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I ran across a website that visually represented how much money BP lost due to the oil spill.   I was incredulous.  That much money exists?  It is a loss they plan to recoup.  How do you suppose they will make up the loss?

They have convinced us to drive bigger cars, drink our water from a bottle, use more plastic and carry on with war, any war.  Oil men love war.  War is what truly feeds Seymour.  You remember the insatiable plant from “Little Shop of Horrors”.  I liken the oil (and coal) industry to Seymour’s need to keep his plant alive.  In the beginning it was a nice fun little plant.  Harmless, at least relatively.  The plant like the oil industry has gotten so big it is devouring the planet through wars and plastic and large ships and cruise liners that carry us and our crap across oceans.

We are convinced that if we all pile on a giant boat together life will be more fun.  We are convinced that the stuff we have is not good enough.  It all needs to be replaced by better stuff.  Most of the stuff is plastic and plastic is made from oil and the plastic is brought to us on giant boats that require massive amounts of oil.  This insatiable need has been brought to you by the oil industry.

We can’t blame oil entirely.  Coal is what fuels this nations heat and air and lights.  The current grid was set up by the coal industry and subsidized by the US government.  It was harmless and useful in its beginnings.  What a blessing to have heat and air and light due to the fabulous grid work that traverses the nation.  Except, now it too is like Seymour’s plant.  Dividing and devouring and convincing us that nothing else will do.

So let me share the website that prompted this blog…

http://www.visualeconomics.com/what-bp-could-have-bought-with-all-the-money-they-lost/

I wrote to my smart friend Fred who gave me this reply…

So you see in the world of business BP’s loss isn’t so much. Don’t feel sorry for them. Don’t think how much good this money could have done because it pales in comparison to the money we waste on wars. Iraq I believe was $1,000 billion. That’s 112 times what BP wasted.

When you look at it this way — it isn’t oil and coal that feeds Seymour’s plant.  Economics feeds the plant.  How often does economic advantage take precedence over doing good?  Goodness faces doom when it gets in the way of the economy.

What truly amazed me is that 3.4 billion dollars would buy an ice cream sandwich for everyone in the world and yahoo is worth 20 billion.  Wouldn’t it be cool if yahoo bought an ice cream sandwich for everyone in the world?  There is probably a soy version for the lactose intolerant.

The Swiss bankers and the Roman Catholic Church were complicit in the Nazi regime. These were not terrible people. They were normal people. They closed their eyes to evil or justified it, for the sake of peace or gain or national loyalty. I sometimes wonder (and fear) whether I would have done the same if I had been in that society at that time. It is so easy not to see, not to hear, not to understand, when one’s own peace or prosperity is involved. There have been times, after all, when I have allowed blatantly racist statements to pass unchallenged in the name of good manners, or of just keeping the peace. For so little of one’s soul, or at least a little piece of it, is on the auction block.”

The Reverend Kathleen Damewood Korb

I have been distressed lately by the volatile nature of conversations, especially conversations involving our president.  Some of us, did not vote for him or voted for him reluctantly, some wholeheartedly, and some voted for him due to his apparent superiority over his opponent.  I find myself defending him and a few friendships have been strained.  I cherish those friendships and find that coming here is often the needed release.   So what is the right thing to do?  Stop talking, stop listening, stop reading, stop caring?

Cap and Trade is one issue that causes heated exchanges to surface.  If manufacturing moves to another country that values economy more so than the planet, then what we have achieved is a worsening of the global warming process.  Those giant ships that bring our stuff across the oceans are spewing more toxins than the plants that made the stuff in the first place.  What is the solution?  Some believe we need to drive a stake into our evil president’s heart.  I believe we need to stop subsidizing fossil fuels and instead subsidize the retooling of manufacturing plants so they’ll stay here and get green and give tax incentives for doing so. Even if you don’t believe that climate change is caused by human intervention, the climate is changing and we need to keep this little planet as clean and pristine as possible.

Certain persons in the media have made Mephistophelean bargains for power and fame using fear and greed as their catalyst.  A few of them have marketed themselves as chosen.  Chosen to teach us what God wants us to do.  People blindly believe their utterances and it is becoming impossible to sit idly by or “close my eyes for the sake of peace”.

My mother raised us to never talk politics or religion at the dinner table.  I have adhered to that rule and have enjoyed many a peaceful dinner with friends who I know don’t agree with my politics or my religion.  Once the plates are cleared and the wine and chocolates or coffee and cheesecake starts a few fists have pounded the table. There are times when it needs to be talked about though.  Not informing ourselves, not talking at all is useful for the “owners”, as George Carlin referred to the media and the companies that pay them to tell us what they want us to know.

