AB1998: ban plastic bags, save the world!

if you are reading this, please do me a favor and sign this petition supporting California Assembly Bill AB1998.

http://action.savesfbay.org/savesfbay/issues/alert/?alertid=16092916

The average Californian uses an estimated 400 plastic bags per year for a total of 19 billion plastic bags per year statewide. The production of these single-use petroleum-based bags consumes millions of barrels of oil and the average use time of a plastic bag is a mere 12 minutes. After which, most are sent to the landfill. However, thousands of plastic bags find their way to our creeks, Bay and ocean where they entangle, suffocate and kill seals, birds, sea turtles and other marine life.

please click here to urge your rep to vote YES on AB1998 to protect our creeks, waterways, the beautiful California Coast and the world’s oceans. (yes, if you put in your real email, this may result in other emails in your inbox from Save the Bay. but don’t you want to save the bay??)

click here to do even more!

online book club: Absence of Mind

i have a few different groups of friends who semi-regularly get together to accomplish various types of activities and tasks, some of them athletic, some of them intellectual, some communal, some artistic, some of them therapeutic, some of them purely entertainment. (the best ones are a combination of all of those things).

and while we’re all in our own sub-sub-sub culture together at least enough to know one another, there are in some cases some deep divides in terms of belief systems, and the topics of religion and science.

i just saw Marilynne Robinson on the Daily Show promoting her new book about religion vs science, Absence of Mind. She articulated my position better than anyone i’ve seen/heard/read in a while. that position is something more in agreement with religion than even i would think, in that i don’t necessarily always believe what scientists have determined is empirical evidence, and that - in many cases - what science claims is evidence enough to prove a theory is not much different at the core than many religious arguments.

In this ambitious book, acclaimed writer Marilynne Robinson applies her astute intellect to some of the most vexing topics in the history of human thought—science, religion, and consciousness. Crafted with the same care and insight as her award-winning novels, Absence of Mind challenges postmodern atheists who crusade against religion under the banner of science. In Robinson’s view, scientific reasoning does not denote a sense of logical infallibility, as thinkers like Richard Dawkins might suggest. Instead, in its purest form, science represents a search for answers. It engages the problem of knowledge, an aspect of the mystery of consciousness, rather than providing a simple and final model of reality.

or maybe this is a rather exaggerated distinction the author used to rabble rouse and sell books; i’d be interested in hearing the discussion either way.

watch: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-july-8-2010/marilynne-robinson

so the book is out in hardcover now, and i’ll be waiting for paperback. a used version. (for those who have asked about using amazon….i first always support buying from your local independent book store. but for the purposes of providing onlinks here, i support buying books from small booksellers selling on amazon, which you can readily find by clicking the “new” and “used” links.) i have no idea what level of understanding of the belief systems of these fields the reader needs to have to engage this book, but it seems accessible to me.

now, of the things that none of the groups i currently semi-regularly meet with is a book club, although we have talked about it numerous times. so what i am proposing here is that it be an online book club (hosted where tbd), and possibly also an offline book club, if enough people in the immediate Bay Area want to join it. we’ll have to see how many people participate, so the format remains to be seen. but if you do want to participate, online or off, leave a comment or email me, and when the book comes out in paperback, i’ll let you all know (how long is that?). if you’ve already read it, good for you. you’re ahead. do you recommend this book?

June 8 2010 - SF/CA Election Cheat Sheet + Why voting “No” is important

False Profit Cheat Sheet

A Prop 13, Seismic Retrofit – YES
CA Prop 14, Top-Two Primary – NO
CA Prop 15, Fair Elections – YES
CA Prop 16, PG&E Monopoly – NO
CA Prop 17, Insurance Persistency Discounts/Rate Hikes – NO

SF Prop A, SFUSD Parcel Tax – YES
SF Prop B, Earthquake Safety Bond – YES
SF Prop C, Film Commission Appointments – YES
SF Prop D, Public Employee Pensions – YES
SF Prop E, Costs of Protecting Dignitaries – ?
SF Prop F, Rent Increase Appeals – YES
SF Prop G, Transbay Terminal – YES

For full explanations visit False Profit.com

If you live in Alameda County, like me, go to SmartVoter for information about the Alameda County items on the ballot, specifically Measures A-D, which are minor, or visit the East Bay Express voter guide.

