go into in this article, these statements are hypnotic statements to cause overeating. Instead say, "I'd like to forget about food!"
The habitual aspect of food is to change one's routine-i.e. bypass the Dunkin Doughnuts on the way to work.
A progressive approach to eliminate emotional eating to win the battle of the bulge involves asking important questions "What is missing here? Why are you not getting the results you've been promised?" It is clearly insane to keep dieting when the results are so poor. It's more important to gain a grasp on how to stop emotional eating--eating emotional stress than it is to read the scale. Besides focusing on the scale doesn't empower you to be a better more enlightened person, whereas learning how to overcome emotional eating empowers you in all aspects of your life. If you're a sales person, you'll be a better sales person. If you're an assembly line worker, you'll be a better assembly line worker; a mother, a better mother...
Overall, you'll build self worth and find that what you really want to eat is far more nutritious and less in quantity than you ever before imagined possible.
Visit Richard Kuhns B.S.Ch.E., NGH certified, this new year. He is a prominent figure in the field of hypnosis with his best selling hypnosis and stress management cds at http://www.DStressDoc.com and http://www.PanicBusters.com. His aim is to make it possible for anyone to manage emotional binge eating. For more information please visit www.dstressdoc.com/BingeEatingEbook.htm
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Read this feature from past
issues.
THIS MONTH:
Poetry Corner 
A poetic conversation with poets, Robin Herche, Darcie Ziel, David Wiley, Dennis O'Donnell.
The Process
I am Chemistry, incredibly reactive
straining at my bonds
an infinity of molecules, moving
millions of souls, like stars,
swirling in the Maker's Mug
the pull and tug of steamy nights
swan's wings
myriads of organic mists melding into light.
It's all a process
this life and death
of pain and never ending
joy to feel anything imaginable
blue skies and green eyes
the sharp peak of ecstasy
followed by this valley of knowing
desire for something so attainable
and so known
yet not quite…
remembered.
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I sit down to write a poem
but I forget how a poem
should sound.
Underneath the table
there are several pairs of shoes,
so many shoes
I have nowhere to place my feet.
Is this irony?
I forget.
I think about the ocean,
how it brings in its waves,
and the millions of creatures
it contains.
And the billions of stars.
And the billions of atoms
in my body.
Is this community?
We would like to get a house
with a dog, and some chickens.
We would like to cut our own wood,
grow our own vegetables,
gather our own eggs.
So to speak.
If we had our own eggs,
we wouldn't be human.
That's what makes everything
seem too hard,
so easy to ruin.
We are human,
and that's why I have so many shoes
under the table.
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the most important prayer
I love a tortured soul---
no one calls for help so clearly
as the man going down
for the third time.
Emergencies are my hobby;
I make a living
leading the afflicted
through secret exits
from chambers of pain:
I wash the feet
and lay my roasting palms
on the aching places.
In the privacy
of my single night
I consume arabian poets,
japanese zen, and tarot cards
without a personal past.
I am not important.
I am an empty set
of virtues and vices.
At midnight
I turn out the light
and let my demons swarm
over me, body, mind, and soul.
until I cry for what I confess
I have not found:
connection, protection, love.
the last minutes of every night,
the first hours of every day,
I suffer my humanity:
the most important prayer of all.
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How Long Will The Recession Last?
What caused the recession?
When will it end?
What is a depression?
A Great Depression is a series of Great Recessions and insignificant recoveries: see 1929 - 1947. 1965 - 1983. 1893-1911. 1857-1875. 1821-1839. 1785-1803.
A depression is a long period of high unemployment characterized by a GDP that stays at or below pre-depression levels. The Great Recession began in the first quarter of 2008. So far there have been two upturns. The first upturn lasted one quarter, the second quarter of 2008, in response to President Bush's stimulus plan. The second upturn started last quarter, in response to Obama's recovery plan. Don't expect this upturn to last much longer than the first. The reason: China. When President Bush wanted to borrow money from China to pay for the first stimulus plan, China started tying their currency to the dollar. As a result, the United States trade deficit with China stopped improving. During Obama's most recent quarter, our trade deficits continued to get worse.
There is a positive statistic in these data, the stabilization of residential investment, which had been falling ever since the house price bubble popped in 2006. The depressing statistic in this data is non-residential fixed investment, which includes building new energy production, building new factories, and retooling old factories. That sort of investment has not stopped declining since the current recession began. There isn't anything that wouldn't get better if business' fixed investment increased. New and improved factories would mean more demand for products now, and higher productivity and exports later.
What causes a Recession?
Recessions follow booms. Each recession has its own specific causes, but all of them are usually lead by a period of unsupported enthusiasm.
The problem started in the United States with the so-called Subprime Mortgage Crisis. The crisis was triggered by the rise in mortgage delinquencies leading to foreclosure of houses and ultimately a credit crunch leading to a freeze in liquidity. We had a huge boom and the U.S. was ground zero. Deregulation of the subprime mortgage market as well allowing investment banks to leverage three times as much as they did in 2004. By the end, it was happing in an environment of incredible borrowing by the United States. It was borrowing two-thirds of the world's net savings year after year
Recessions are caused by a decline in GDP growth, which is caused by a slowdown in manufacturing orders, falling housing prices and sales, and a decline in business investment. The result of this slowdown is lose of employment, and rising unemployment, which causes a slowdown in retail sales. This creates a downward spiral in manufacturing and increased layoffs.
This recession, with all its grim news of job loss and economic hardship, should be seen as a cautionary tale against coercive energy and climate policies. Energy is the motivation that fuels production and trade. When economic activity slows, so does energy demand. But it goes the other way too. Imposing restrictions on the use of energy as could occur under a system of carbon regulation could slow economy even more and shut down productive activity. One point of view is that if the Greening of power policies are not handled with great care we could cause a self-inflicted depression that would las for as long as the policies are in place.