The economy and what is best for the economy isn’t always the best solution, still, it is the solution “the owners” love.  They create or enhance or close their eyes to hate in order to improve their own economy.

It is always important to challenge hate; challenge it’s source and find it’s solution. When you don’t like the way things are, there is always a chance for a different outcome.  Our conversations need to look at all sides and possible outcomes. Are we better off doing nothing vs doing things differently?

When fists are pounding or all capital letters are being typed, chances are a point is being made.  Hopefully the point is to liberate us from hate.

If you look up alternative energy technology you’ll find articles of hope.  Energy freedom is a term to be  embraced.  I once lived in  a home we heated with a wood burning stove. heating our Wisconsin home cost nothing more than the price of a chainsaw.  It was a lot of work and I do prefer flipping a switch to stoking a wood burning stove at 2 am,  if the source of energy at the other end of that switch isn’t harming our exquisite planet.

Do you think there are energy sources out there for our near future that won’t harm the planet?   Michael Parfit writes for the National Geographic.  He has researched energy alternatives and summarized his findings nicely.  To read the entire article for yourself go to…

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0508/feature1/text3.html

He states…

the world’s concern over energy has haunted presidential speeches, congressional campaigns, disaster books, and my own sense of well-being with the same kind of gnawing unease that characterized the Cold War.

Martin Hoffert of NYU discussed on PBS.org…

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/warming/beyond/

If you were to transplant someone from 100 years ago into the year 2000, the things we do now would certainly seem magical to them.  We’re only limited by the creativity of our scientific imagination and by our will to try to find the solution.

Professor Hoffert opens eyes and minds.  He explained that most of the technological advances of the last 100 years were driven by the military and by fear.  The market (on the other hand) will only support technology if it shows a profit within 3 years.

He introduced some pretty fantastic scenarios of mining uranium and platinum from other planets and bringing it back here to power our fuel cells and nuclear reactors. There is also an idea that would only work if us planet dwellers got along and worked together.   The idea involves the dark side of the planet buying energy from the sunny side.  Space based solar collectors would collect energy from the sun and send it to us and our switches.  I am all for anything that doesn’t involve me chopping wood or harming the planet.

What professor Hoffert proposes is a policy in which developed nations initiate programs of research and development for dramatically and drastically transformative systems of energy production on the Earth. Not all of these are going to work. But the ones that are successful – and there is a possibility that several of them might be successful in some combination — will totally transform our civilization and bring us into changes that are as dramatic as the changes that took place between the end of the 19th and the end of the 20th centuries.

This is so exciting!  Who wouldn’t be excited about a new renewable energy future. Especially after watching newscasts of dead or dying pelicans smothered in oil and that sad dolphin that gasped its last breath on national television.

There is a facility of  smart people assembled by the US government called The National Renewable Energy Laboratory. http://www.nrel.gov/.  Go to their website and just peruse the great things going on there. I just wish they had more influence on the market.

Hitting us in the pocket seems to be the only way to inspire us to conserve resources.  There are just too many of us and resources are getting scarce.  We have to go farther out to sea to find oil, we have to spend more money to have clean water fall from our taps. Some of us care about leaving a clean and livable planet to our offspring and others of us just don’t want prices to go up in the immediate sense because of “scary global warming crap” they say is made up by governments to control us.  I say the market makes up garbage propaganda to control us into buying what they are selling.  (You don’t need Febreze if you keep your house clean).

Derek Thompson a staff editor at Atlantic Business states,  When something is free, you tend to use more of it. It’s true for buffets and open bars, and it’s the same with carbon. Today producers and consumers can burn coal and drive gas-guzzlers without fully paying for their contribution to rising carbon dioxide levels. Carbon emissions have a cost, but carbon emitters don’t pay the price. Economists call this a “market failure.” You can call it, “a recipe for toasting the planet.”

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/06/why-carbon-pricing-matters/58386/

I just threw this little guy in here because he is so damn cute…

Second-generation biofuels use biomass-to-liquid technology, they include cellulosic biofuels from non-food crops.   http://bioenergycenter.org/what-is-bioenergy/

Bio energy is my personal favorite and our National Bioenergy Center is doing wonderful things to change us from having to continue with oil drilling and coal mining and shale blasting for fossil fuels.  Folks in Haiti made a living chopping wood until there were no more trees in Haiti, Folks in Afghanistan made a living growing poppies and selling Opiods to the point where the whole country is stoned and angry, Folks in the US and Canada have made a living in the fossil fuel industry for so long they are mortified of the idea of no more need for fossil fuels. They — and we need to move up. Many people I have met in the US are already living “off the grid”, with wind and solar.