In general, I’m against voting for huge state measures at the ballot box (voters being swayed by commercials and misleading short summaries should not be making decisions; elected officials guided by experts should be making decisions, that’s why we pay them), and I especially agree with the Green Party - “When we can’t understand a proposition’s effects and side effects, we should usually vote No.”

To be clear: For those of you who don’t understand your ballot propositions and therefore just figure you won’t vote, NOT VOTING is not the same as Voting No.  VOTING NO IS IMPORTANT.  It keeps badly organized, faulty laws that people don’t really understand from being implemented.

wake up

i would stop _(buying) (driving) (eating) (watching) (smoking)_, but _(i/he/she/we/they)_ _(need/can’t/don’t have) _ (…..)

.::.

i would start _(exercising) (carpooling) (biking) (buying real food) (shopping local) (learning)_, but _(i/he/she/we/they)_ (can’t/don’t)_ (…..)

.::.

you keep yelling about how this is America!  so why do you keep making excuses? are excuses the American Way now? or are you just too comfortable with all that you have to give anything up for what you say you want? do you actually want it?

.::.

(before you accuse me of being high and mighty, i apply this to myself - nearly every day - as much as i would anyone else)

.::.

inspired by BHJ (@wwbhjd) and An Awakening (@adbusters)

help save 300 acres of rainforest @300acres.com

My friend Natalia is spearheading the 300 Acres project, an effort to raise funds for an Ecuadorian community to buy back their ancestral rainforest lands, which will otherwise be sold to developers.  If you have an extra $5+ dollars, this is a specific project with a direct impact you can donate toward (tax deductible!). Time is running out - they only have a week left to raise funds. Thanks!

Not only will your tax deductible donation help save the endangered rainforest where the Amazanga people reside, but it will also aid in the on-going construction of their school of natural medicine – The School of Guayusa.

The Amazanga are now working toward recuperating 300+ acres of pristine jungle that is under severe threat of destruction. Blessed with waterfalls and dense jungle growth, this forest will serve as a base for the Amazanga’s international natural medicine school, the School of Guayusa.

This sacred, ancestral land was seized by the Ecuadorian government and military in 1940. The indigenous people that inhabited this area were forced to leave their home, the source of so much abundance. Now, however, we have the opportunity to reclaim this land for its rightful protectors.

The Amazanga are a group of indigenous healers and conservationists of Quichua and Shuar descent who are dedicated to the protection of nature and the preservation of natural wisdom and indigenous traditions. They are true forest protectors who have resisted the destruction of the Amazon jungle by oil and mining threats since the inception of those influences.

For almost a century the Amazanga have organized grassroots campaigns to protect the forest from oil companies such as Shell, Arco and Tripetrol, mining companies such as Nambija, and logging companies such as Plevol.

With the help of U.S. based foundations such as Tropical Rainforest Coalition, the Amazanga have helped to recuperate over 5,000 acres of ancestral land that is now protected as a natural reserve and being guided toward becoming a World Heritage Site. Read more about the Llushin Rainforest Reserve.

Donate now to help them save the next 300 acres.

morning, Oakland, Lake Merritt

morning, Oakland, Lake Merritt, originally uploaded by arlington avenue.

after seeing some dawn scenes in a film (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), i had a mad craving for dawn over the weekend but never managed to get up to get some. this photo only makes the craving more intense, and i should get down to the lake for some dawn soon (sunrise now at 7:20am…it’s possible.)

thx eye on blogs for the photo.

postmillennial hope

“I give thanks to America, a country insane enough to declare the pursuit of happiness to be an inalienable right.”

i’m reading Susan Sontag’s most excellent book In America: A Novel, about a group of well-to-do Polish people who give up everything - for some of them including fame and wealth - to become farmers/settlers in Southern California around 1876. why would these people, who had everything, give it all up to work as field hands? the book is amazing at expounding on the thoughts/ motivations of the such early immigrants - The Dream of America was *so big* that even those who had everything in their homelands were willing to give it all up for a shot at The Dream. how many of those dreams came true?

