True Freedom - Guest Opinion - the original

True Freedom
The version titled "a Way Forward" is a theft and a fraud. An unknown person took my writing, scrubbed my name from the bottom, put a new title on it and sent it out, giving the impression that s/he had written it. Shame, shame.

Every time you hear your furnace kick on that's money and energy being wasted.  With efficiencies and retrofits, we would not "need" anywhere near the amount of energy projected by those who come up with every reason why renewables will not satisfy our needs.

Renewables absolutely will meet our needs when we stop wasting it. NYSERDA has a Deep Retrofit program that can lower energy costs by at least 70% but it can cost around $70,000 per house, depending on age.  A lot of people can't afford that. Deep Retrofit is not just blowing in insulation into walls and attics but also layering additional panels on external walls, plus moving out old boilers, furnaces and water heaters, replacing with instant-on heaters or solar hot water heaters.  You could end up with not having the need for any heat/cool appliances in the basement and close to zero heating/cooling bills.  That's real freedom.

Deep Retrofits can reduce costs and thus improve the bottom line, can improve the economy with more jobs, reduce carbon emissions, and create energy security.

We must move federal, state and local subsidies and tax breaks from oil, gas, coal and nuclear now and transfer those taxpayer dollars to Deep Retrofit incentives and grants as well as solar on every single and multifamily residence and on all public buildings, thus lowering our taxes.  New York could meet 15% of its power needs and 100% of its electricity needs with rooftop solar.

Every new high rise must first dig a geothermal trench before they start building.  They have to dig a deep hole anyway.  Both geothermal and solar installation companies are in New York State and growing, including in Broome county.  Check out the New York State solar Industries Association. The state and the Southern Tier should be open to business to these companies and others like them, not to giving tax breaks for polluting gas pipelines, noisy compressor stations, puzzled about what to do with fracking waste fluid, taking the chance of illegal dumps of radioactive waste into fields and streams in the middle of the night, etc., etc. 

Hydraulic fracturing's sole purpose is to burn fossil fuel, the greenhouse gas emissions of which have brought us global warming. Methane, i.e. natural gas, is worse than CO2 for heating up the planet. Formerly rare downpours, floods and heat waves are now common across the U.S. and will come to dominate our climate in our grand-children's lifetime.

Let’s stop hiding our heads in the sand and get to work on this.  Call and write your legislator and demand a change.  If he or she refuses to budge or fudges, vote him or her out of office in 2012. Get together with community members and start your own community energy initiative like in Maryland and Washington State. States that have more insulated buildings and solar have lower electricity bills, including cold mid-western states.  New York State is not one of those states. Let's change that. 

My visit to OWS December 2011

The day after I arrived in NYC for a two week visit, I met with Sue M for a late breakfast, then went to the anti-fracking rally and DEC hearing in Tribeca. After that Sue was my guide down to Zuccotti Park where we saw two "OWS grannies" knitting outside the barricades

 per police orders, not a tent in sight,


just a few people inside the crowd control metal barricades and lots of cops.  I would think that trying to sleep there, with not a stick of grass on soil anywhere, would be like trying to sleep on a granite gravestone. But then again, perhaps a "park" in the Wall Street area being more like a graveyard than a true park seems very appropriate.


Sue then led me over the the WS Atrium where a GA was in progress.

On a later day I went down to the area again, this time carrying four shopping bags of books, hard and soft cover, that I had rescued from my sister's building's laundry room where someone had apparently cleaned out their apartment, leaving piles of books on the floor in front of the shelving for books to read while doing laundry. I heard the books were slated for dumping so I thought taking them to OWS Library would be a good idea.  So I did, by foot and subway to the UFT Bldg on Broadway, two blocks up or so from Zuccotti Park. Somewhere in the UFT Building was serving as temporary? site of the OWS Library.  On another day, I took another two bags
full.  It felt good. A woman on the subway looked interested about me carrying the bags so I told her my mission.  She told me that in her building they throw out books all the time.  Wouldn't it be great for those books to all go to OWS or some other similar site instead of to the landfill?
On these later trips, I saw a constant presence of cops, police cars, ambulances, the blue on white police buses for transporting arrested people. The lengths NYC goes to in order to "protect" itself or protect banks etc. impressed me including their inserting these street blockading metal ramps on Wall St. and other side streets like this one, under which trash collects. A metaphor.

Union Square Holiday Market and Green Market Dec. 2011

NYC allows vendors to "occupy" Union Square almost all year round, albeit not overnight.  Greenmarket comes on site MWFS, with farmers coming in from NJ, CT and lower and upper upstate NY, including Norwich. To the right is a fine display of fresh Korean greens and root veggies.

This vendor had samples of the veggies fresh stir-fried.
On Greenmarket days you
can enjoy samples of
fresh cooked food, like soup
here with Grandma at the main tent.
In another post, check out the grannies knitting for OWS at Zuccotti/Liberty park.

In the Holiday market section of Union square, the variety is amazing and is different every year, it seems.  Here we have a lovely arrangement of spices and teas. While the open piles make for a beautiful scene, I have concern about the open access.  Personally, I would not purchase for consumption.
Lest you not know what's going on and which elected politician takes credit for making the Green Market happen, the big van informs.

