Do a lot of good in just five minutes

Ever stumbled on a site that says, Click here to plant a tree, feed a hungry child or save a tiger? It's true, it's that easy! Of course it's only pennies-- or sometimes fractions of-- but it does add up. If you had a penny for every single person in the U.S., you'd be a millionaire three times over.

A very comprehensive site for donating by click is at The Non-Profits.com. ; the site lists more than fifty opportunities to give. Check it out.

A personal favorite of mine is Care2. I've been a member for some years, now, and the site just keeps getting better and better. Start here for Click to Donate. Better yet, if you want to see your efforts as they accumulate, create an account and the site will keep track of how many feet of rain forest you've saved, how many chimps you've fed, how many pounds of carbon you've offset, etc.

Don't stop with Click to Donate, though. Care2 has a great news service for people particularly interested in animals and the environment (although the site covers everything) a petition site, a great ecard collection, and more. Community is an overused word on thw web, but you really will find a great community at Care2.

Court rules OK to feed hungry people

It may have taken more than a year for a decision, but The 13th Juror reported this week that according to the U.S. District Court, Orlando FL Division, sharing food with the hungry and homeless is a form of expression protected by the First Amendment.

The decision came about because of a lawsuit filed by Food Not Bombs and several other plaintiffs last September after groups were diened a permit by the City of Orlando to feed people in a public park.

To establish that their conduct is expressive and protected by the First Amendment, the members of Food Not Bombs had to prove that they are conveying a message that is likely to be understood by the public. The city tried to argue that their message – that society can and should provide food for all of its members, regardless of wealth – wasn’t likely to be understood. But Mayor Buddy Dyer testified that he believes that Food Not Bombs provides food to the homeless only to convey its political message – not necessarily to help the homeless. 13th Juror.

How sad that Mayor Dyer thought that people wouldn't understand the message that we all need to take care of each other. I know that much of selfishness comes from fear but it is not each other we need to be afraid of.

Many more families will be homeless this year

A reporter called me tonight to get a local angle on an AP story the paper was running. How is the foreclosure crisis affecting families? And is it true here, as it is in Boston, that the family shelters are full and that families are once again being placed in motels? I made a few phone calls around to confirm what I already knew and got back to him. We're in a world of trouble.

More than 2,000 families are homeless in Massachusetts today, and more than 500 of them are staying in motels-- a practice which had been mostly discontinued under Gov. Romney and which flies in the face of current Gov. Patrick's plans to drastically reduce homelessness in five years by focusing on housing. Federally, the Bush Administration is hip-deep in a strategy to end homelessness in ten years; locally, Springfield's "Homes within Reach" program intends to mirror the state and the federal government's strategies and successes.

Mostly these plans give lip service to the economic underpinnings of homelessness but their strategies focus on treating homeless people as if they had a personal problem rather than a political problem. One would think that the solution to homelessness is a home, but no new housing has been created in many years.. Add in the fact that many people don't have sufficient income to stay housed and you have the poor people shuffle: from apartment to shelter to a friend's to an apartment and so on. Still, Springfield and other cities were making incremental progress in housing some "chronically homeless" people and were starting to think seriously about family homelessness.

But the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry and with the storm waves from the foreclosure crisis just beginning to reach us, much of the progress is swinging back to a loss. People's incomes are stagnant or falling and what we pay for food and utilities keeps climbing. I'll venture to say that in six months we will have a crisis of homelessness that cannot be concealed. We need visionary solutions but instead many will be moving into survival mode.

Hardly an original question but one that deserves a deeper answer: how can full shelters and empty building exist in the same city?

Photo from Thomas Hawk's photostream at Flickr

A workhouse tale

Jane was the prettiest girl in the workhouse. Taller than the other seven-year-olds, with clear blue eyes and dark curly hair, she was a bright little thing, full of mischief, who liked playing practical jokes on the other children.