relatedly, yesterday i shared on gReader and facebook this piece from Adbusters written by Michael Larson, a philosophy teacher from Pittsburgh:

Postmillennial Tension: Can we be the ones we’ve been waiting for?

some excerpts:

That dominant ideal of modernity is tied to a notion of ever-expanding progress and limitless consumption. The oil crisis of 1973 signaled the onset of the postmodern malaise. “Our future was all of a sudden mortgaged,” writes Bourriaud in Altermodern. So while capital has continued expanding its reach in other areas, there has been a lingering denial – an inability to mourn the lost object and the dream’s impossibility. If this was the death of the dream, then our present reality of global warming, water and food shortages, market collapse and the continued proliferation of violent factionalism make it clear that we had better get on with mourning and confront the sorrow we have been trying to repress. Putting it off has only allowed the problems to grow.

We have had a century of continuity in which the basic operating assumptions of the economic system have been hegemonic. In fact this version of “modernity” was to have closed the book on history: We have reached the best of all possible worlds; there are no alternatives. Proclaiming the end of history intimates that our desires have been satiated and that there is nothing further to strive for.

i don’t read adbusters too much anymore because i think a lot of it IS too hopeless/ armageddonist/depressing, but i still subscribe to the online feed and what caught my eye about this one is that there has been something in my mind for a really long time now with respect to my particular demographic - educated middle class americans with plenty of food, clothing, shelter - that goes something like “WE HAVE EVERYTHING.  WHY AREN’T WE HAPPY?”, which seems simple, but it is all heavy with a million questions about both of the words “everything” and “happy”, and extends way beyond myself and my community to America as a whole, and our self-image of always “the best. america is the best. the best of everything is here. it is yours to take if you work hard enough”.

but it turns out that maybe, just maybe, that isn’t true, that the American Dream was a fallacy, or, even worse: what if the “everything” isn’t enough when you get it? what if, when you get to the top run of the ladder - the house, the yard, the boat, the kids, the degrees, the “everything” - what if then that isn’t enough? it must be really depressing to get to the top and realize it’s not far enough.

my speculation is that, like the early Europeans who came from perfectly good lives with solid communities to risk everything on the American frontier, there is a part of human nature that is utterly insatiable, no matter what you give it, and that the “everything” we want isn’t as physical as we’ve been lead to believe - via consumerism, marketing - the “everything” is something intangible, and possibly unattainable. it’s what drives us as humans to do what we do. if it were attainable, how would we evolve?

my generation (X), and the next (Y) seems to be the first in a few to really FEEL this. we were taught, growing up in the 80s especially, that once certain things were attained, peace and happiness would follow. but all after our parents and grandparents and great-grandparents hard work, building industries and fighting for civil rights and freedom, those of us in the educated middle-class who have access to all the things our forefathers dreamed about, here we are, standing on the top rung of the ladder, and we’re still not happy, and the world - and the rest of the world - it’s even more of a mess than before.

that is why the one sentence that hit me most in this piece was “Jean-Paul Sartre described anguish as the recognition of responsibility and the ensuing need to act without guarantee, without hope.“  as Americans, we have a lot of responsibility in this world, as we consume most of the resources and control a lot of the politics. but what hope can we feel now about it all, when it seems we inherited a wealth of square pegs but none of them fit in what turned out to be round holes?

so then finally, the author asks:

So we find ourselves in this moment of rupture, precariously exposed to risk and perhaps devoid of hope. Can we think of these facts as possibilities? Can we confront our situation and imagine what things might be like otherwise, even without guarantees? The end of history has reached its end. Can we be the ones we have been waiting for?

i also felt a lot of this, but wasn’t able to express it, during Obama’s HOPE campaign, like all of Democratic and minority America felt like everything had been done - all the groundwork was laid out, and now everyone was pinning their future on one man/one moment that was going to seal the deal. HOPE is what Obama tried to sell us, and for the election season, we bought it. but here we are 1+ years later, and people are getting depressed because the whole world didn’t change when Obama took office.