The bigger aspect of the small business occupation of Union Square is that of the Holiday Market. The booths are vibrant and diverse. Technically, the spices and teas booth is part of the
Holiday Market, not the Green Market which is all fresh foods from farmers, including cheeses, breads, frozen meats.

The Holiday Market booths are packed
closely in, almost medieval in aspect.
It's easy to become bewildered.
An existential moment.
Where am I? Who am I?
But, not to worry, there's a map.  However, do you have time to read all this?

Again, not to worry, if you decide it's time to leave, down the steps nearby into the subway, there's free entertainment which changes daily.

Green is the new Red

I went to this event, took notes and a few photos.  A packed room. Lots of energy and age, ethnic, race diversity.
From left to right - Rachel Meerpol, Robert Meerpol, Will Potter, Jenny Synan. 

Red to Green: Political Panic from McCarthyism to ‘Eco-Terrorism’
A panel discussion on past and present political persecution the United States
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
6:30pm – 8:00 pm
Community Church of New York
40 East 35th Street, New York, NY,
Co-Sponsored by:
The Center for Constitutional Rights
The Rosenberg Fund for Children
Green is the new Red
Family and Friends of Daniel McGowan

We are excited to welcome Robert Meeropol, Executive Director of The Rosenberg Fund for Children, Will Potter, Author “Green is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege”, and Jenny Synan, activist and partner of jailed environmental activist Daniel McGowan. With an introduction from Rachel Meeropol, Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. From the “Red Scare” of the 1950s to the present day “Green Scare”, our panel will examine the fear of communism in the 20th century, the contemporary treatment of environmental and animal activism as so called “eco-terrorism” and the U.S. government’s persistent persecution of individuals deemed a political threat.
Raffle and Book Sale:
Friends and Family of Daniel McGowan will be hosting a raffle during the event featuring some exciting and unique prizes.
For more information about the raffle and Friends and Family of Daniel McGowan please visit their website at http://supportdaniel.org/blog/?p=41
Will Potter will also be selling copies of his book “Green is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement under Siege.”
For more information please visit http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/

For more information about The Rosenberg Fund for Children and Robert Meeropol please visit http://www.rfc.org/

When is a spill not a spill?

When it's a disgorge.  The intentional or supposedly accidental but really inevitable discharge of toxic fluid into a stream, creek, river, spring, watershed or land must no longer be labeled a "spill."  A spill is what comes from your coffee cup or glass of beverage.  I prefer to use the word "disgorge" for the polluting event.

Andrew's NYC rooftop beehive honey

Searching for the Farmers Rally and march to OWS on Dec. 4th, 2011 in NYC on the lower East Side, I saw some sad little "gardens,"                                   street art,

a funky bike,
a nice old building,
but no rally, even though I could hear someone giving a speech somewhere.

But then I found Andrew, his gorgeous honey and gorgeous smile at the GreenMarket on the sidewalk at Tompkins Square park. I bought one jar of the dark.  It's like molasses! Later, researching, I found out that Andrew puts his hives on the roof of a private school that overlooks Central Park. So that's where the bees feast!  True New Yorkers!

You can find Andrew also at the Union Square GreenMarket in Manhattan.

Richard Grossman - in memorian

          The news came that Richard Grossman, the long time advocate for justice and true democracy, had died two evenings before Thanksgiving of 2011.  In the email, Jack Ossont referred to Richard as an unlawyer and historian.

          I first met Richard many years ago at a weekend session of the early version of the Daniel Pennock Democracy School, the two and one half days retreat that taught us so much about the U.S.A. never having been a democracy nor was the original intent for the country to be a true democracy.  Also there to teach and converse with us in the Deposit, NY countryside at a place run by nuns was Tom Linzey.  
          Richard and Tom, both lawyers, set out the excruciating details of the evidence from statutes, case law, and essays put together in a thick manual, which I still have. As a teacher myself and with a law degree, I appreciated the dedication, time and energy it took the organizers and leaders of the Democracy School to connect the dots, put on this two and a half day retreat and the manual itself.  Looking back, I am especially grateful to have Richard as one of the guides through the thicket of centuries of deception.
          The weekend carved open my mind to release the illusions I had been fed.  The pain, outrage and betrayal was almost overwhelming especially when truly understanding the disgusting immorality of using the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, passed to acknowledge the inherent free state of enslaved peoples, to install the fiction of corporate person-hood. From the questions some people asked, it was clear that it took and takes time for the average person to realize we all have been fooled.
          Much as the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday is really a day of mourning for the genocide that the Europeans perpetrated upon the indigenous people already living on the land, I gives thanks for Richard's life and his work. Richard is and was, as Jack noted, a lion.  The update in Wikipedia notes his birthday as August 10, squarely in the center of Leo, for what it's worth. 
          The last time I saw Richard was at the workshop on criminalizing hydrofracking held at the Green Fest NY/ U.S. Greens annual meeting in August of 2011.  He seemed to me then a gentle lion.  He urged that we there at the workshop hold a trust building retreat soon as we were in for a long fight.  From previous fights against entrenched power, he knew the need to build trust amongst allies. Some time later I emailed him about that idea.  He thanked me for liking the idea.  
I suggest we hold that retreat in his memory.