She was punished, of course, in those early years of the 20th century, and sometimes cried herself to sleep, but in the morning, irrepressible, she was laughing again. Who was it who climbed the drainpipe in the playground, or tied Officer Sharp's shoelaces together as she sat darning socks?

If it wasn't Jane, it might as well have been, so she got the punishment. The master of the workhouse vowed to break the 'saucy little madam'.

When Jane owned up to making a sketch of him with a square head, small eyes and an exaggerated stomach, she was taken to the discipline room, a small cell with no windows and no furniture except for a stool. The master took down one of several canes and beat the little girl so severely that she could not sit down for several days.

Read the rest of the story at Mail Online.

Drops of water

See more at AMO Images:

Know/are a felon in MA? You can VOTE! Spread the word

"Hey, would you like to vote so you can participate in this historic election?"

A pause.

"Well, I'd like to, but I can't-- I'm a convicted felon."

Many felons in Massachusetts think they've permanently lost the right to vote and much of that misconception was created in the year 2000, when a successful ballot question removed the right to vote for convicted felons while they were serving their time. But as soon as a person is released, his or her right to vote is restored.

In fact, more than half of the prisoners in Massachusetts county jail are still eligible to register and to vote, because more than half of them are pre-trial-- not yet found guilty of any crime-- and a number of those who have been sentenced are serving time for a misdemeanor. All of those prisoners are eligible to vote.

More than four years ago, Holly Richardson and I, representing Arise for Social Justice, met with Hampden County Sheriff Mike Ashe and some of his program staff. We were there to speak against the construction of a new women's jail, even though we knew it was nearly unstoppable. One of the points were were there to make was that no real shortage in women's beds really existed if the pre-trial population could be reduced-- either through lighter bails or released on their own recognisance. While we were there, we asked if the county jail made any effort to get those who were eligible registered to vote and assist them to get absentee ballots. They did not, but agreed to consider "making that option available."

I am happy to report that although the administrators don't exactly run a campaign, they do make information available to prisoners about their right to register and vote. I put in a call to the program director at the Hampshire County jail, and they were happy to be provided with voter registration and absentee ballot forms. Unfortunately, I doubt most county jails are proactive unless pushed.

After years of state by state felony disenfranchisement, the tide may finally be turning to restore voting rights. According to the Sentencing Project, in the last ten years,

• Nine states either repealed or amended lifetime disenfranchisement laws
• Two states expanded voting rights to persons under community supervision
• Five states eased the restoration process for persons seeking to have their right to vote restored after completing their sentence
• Three states improved data and information sharing.

Still, some five million people will be unable to vote in this year's Presidential election.

As well as having the highest number of incarcerated persons in the world, the U.S. also denies more people convicted of a crime the right to vote than any other democratic country. In some countries, the ballot box is even brought to the prison. In dozens of countries in Europe and the Americas, all 5.3 million disenfranchised felons would have the right to vote.

If you are personally affected by felony disenfranchisement laws, or know someone who is, don't assume you or your friend can't vote. Find out! With times the way they are, hang on to every bit of power we have. You can get a state by state guide to felony enfranchisement laws at the Sentencing Project.

The deadline to register to vote in Massachusetts is October 15.

AP Photo by Brennan Linsley

Container housing gains ground

Most shipping containers meet an ignoble end rusting away in a port or railroad yard. But a field trip to Juarez, Mexico by a U.S. architect has blossomed into a vision: container housing for the homeless and poor who would otherwise be unable to afford to own a home.

Brian McCarthy and three partners have designed a prototype that's cool, ventilated, and has hookups for water and electricity. Container housing could be constructed in settings that promote a sense of community among residents.

I talked about the possibility of container housing last year here. You can read more about McCarthy's endeavor at CNN.