The future of the planet and it’s ecosystem are more important than the stock market.  I believe that the truly smart players will be the ones figuring out how to make money from doing what is right for the planet.  Difficult step for those movers and shakers out there.  It will be a step up into the breezy sunshine.

Here on the sunny beaches of Florida where I sit, gazing out at pristine Gulf Beaches and blue waters, one would never suspect that a black, cancer lurks over the blue horizon.

My beach is preparing this Memorial Day for festivities on the beach. There is a bandstand, vendors booths and a planned midnight fireworks display that occurs right off my front balcony. There is no sign of disaster.

All is quiet like in the hours before Pearl Harbor. People are sunning on the beach, the sky is perfectly blue with a few wisps of white cloud. The sea is like a lake.

You will forgive me for believing as I do, that in this moment all is well on the Gulf.

As proof of this well being, as I write, I see brown pelicans flying in formation. If you have seen brown pelicans fly you will know that they fly on wind currents with military precision. With skill surpassing any human pilot, they perform death defying dives, with bombing accuracy, nose first into the sea.

I bet I can count six species of plover, heron, egret, and terns right now without getting out of my seat.

So what was that about cancer lurking out there? Is it a mirage?

I am afraid not. The signs are everywhere. The local health food store is collecting supplies for the Bird Sanctuary. It seems that Dawn washing liquid cleans fouled feathers. The call is out for human and animal hair donations. Did you know that hair clippings soak up oil?

What is not being handed out, is respirators. Thats just a fancy word for gas masks.

You see up in Louisiana, a few hundred miles from where I sit, the biggest ecological disaster in history…. I am sorry, let me rephrase that, THE BIGGEST ECOLOGICAL DISASTER IN HISTORY, IS IN FULL FORCE AND EFFECT.

BP, the British Petroleum Corporation that is responsible for this disaster, is as deep into loss control as the fragile coastal breeding grounds of Louisiana are into death.

That’s right folks. They are dead. They can never come back. Well never may be too strong a word. Lets just say when my kids have children, my grand kids will not see life there.

You see it has taken a millennium for the brush to seed and grow in the salty coastal marshes to the point that there are huge “prairies” of salt tolerant plants. The roots of this brush are mangroves, an endangered bush whose roots hang in the water like the tendrils of fire works on the Fourth of July.  They are safe refuge for small critters (a nursery for fish), and they harbor spawning fish, crabs, shell fish, oysters, and plankton. They are the nesting ground for many endangered fowl, from pelicans to eagles.

It is the cradle of life for the entire Gulf and beyond into the Atlantic Ocean.  This is Gods incubator for the seas.  (Gods incubator is covered in oil).

BP figures that if the word gets out how toxic this mess is, then BP will be facing potential lawsuits for years to come!  So along comes BP’s coporporate liability limit men in their $1000.00 suits.

They have determined that if anyone is seen wearing a gas mask at work while cleaning the spill, that will prove that the workers are working in a highly toxic, cancer causing, environment.  BP needs to create the appearance that everything is fine and safe and that working waist deep in oil sludge and gasoline fumes is just hunky dory.  Its no worse than sunscreen and a day on the beach.

Today, BP is still pumping millions of gallons of poison on top of millions of gallons of toxic crude oil into the Gulf.

I sit here on the beach and weep for the sea turtles and the dolphins and the whales, and I wait for tonight’s fireworks on the beach.

Sincerely

Jeffrey Solomon

PS: here is a video you may want to view  http://www.brassche cktv.com/ page/852. html

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My latest letter to the White House…

I campaigned for President Obama.  I am an advocate of alternative energy. I don’t own any stocks so some may consider me ignorant to the ways of power and money.

I am asking that President Obama use the power of the United States government to keep this oil from destroying any more of our fragile gulf ecosystem.  I am greatly disenchanted with this oil spill and how it is being handled.  I feel that not enough was done or is being done.

There is too much concern regarding future litigation; present cost is guiding decisions to control this oil spill.  What is the dispersant?  Why aren’t we demanding to know what they are using?  Politicians aren’t talking about it.

Politicians are politicians because somewhere along the line some oil money got them there.  Every politician in office today is there because of oil money. (and coal money).  I dare you to prove me wrong.

Yes, I’m angry, very very angry.