Finger Lakes Cheese trail Saturday Nov. 19, 2011

          Chats with two female farmers.  First Englebert Farms in Nichols, NY.  As I drove towards the farm, signs of flooding devastation still around.  The Susquehanna River on the right seemed closer to the road than the last time I drove along it last year.  Rte 17/I86 on the left in the distance, plus a creek.  Turned into the road to the farm.  Mud everywhere, churned up by heavy farm vehicles, some parked nearby.  Stepped into the store.  I'm the sole customer.  Snacked from the cubes of assorted cheeses, avoided the tidbits of meats as tempting as they looked, discovered the tub of horseradish cheese spread from which to sample.  Fell in love, although I usually avoid cow's milk.  Lisa was friendly and we conversed.  Large sealed photos of the flooding of the farm.  I sensed she wanted to talk about it, moving the cows to higher ground, the farm vehicles under water, the water up to the ceiling of the store.  It had to be traumatic. 
          She showed me the lines on the barn wall outside, marking the height of each of the past 3 major 100 year floods in the last few years. The first flood line is below the window following the left rim.  The 2006 flood line is 1/3 way up beside the left rim. The most recent flood's line was above the top rim of the window.  Barn's windows all cracked an/or broken from the surging waters.  First, the creek savaged out of its course, wildly, powerfully.  From one side.  From the other side came the river's waters rising steadily.  I cannot imagine how terrifying it must have been to have waters coming at you and all you love and work for on both sides.  When I asked what her plans were for the next flood which will come, she said she intends to move to higher ground, that she grew up on the farmland nearby.  She pointed in the direction, intimating that she does not want to move away.  But for her kind of farming, organic, etc., she needs 200 acres.  Finding that amount of suitable acreage in the area for a reasonable price is hard.  People are holding on to land in hopes of striking it big from gas drilling.

          The cows outside looked really happy and at peace. A huge bunch of them were relaxing on the ground behind the store.


          I secured my purchases and drove to Candor for a visit to buy more cheese.  I talked with the owner, asking how business was going.  She has customers but people in general in the area are hurting, that she's expanded the stock in her store to include regular items that the local residents could come in and purchase for a reasonable price, relating the story of a man with a wife and three kids who was making good money before but who was now humiliated about getting food stamps. I suggested that he did not need to feel humiliated, that it's the system, the culture. She got a new double wide, drastically marked down.  She pointed to it outside the window.  We spoke a bit about gas drilling.  I mentioned confidentiality agreements, what they are and what they mean.  She had never heard of this. We talked about some other maters related to politics and how certain legislators had become less reasonable after they got leased.   I selected an herbed cheese log, a block of raw yogurt cheddar and a jug of kefir.  She pointed out that it was kefir.  I said yes, I know it's cultured milk and the word is in big green letters on the front.  She explained that she started pointing up it being kefir after a woman returned a jug saying the milk was spoiled, wanting a free replacement.  Even though the owner of the dairy explained that it's supposed to taste sour as it's kefir, the customer would not hear her and even demanded a refund of the difference between the cost of a jug of milk and a jug of kefir. Lots of different kinds of education needed.
          Since then, I've been having the kefir with small homegrown strawberries stirred in, sweetened with a splash of agave nectar, as a morning treat.  Yum!

Valentina Lisitsa is a superb pianist with a lovely personality who should be known worldwide

Fire Island

News reports today state that a massive fire broke out on Fire Island in New York City, the Long Island part of it.  I saw on YouTube a video of the fire-fighters boarding the ferry to get to the fire.
This brought back memories of my trip on one of those ferries out to Fire Island. A description of that trip forms the last section of my Ph.D. dissertation.  A photo I took (see to the right here) is the last of the images of the 33 images in the work.  I hope to get the work published.

Interruptions

At the end of a day long meeting today, November 11, 2011, I was packing up  and about to head out the car with my stuff and head home. I had arranged for the location of the statewide meeting and also for the breakfast and the lunch catering.  We had set up groups for follow through activities after we left.  I picked Media and Messaging as did another person, along with Mark D. The two of us began talking near the exit from the room at the college.  This was the only group with just three people in it.  The other person is a lawyer living in Bufalo, making two reasons at least why I wanted us to converse a bit before we parted, the lawyer part and the Buffalo part as I graduated from the University at Buffalo law school, along with our being on the same team.
A woman with an accent inserted herself into our conversation.  Neither the team member nor myself resisted her interruption. Making some comment about a "fracking contract" and how having a mortgage would be a way to release you from a "fracking contract" (i.e. gas lease), she was insistent.  I had no wish to speak with her and took off to pick up my stuff and leave the room (especially as I was the last out).  The team member and the interrupter were now in the foyer of the lecture hall.  I later wondered why she thought what she wanted to say was more important that what the man and I were saying to each other.  Yet another instance to ask the question: "Is it rudeness or racism?"

New York Botanical Garden - azalea section - spring 2011 - before the storm