Amazing public sculpture in Chicago

From SoothBrush: Cloud Gate is a public sculpture by Anish Kapoor in Millennium Park, Chicago. The sculpture is shaped like an ellipse, and its legume-like appearance has caused it to be nicknamed “The Bean”. It is made of 168 highly polished stainless steel plates, and stands at 33 feet high, 66 feet long, and 42 feet wide, weighing 110 tons. Go to SoothBrush to see more photos.

Feast for the eyes

If you like design, check out a link to the Chicago International Poster Biennial.at Design Observer.

Will you publicly support decriminalizing marijuana?

Arise is looking for individuals and organizations in Western Massachusetts who would be willing to support publicly this November's ballot Question Two, decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana. Any takers?

If only everyone who has smoked or currently smokes would come out and say so. I won't out them, but I've smoked with more well-known and well-respected residents of this city than you can shake a stick at.

Unfortunately, many people are in professions where they would be instantly fired if they admitted they have smoked or do smoke marijuana. But how about publicly agreeing that a civil fine is better than a criminal record for those in possession of less than an ounce of marijuana?

If you're willing to stand with us, you can call Arise at 413-734-4948.

From the Marijuana Policy Project:

Opponents of Massachusetts' marijuana decriminalization ballot initiative just can't stop lying.

Here are some the lies they're flooding the media with, in a cynical attempt to scare voters into defeating the measure on November 4:

• Marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol or tobacco — because tobacco takes a long time to kill you and alcohol has health benefits. (Yes, you read that right.) That's according to Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter.

And here are four gems from the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association:

• “By empowering drug dealers with decriminalization of marijuana, we would be empowering them to continue their violent ways: carrying and brandishing weapons; ripping off kids who get in over their heads; engaging in bloody turf wars; and indiscriminately assaulting or murdering when things don't go the way they want.”
• “Marijuana arrests are strongly associated with violent crime — dangerous criminals who make the wrong choice time and time again.” (In reality, research shows unmistakably that marijuana — unlike alcohol — is almost never the cause of aggression or violence.)
• “Very few arrests involving marijuana charges are for simple possession.” (In reality, according to FBI statistics, a full 89% of marijuana arrests are for simple possession.)
• The initiative “will allow drug dealers to operate with impunity and make it easier for them to do business with your children.”

Nickelsville rises again

70 tents destroyed, 23 people arrested....but Seattle's Nickelsville is NOT down and out. You can follow their story at Nickelsville Seattle.

This photo reminds me so much of Springfield's Sanctuary City.

My sister was cleaning out a little-used closet and found a three room tent. Ira, if you're reading this, know anybody up there who could use it?

I thought you'd be taller

Seems like I had just built up momentum for posting again after a July sickness and a late August vacation when pow! stopped in my tracks Saturday by a mild heart attack. There, that's more than I'd usually tell my readers about the details of my health; it's just that the last several days have reminded me how false the separation is that we create between mind and body. I'm here because my body is here-- there, I did it again.

I got home yesterday and today ventured out to fill a prescription. I stopped at Arise to pick up some invitations for our Open House (Friday, October 10) and heard that ACORN was having a demonstration about the foreclosure crisis at the new federal building, thought about stopping down for a few minutes but really I was as shaky as a shorn lamb in a stiff breeze.

In the miniscule two block radius I traversed on foot, I ran into several people I know. One woman introduced me to her friend.

"I know who you are," she said, "but I thought you'd be taller."

I take that as a compliment, but the truth is, if I don't think of myself as tall, still I always forget that that I am short. I found out last month that I've lost an inch, am now under five feet.. Yet looking out of my own eyes, I don't see it-- not unless I stand next to somebody's twelve year old child. Then I think, "Am I really that short? How has anyone ever taken me seriously?" (Sorry, other short people.)

And looking out of my own eyes, I don't feel old. I don't think of myself as sixty, but rather of some indeterminate age hovering between early and late adulthood. Not that I don't identify with sixty intellectually and politically, and not that I don't view with some amusement how much the skin on the back of my hands has become like my grandmother's. But it still takes a moment to recognize myself in a storefront window.