Give me my faith back in this administration and provide some results to Americans that we are truly proud and powerful to do what is right.  Not just bumbling through other countries with destructive power.
Please keep this place clean for those who will come after we are gone.

Do you find that every day niceties are disappearing?  Kindness is interpreted as weakness?  A neurosurgeon I worked with asked me one day if a chair was taken.  “Is it ok if I sit here?”  I told him he was at the top of the food chain and he could sit anywhere he wanted.  We both gave a short chuckle and went on with our day.  That moment stayed in my mind.   He is an example of many memorable encounters with kind people who inspire me to be as they are.  I’m still working on it.

Politeness is different.  Some people can be caustically polite.  You’ve met them, the soft spoken smiling face that gossips with tact.  Kind people are aware of others while grocery shopping, moving aside, or yielding to the product search of a fellow shopper.  They don’t always wave or smile so they can be hard to discover sometimes, but, what a beautiful world this would be if we would all learn from them.

Kind people don’t do things out a sense of reward, they are just innately so.  I think we should celebrate kindness rather than war and death and sacrifice.

I was trying to understand why Goldman Sachs is in so much trouble with the government.  I found an article in the New York Times at…

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/business/25goldman.html?emc=na

Mr. Levin said, referring to testimony given by Mr. Blankfein in January. “They were self-interested promoters of risky and complicated financial schemes that were a major part of the 2008 crisis. They bundled toxic and dubious mortgages into complex financial instruments, got the credit-rating agencies to label them as AAA safe securities, sold them to investors, magnifying and spreading risk throughout the financial system, and all too often betting against the financial instruments that they sold, and profiting at the expense of their clients.” 

They bet against what they sold!?  That is legal?! Is this what we are trying to stop in this financial regulations bill?  If America is a giant casino and we are the players, does Goldman Sachs (et al) own the casino?  Are you investor types out there OK with that?

The more I read about this the more confused I get.  I think, well they must not have understood the huge impact this betting would cause us out here in the trenches.  Then I think, no, they are amazingly intelligent people, they knew, they just didn’t care; and they never will.  We can’t ever expect the casino to do what is right for us, they will always do what makes them money.   We can’t even shake our pointy fingers at them because we have admired them this whole time for their wealth and power while they plotted our demise. Half of us still admire them,  and those are the ones arranging a filibuster right now in the senate.

So we need to pay attention to what our senators are paying attention to.

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfmP

So what is the criteria for being a real American?

Some TV personalities refer to themselves as “real Americans”.  What is a real American?  I was born on a military base and lived the first four years of my life in Germany and many subsequent years in England.  I was in the sixth grade when we moved to America, I felt like I was exploring a world I had only known from television.  I’m guessing most of the world has a warped view of what America is, including many Americans.

Visiting New York City is considered by some as the ultimate American experience.  I was afraid of New York City until I went there with a New Yorker.  The driver who took us from La Guardia to our hotel in Manhattan negotiated the New York traffic at breakneck speed.  It rivaled any ride I had ever been on at any amusement park.  I shook his hand and thanked him for delivering us alive.  He laughed.   Thank God America has New York.

Friends from Philadelphia have a way of making you feel like if you aren’t from Philadelphia you aren’t really a true American.  They have an infectious passion for life and love and the party.  What fun, fun people Philly people are.  thank God America has them.

In Wisconsin you’ll find beauty, cheese, farmers and milk.  The people are tall in Wisconsin.  I felt very short the whole time I was there.  They love their football teams.  You can find an entire town at a Friday night game.  Many are descendants of Sweden, Norway and Germany.  They love snowmobiles, ice fishing, potato pancakes and Brandy.  Makes you proud to be an American.

We flew in to Seattle as tourists experiencing our own country, rented a car and drove to Monterey along the Oregon coast.  This is an American experience I highly recommend;  wild whales, the greatest coffee on earth, gigantic flowers, heavenly seascapes, and very distant people.  The whole time I was on that coast no one got my jokes, the Pacific Northwest is full of  serious people, but, thank God America has them.

While living in the Ozarks, I met people that didn’t like going into the next county because it was full of foreigners.  A co-worker used to bring in the best beans and corn bread on the planet, everyone brought in eggs to share, and they added syllables to words. They build houses where there is no land, on the sides of cliffs. I miss them and thank God America has them.

We took a trip to the Grand Canyon on a whim.  The Grand Canyon is otherworldly.  What can describe America better than the Grand Canyon and it’s American Indians, Mexican Americans, Ranchers, Artists, and Sedona.  One of the most fulfilling whims I ever had.  Americas Grand Canyon is a must see.

