a little red hen

Bees, You and Me...Earth Week 2013

 

Bill McKibben narrates a short, mellow video, "Dance of the Honey Bees."  Planning an evening program for my retirement community about what's happening with bees, my search for resources turned this up on a Bill Moyers show.  Sadly it ends with the dark side about honey bee demise.  The link is from TruthOut, with transcript included along with a pledge you can sign to let Bayer (aspirin company) know you want them to stop killing bees. 

Recently a number of scientists have identified neonicotinoids, a pesticide produced by Bayer, as the major culprit.  Meanwhile, EFSA ( European food safety watchdog) has identified neonicotinoids as "an acute risk to honeybee health" but not to colony collapse.  Bayer and Syngenta, major producers of the pesticide, have suggested their own plan to avoid the ban of the product that many are demanding.

Environmental groups in England and some other European countries appear more public in their demand for a ban than those in the U.S.  In the past week, England has rebuffed this concern.  Since Bayer is a German company, there is more interest in protecting it as an important player in the economy.

In this country the XL pipleline and fracking currently take front and center in the media.  Speaking for the bees, the voices we hear in the U.S. are largely beekeepers and farmers and there are many in Oregon.  Tom Foster, a neighbor of mine, had bee hives, sold honey before he moved here.

 

We're working on a program for June.  Following his own deep history with bees--his father and grandfather were also beekeepers in the Northwest--we'll show a 20-minute excerpt from "Vanishing of the Bees."  We hope to stimulate bee-connected interests among our members to buy local honey, maybe consider a bee hive on the roof of our building (where we grow tomatoes).  Or, more modestly, borrow my copy of Foodopoly by the Wenoah Hauter, Exec Director of Food & Water Watch.

This informative and engaging 90-minute documentary, produced in the U.K., will be shown in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the next week.  For a delightful, funkier take, an American one, try "Queen of the Sun."  I'm hoping to find others as fascinated by bees as myself, an urban person moved to think more about the earth since connecting with a backyard in mid-20th century Baltimore.

Boston this time, New York City then, and next?

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Making sense of what is happening is beyond me. Bombs at Boston Marathon unmoored me--along with many, many others [live feed from Boston CBS].   Grandmothers need to think more clearly.  I'm in search of better language for upbeat conversation about the future.  

Pretty and pink on the street here in Portland, Oregon. Slight distraction from the news...state legislators may lose their will on gun control as they did in Congress...dumbness from dependable right wing--New York's Steve King in the House uses Boston tragedy to put skids on immigration reform.

The first image I saw of the explosion at the Boston Marathon brought back memories of how I experienced New York in the days after September 11, 2001.   It happened on a Tuesday.  I was deep into preparations for my most ambitious environmental work, an art installation at Queens Botanical Garden.  I needed to buy more fabric in a place close to the World Trade Center.  Everyone, everywhere talked about how to give support to those living close to the site, children who had seen it happen and had to evacuate schools. Hard to stay centered around my own concerns--important to me, small in the big picture.  

The show was meant to celebrate a better day for the enviroment in New York City.  Fresh Kills on Staten Island, where the City's garbage had been dumped for over forty years, had been closed to create a cleaner environment for families who lived there.  But shortly after 9/11 the City announced that the remains of victims of the terrorist attacks would temporarily go to Fresh Kills.    After a few days, it was decided that the show could open as planned--with a shifted focus.   The Garden's Director correctly sensed that the public gardens would offer respite for many.   

Downtown, most of the streets near the World Trade Center were blocked off.  Canal Street where I wanted to go was one of them. Smoke from the Towers still filled the air when we could get near the store; in the upper lefthand corner a pigeon flies.   We watched Sanitation and Army trucks passed by over and over again.  Young NYPD officer man let us past the barrier to the store on the other side.

What did we learn from 9/11 that will support us now?  The two brothers bombers have been identified.  One is dead, the other badly wounded.  The negative chatter has begun again about Muslims.  How do we reassure our families?  Do we ignore what has happened, or bring out the flags.   Oppressively flagged after 9/11--what we really needed was leadership to help us examine our values and prepare for how those awful events might change our world. But Rudy Guiliani, New York's Mayor then, and George W. Bush were too limited for that sort of thinking.  Their urge to DO SOMETHING only led in the opposite direction. Two wars.