so what about now? we have to stop waiting for the thing that is going to save us. we have to stop standing on the top rung of the ladder, thinking there is no where else to go. we have the tools to build a new future. we are what we have been waiting for.

a key case for abortion

in december, an old high school friend of mine sent an email about health insurance coverage of abortions to my high school alumni email list, asking all of us to take action opposing it.

i responded to him that i would not sign his petition, and that if he wanted to hear why, i’d be willing to discuss it. he responded that he was open to hearing all sides, and i was welcome to present my perspective.

i looked around the web for the best case study i could find to fully illustrate why i think it’s important to have abortion at least be an OPTION for health insurance providers and patients.  but i couldn’t find anything that really hit home, was too emotional about it to respond personally, and couldn’t engage, and so i never responded.  until today, when i read this story.  it’s brash, yes, and not a “medical case study”. but it’s 100% honest story that presents a side that isn’t often heard: for some women, pregnancy is physical hell, and sometimes, it is the best choice for you and your family.

i sent him this story. whatever “side” you are on, please read the whole thing below, but really, besides the medical specifics of her case being a perfect example of why it should be a MEDICAL OPTION, this is the most important point:

“…abortion is an acceptable choice. It is not shameful and
it need not be a secret.

More than 45,000,000 legal abortions have occurred since Roe v. Wade
for tens of millions of women, but you almost never seem to hear their
stories (unless they’re now a pro-lifer with a huge guilt concept).

Why don’t we talk about this more? Well, because we’ve been taught not to. By the women (and men involved) before us who didn’t talk about their abortions, by the religious right who told us we were whores for wanting to enjoy sex without the punishment of pregnancy and childbirth, and by the left who hung their heads in sorrow that people “had to” get abortions.”

full story below:

Continue reading »

MLK and the dream

today, remembering that only 50 years ago, white people in this country thought it was just fine to separate people by color, to deny them freedoms and rights and treat them like animals.  may it be so that in 50 years from now, the people who are still fighting for equality in America today (gays, immigrants, among others) will look back at now as a time in history when people fought for change and won.

a few choice quotes from MLK, Jr:

“I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today’s mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the land.” - 1964 Nobel peace prize acceptance speech

“Modern psychology has a word that is probably used more than any other word. It is the word “maladjusted.” Now we all should seek to live a well—adjusted life in order to avoid neurotic and schizophrenic personalities. But there are some things within our social order to which I am proud to be maladjusted and to which I call upon you to be maladjusted. I never intend to adjust myself to segregation and discrimination. I never intend to adjust myself to mob rule. I never intend to adjust myself to the tragic effects of the methods of physical violence and to tragic militarism. I call upon you to be maladjusted to such things.”

“…it is no longer the choice between violence and non-violence. it is the choice between non-violence and non-existence.”

Realize the Dream

butoh

i never imagined i’d perform butoh before i did it. sometimes i see myself dong this crazy thing, this macabre expression, this walking slowly with fists clenched looking as though in anguish and/or frozen joy, face painted white and knees trembling, this shamelessly raw unfettered expression, this adoration of the self. who would want or need this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butoh

the workshop i did last weekend involved walking really, really slowly across a room but maintaining intense presence, resistance activities with partners (e.g. pushing eachother backward as hard as you can),
imagining an object is the physical manifestation of everything good about yourself and offering it to others (projection), imaging an object is everything bad about yourself and sharing it with others,

running ecstatically, using breath to create energy waves in the body.

i know it might sound silly, but think about it: it’s the kinds of things you might have done as a small child, games to play with yourself and others, and don’t do anymore.  it feels good.

also: it can be physically intense. i was sore for 3 days after last weekend. but it doesn’t have to be.  you can take it easy on yourself too.

there is a free workshop this weekend in SoMa SF.  if you are interested, let me know, and i will point you the way.

Bad Unkl Sista is offering free introductory butoh and multi-genre performance training for anyone interested…no performance or dance skills required…the only thing required is a desire to see yourself and others from a different angle..

http://www.badunklsista.com