So, how can any one person state representation of “real Americans”.  Diversity is America.  Thank God.

“Rich people give poor people jobs. Plain and simple. With out rich people, poor people won’t have jobs. See all the liberals want the government to take away all the rich peoples money, but don’t ever give any of there own.” This is a quote from an apparent Republican to his liberal facebook friend.

When did this happen?  The rich paying for the poor?  Define poor.  Do you think the richest Indian was the one with the fanciest horse?  Or was the bravest Indian the one with the fanciest horse?

I was extremely impressed with a Missouri gentleman that built our kayak from strips of wood.  He explained the procedure and that his boats would withstand some of the wildest rivers in Missouri and Arkansas.  It took about 4 months for it to be completed and now it is a gorgeous lightweight kayak that is durable, usable art .  I suppose some of the glues, and paints may have had Chinese roots or came from a factory owned by a wealthy corporation, but, for the most part our beloved vessel was handmade by an American. He had a home, a car, a workshop, diabetes and a smoking habit.   He made his own way in his own shop living a free American life that many of us might envy.

Insurance would have been impossible for him to obtain if it hadn’t been for medicare.  He qualified for socialized medicine because he lived long enough too.  Prior to that I think he plucked chickens in a factory or something like that so he would be insured. Why is our society set up like this? Because the guys that own the chicken factories don’t want us to be free.  If we are free and don’t need the insurance they provide, we may leave and start an organic chicken farm that would compete with them.  We would be poor, but, we would be free and insured.

“Another word for freedom is nothing left to lose”  I so miss the days when everything I owned fit in my car and I traveled about, working at random restaurants, taking ballet classes and teaching ballet classes.  I never broke a body part or had a kidney stone or appendicitis.  I never thought about healthcare or health insurance.  If I had needed healthcare back in those days I would have been financially screwed.  I guess I was poor, but, I didn’t feel poor, I felt  free.

Life happened.  Husband, kids, and a job that provided health insurance for us all.  There went my freedom.  I don’t think it should have to be that way.  I think we should be able to make things, grow things, be brave and ride a fine horse.  I think we should have the choice to be free and at the same time be responsible.  I don’t think providing healthcare for all is the rich paying for the poor.  I think it is all of us pitching in for all of us.

Now there is hope that no American will be locked in to a job they hate because they need the insurance for their family. There is hope that more Americans can start their own businesses and innovative ideas while able to obtain affordable insurance.

An Arkansas community I once lived in is a perfect example of an innovative and talented populace. Most were uninsured. If you’re an uninsured person with a kidney stone or breast cancer or a gallbladder attack your finances and maybe even your life are at risk. No American should ever experience the devastation involved in being turned away from a Doctors office or ER because they don’t have insurance or enough money to be seen.

Most of the people I have met who are unsure if changes are needed have medicare or private insurance. They are satisfied with the way things were and are immensely afraid of this new healthcare reform law.  Just know that Americans over 65 or disabled have been taken care of by taxpaying Americans for many years after a hard fought fight.   Now,(after another long hard fight)  we will also provide for the healthy uninsured working class; which is the last hurdle intended when Medicare was signed in to law in 1965 by the Johnson administration.

Misfortune is an inevitable part of being alive. I see health care reform as a way of rallying together to help each other prepare for inevitable misfortunes. We are our brothers keepers so lets be grateful that  healthcare for all has happened.
I just don’t understand the culture that opposed Americans helping Americans. Who were we fighting?

I’ve been reading  and watching news on Haiti.  So impressed with how the World is rallying for this little island country. Rwanda sent $100,000!  Isn’t Rwanda really poor?  Isn’t that like getting 50 cents from someone who only has a dollar?   It is heartwarming to watch the people of the world take on the tragedies of strangers.

Some folks go through life as though the world owes them more.  Most are extremely grateful and tend to give back.  Giving is interesting; it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with spiritual or political  tendencies, or income.  It is an inclination.  This mind set exists all over the world and when tapped, achieves wonderous results.  Can this wonder be learned?

If my life so far can be considered a survey, my conclusion is caring can’t be taught.  The joy of caring can only be experienced.   You walk through a grocery store and see someone with too many items in their arms — they drop something — do you pick it up for them or do you walk on thinking “why didn’t they grab a cart?”.   You see a Mom taking a photograph of her husband and baby — do you stop and offer to take a picture of the three of them together or do you just keep walking, not wanting to break your stride or step outside your box?

Merging traffic can be a beautiful example of strangers caring about strangers and everyone doing the right thing.  Often, it isn’t such a beautiful thing, don’t be the reason why.