Earlier this week, I wrote this post's headline.  As if reading my mind--and so many of us--David SarasohnI the Sunday Oregonian writes a commentary, Watching Boston and waiting for Portland's time."

We could have been Boston.  For Portland, of course, that has two meanings. There's our creation myth about Francis Pettygrove from Maine, winning a coin flip with Asa Lovejoy of Massachusetts, who wanted to name [us] after his hometown of Boston.

Then there's the more immediate reality that Portland or any city in the country--could at any instant find itself...Boston...its street running with blood and its emergency rooms swamped with casualties.

He talks with Martin Schrelber, a trauma surgeon, at Oregon Health & Science University, the state's health and research institution.  Its many buildings stand up the hill from where I live.  Dr. Schrelber is very direct, "Our reality is not if it is going to happen [here] but when."  He says OHSU has a plan, along with the city's other trauma hospital.  That plan is rehearsed every six months.  For details, see Sarasohn's article.

Am I reassured?  Not at all.  While impressed with the doctor's dedication to emergency preparedness and his difficult work, it is a different plan I seek.

 

 

 

"American Winter" Kickstarted to theater near you...

Were you with us when HBO announced the new film "American Winter"?  At the website there's more about it's producers, Joe and Harry Gantz, and their focus on social justice films. Maybe living in Portland, Oregon, where it was filmed gave it a certain immediacy for us.  Also that it was about real middle class families who have fallen into poverty since--what do you call it now--the economic disaster  of the last decade.

Seven of them white, one black, all doing okay and then...  When there is so much focus on the funny and forthy "Portlandia" picture of the city, it's crucial that more people see the reality of everyday life here for so many.  

 

At Lettboxd, reviewer Steve Pulaski comments:  

The staggering amount of people on unemployment begs a documentarian analysis, and American Winter provides the best one I've seen yet. High on reality, low on statistics, and often emotional, this is 2013's best documentary thus far. It is the third I've seen detailing the poor's struggle in an increasingly complex world, next to Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare and this year's limited/VOD release A Place at the Table. Needless to say that American Winter sores past the goodness of both films into gratifying greatness.

He brings up a secondary problem frustrating many of us.  Access to documentaries.  If you do not have cable, and HBO, you were dependent on the kindness of interested friends to see "American Winter."

That's why I was pleased to join their Kickstarter campaign (check out the site for a model of hands-on change at their Portland premiere) to raise funds to expand outreach for

"...a series of events around the film...bring together speakers, comics, and social theater to draw attention to critical needs of working poor and disappearing middle class...."Cirque Du Soleil" meets "Les Miserables" that will bring people together in an invigorating movement to create change."

Thrilled to learn yesterday we were among the 217 Kickstarters who made it happen!

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Writing this post, I discovered Mom Bloggers for Social Good--another to watch along with the quickly growing Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense, seen here in the past week's "Stroller Jam" happening at various congressional offices around the country.  

Worthy followers of Gray Panters, Grandmothers against the War (see blogroll).  Personally satisfying for this grandma to hook onto the local Moms Demand group at demonstrations and on Facebook; my futile resistance to FB ended last summer. 

 

Chris Hayes: what was that on your table?

Having moved his desk at MSNBC from his weekend UP show to the daily ALL IN, Chris Hayes appears to have settled in quickly.  And told his audience that working weekday evenings is preferable to 8 a.m. (ESTt) on Saturdays and Sundays.  

My concern was that his excellent format of three to four guest would change to one more like Rachel Maddow's show.  Now I am a fan of Rachel also; the link is to her blog.

What Chris does in a very special way for me personally is fill a space for intelligent conversation among informed people--often with a person who is not of the progressive persuasion.  The "space" is one my spouse and I often discuss: most of our social interactions are pretty light.

Happily, Chris  has successfully retained his design from one many of his viewers appreciated and I think contributed to his success.  So what was it on his table on the UP show, the view of which both surprised me and grossed me out? 

Yes, those platefuls of sugary breakfast "treats."  On one of his last UP shows, the subject was improving school lunches--not one of his finest.  And I recall a remark, maybe from the visiting chef about the lackluster offerings on his table.  Maybe at 8 a.m. (the actual time the show began in New York) some assistant producer thought guests and Chris needed this kind of fuel in addition to the coffee.  Some fruit, nut bread loaves might have been too p.c. for this very politically correct show.