How long will it last?
How long will the recession last? It depends on how long it takes us to get our personal and public financial houses in order. It takes time to pay off debts, it takes time to divest non-performing assets, and it takes time for politicians to realize that more spending and more taxes will not lead us to economic prosperity. They will lead us to financial ruin.
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the current recession began in December of 2007. This would mean that the recession is nearly 14 months old at this point. and may last from 2001-2019. Remember, a recession is lead by a two quarter reduction of the gross domestic product so we have been feeling the effects for 20 months.
However whether you see it as a recession ...
How could it end?
When will the recession end? The likely answer to this question, considering the amount of bailout money the government is dumping into the system, may be not ever. The CBO projects a decade of deficits, perhaps $10 trillion total.
The United States got out of the Great Depression as a result of increased net exports to the warring countries in Europe. Those exports, in turn, resulted in increased fixed investment. If we were to require that China buy our goods in return for us buying Chinese goods, net exports and fixed investment would get the United States out of this current depression
How can these deficits be reduced? More taxes. How will the health care, and carbon tax programs be funded? More taxes. How will Social Security payments be sustained in a decade of aging Baby Boomers? Not even by increased taxes. More taxes will amount to discretionary spending for investment and consumption. This means fewer jobs, economic stagnation, and lower standards of living for everyone. Historically, the only effective way to expand the economy has been reducing government spending, decreasing taxes, and maintaining a positive cash flow.
All levels of government, most financial organizations, and many individuals have, and remain, headed down what appears to be the wrong path. Taking on more debt does not make you richer, it makes you poorer. Being broke is far better than being in debt because every dollar you earn is your own, no one else has a claim on it.
Field Trips
Bernake's Recession
How long will it last?
College points of view
Causes of recessions
Ayn Rand fortells the agony of the Green Economy
Happy Trails,
B.S.
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Read this feature from past issues.
Books, Cooks, Looks & Ms. Elani
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Dear Friends and Readers,
A true survivor
People of the Book
by Geraldine Brooks
ISBN 978-0670018215
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Books seldom last for hundreds of years. Each year thousands are thrown into refuge piles, ruined by water, spills or torn. To have a book survive from the late fourteen hundreds is indeed a rare find. But such a book did survive, and in good shape. In People of the Book it is the Sarajevo Haggadah, the ancient Jewish religious book. The find of this rare book is the subject of Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks newest adventure.
Hanna Heath is an Australian who is an expert on rare books. When the Haggadah is found, she flies to Sarajevo to examine the text. Her job is to repair as well as unravel the history of the book. Through the findings of a rare butterfly wing, a white hair, salt crystals and wine stains she digs deeper into where the book traveled.
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Brooks uses bits of history to make the story authentic, but the joy of reading lies in the travels of Hanna to the various places where she hopes to decipher her evidence and the glances into the past where the actual events that shaped the condition and findings of the book took place.
Though Hanna is thrilled with each discovery, a sudden turn of events puts her in a situation where she no longer can be a dispassionate observer but a 'people of the book'. She desires nothing more than for the knowledge she has gained be allowed to go forth and be presented to the world. Between finding her own roots and the betrayals that befall her, there is a moment when it appears this will not happen. When the last page is finished, the reader will wonder at how many other books are still around that have fought to be preserved for the next generation.
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Read this feature from past
issues.
Where Celebration Has Gone
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The end of October marks a number of things: the change to daylight savings time in the US; Halloween and the beginning of what we think of as our "Holiday Season".
Getting LadybugFlights out each month is a ritual. The deadline is clearly defined and so are the required steps. At the end, when Flights goes out, I am relieved, refreshed and, often, elated. It is, though, hard work and demonstrates the difference between a ritual and a celebration. A celebration does not need the clear definition or have required steps. A celebration can be spontaneous, may be repeated or not, and only requires the knowledge and participation of one, though I always think celebrations are more fun in a group.
While most of us regularly participate in ritual—anything from religous communion to daily tooth brushing in six month check-ups can fit in that category—our experience of celebration is often more limited. There are many reasons for that, especially in the United States: geography, diversity, divisions, daily drudgery, and to some extent the tendency of history to define what is celebrated.
Just as science has determined that tears can provide a necessary emotional release, anthropology has found that celebration, as much as ritual, cements a group. What we celebrate and who we celebrate with defines who we are and tells a lot about our culture.
This is the Holiday Season, the heart of winter where our ancestors clustered celebrations to make the cold, dark winters more tolerable. This is the time of year when religion, family and political differences are advertised as overcome. It is really a time when all of those stressers fill counseling couches, emergency wards and court rooms, and many of us wonder where celebration has gone, or where it ever was.
In the United States, where we work the most hours of any industrialized county, holidays are prized moments that we fill with stress. There are a number of reasons for that and most of them have to do with the description of celebration. We do not chose, in most cases, how or even with whom we will spend those precious hours; things that would define them as celebratory. They are ritual, to be sure, but how many of us, if we were laying out a holiday calendar would chose those times, those purposes, those people that tradition has given us to celebrate?
It can be difficult to go against societal ritual. It can be even harder to find something of your own to celebrate than it is to celebrate it. We are not trained to think in terms of creating celebrations of our own, but it is dark and cold outside and we need to celebrate. The willing heart, as they say, will find a way. I am looking. I hope you will too. And I will report back on how I begin to celebrate, and what, and with whom. I hope that sharing your thoughts on celebration can become a part of the act of celebrating this season and that I will hear from you and share your celebrations here too.
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Georgia Jones, Editor
Read this feature from past issues.
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©November 2009 LadybugBooks.com
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