The set is entirely different at ALL IN--  slick glass desk and foodless.  I'm with that.

Life in Gun Control Lane: Rally @ Oregon Legislature

April 4, 2013 in Salem, Oregon.  Anniversary of MLK assassination 45 years ago.  

April 4, 1968  Oberlin, Ohio.  Due date for first child, we were devastated. Uncomforable with response by small college town to angry black community.* 

Everything about being part of the day at the Salem Rally was inspirational.  Heard moving remarks by  family members of those killed by guns at Clackamas Town Center and other places.  Bravely they have joined the fight for gun control.

Six of us women of age made the trip to visit with our legislators who all are working hard to move bills through the Oregon State legislature.  In the morning we were in the offices of  Represenative Jennifer Williamson first.  Then on to Senator Ginny Burdick, a woman of great personal courage who speaks in a matter-of-fact way about the death threats she has received for her longstanding support of improved public safety through gun control laws.  Ginny wears the two stickers her office handed out about those bills--background checks and K-12 safety in schools. 

Not a surprise that we were almost almost entirely women.  I heard someone say recently that we'd know progress had been made toward our goal when a large number of men turned out for these events.  Those I heard were gun owners eager to make a case for their representing the "sensible" gun owners.

When they form a new organization, separate from the NRA, it will be easier for me to hear them.  Even though the majority of the state's population is in Portland and its metro area, laws or lack of them, favor those in rural areas.  Only the mayors of Eugene, where the University of Oregon is located, and Portland are participants in Bloomberg's "Mayors Demand an End to Illegal Guns" coalition.  And here I was in Salem, the state capitol, third largest city in the state (pop. 154,637), and a mayor who has not signed on. 

Since moving here, I've been amazed that government buildings have little concern about security.  Back in New York City I was always ready to hold open my purse for checking not only at City Hall but museums too.  Attending court hearings in 2006 for Grandmothers Against the War, I even had to give up my knitting needles.  Here, one simply walks right in with a smile.

The State House was built in 1936, the third one after fire destroyed two.  I liked the feeling of being part of the democratic process as I walked its halls.  The Impressive rotunda, the carpeting with images of chinook salmon and wheat representing fishing and agriculture central to Oregon's economy and identity. Sorry I was moving too fast to get a photo of the carpet to show grandkids.

At noon we gathered for the Rally.  There were 150 of us, an accurate count by the media, and 50 of the very loud, anti-control NRA guys.  Of course some of them carried weapons so we would not miss seeing what they feared losing if stricter gun controls were enacted.  

Under a tent the coalition that had organized the Rally erected a Memorial Wall. Children's shoes were lined up across the bottom.  Any of us could post photos, thoughts. My two contributions were a cartoon--teacher thanks a student, "Why Bobby how thoughtful.  A holster for my glock!"  And a "Sensible Firearms Resolution" a neighbor of mine had written.  

The Oregon Alliance for Gun Control is three groups--two that have been around for a while, Oregon Ceasefire and the Brady Campaign.  The third is new:  Moms Demand A Plan.  I hope this coalition approach continues; we have so much more strength, can pool our resources more effectively.  And we are all working toward the same goal.

No surprise that it was raining off and on.  Though most longtime Oregonians are loath to use umbrellas, many popped up in the crowd.  Toward the end of the Rally, I found myself standing behind our friends Carl and Olivia.  They were in Clackamas Town Center when the shooting began and Carl (at left in photo) spoke of the need to keep close to young adolescent boys and they struggle with their values.

Olivia brought one of her beautiful paintings inspired by her pain when she learned of the massacre at Newtown.  My neighbor, who gave me a ride and helps me understand this Northwest Territory, took our picture. 

On Facebook, I've both connected with the local group and learned what women are doing nationally through Moms Demand Action.   Representing the Moms in Portland,  Jenny, here with Sen. Burdick, collected speakers (legislators and community people) who kept our attention.  For a change there was no foolishness from the antis.

Though it was exhausting for me and my senior lady friends, we're ready to go forward in this difficult struggle.

*Now, 45 years later, my grown child has young children who need protection from gun violence.