So here I am, still here. When my state of being was momentarily in doubt, I remember thinking, Wait, I can't die yet, because I'm still not the person I want to be! So now, on the other side of the event, I have yet another chance to remember that I have no one to please but myself, no standards to meet but my own, and no one but me to satisfy that I have done the best that I can.

Photo from Deego's photostream at Flickr.

Take a deep breath.

Free from gravity

Free from gravity:
sex in mid-air.
How wonderful to be
a dragonfly pair.

Photography by John Corney

Nickelsville tent city ready to house 1,000

King County, WA, which includes Seattle, may seem above average in affluence, but you couldn't prove that to the 8,439 homeless people documented in the annual homeless count last January. More than 2,500 of those people were unsheltered, living on the streets. Back in April, Seattle's Mayor Nickels passed an ordinance pretty much forbidding homeless people to sleep anywhere on public property. I've been following homeless people's struggle in Seattle here and here. Meanwhile, 34 people have died this year while living on the streets. Homeless organizers and their advocates have come up with an alternative to the endless sweeps of homeless encampments. They asked Mayor Nickels to give them a piece of city hand for a more permanent encampment. When no city hall solution was forthcoming, homeless people took the matter into their own hands. This Monday, a 100 tent encampment called Nickelsville opened at 7115 W. Marginal Way SW. (The site, one of four considered, was not revealed until the very last minute to prevent city intervention.)

Today is the day Mayor Nickels has said he will send in the troops to evict everyone. Of course, he has no alternative for them. Perhaps, like Springfield MA's administration and so many other cities, he thinks they can just "go elsewhere." Well, just where is Elsewhere? And how many homeless people already live there?

Tent cities are springing up everywhere. Seattle's mayor should be grateful that people are organizing on their own behalf to find some way to meet some of their needs through the coming winter. You can call him and tell him to leave Nickelsville alone at 206-684-CITY (206-684-2489) or send him an email at City of Seattle. You can follow homeless peoples' organizing in Seattle at Real Change, Seattle's homeless newspaper, at Nickelsville's home page, or at Apesma's Lament, the blog of Tim Harris, ED of Real Change.

Colony Collapse Disorder: bees continue to die

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) hit the public consciousness last year with news that nearly one-third of all commercial beehives had died-- collapsed. This year has been quieter but the news is no better-- an increase of 13% over last year brings losses to more than one-third through the winter of 2007-08, according to the USDA.

The USDA isn't telling all it knows, however. On August 18, The Natural Resources Defense Council filed suit against the Environmental Protection Agency to force it to reveal any connections between pesticide use and CCD. According to the Organic Consumers Association,

"Recently approved pesticides have been implicated in massive bee die-offs and are the focus of increasing scientific scrutiny," said NRDC Senior Attorney Aaron Colangelo. "EPA should be evaluating the risks to bees before approving new pesticides, but now refuses to tell the public what it knows. Pesticide restrictions might be at the heart of the solution to this growing crisis, so why hide the information they should be using to make those decisions?"

In 2003, EPA granted a registration to a new pesticide manufactured by Bayer CropScience under the condition that Bayer submit studies about its product's impact on bees. EPA has refused to disclose the results of these studies, or if the studies have even been submitted. The pesticide in question, clothianidin, recently was banned in Germany due to concerns about its impact on bees. A similar insecticide was banned in France for the same reason a couple of years before. In the United States, these chemicals still are in use despite a growing consensus among bee specialists that pesticides, including clothianidin and its chemical cousins, may contribute to CCD.

Although no full-scale study has yet taken place, organic beehives have been largely immune to CCD. CCD also does not affect solitary bees. Go Prairie has a post about the amazing number of bees in the U.S. Unfortunately, given that one third of every mouthful of food we eat is pollinated by domesticated bees, we are scarcely out of the woods.

Want to help do your part to protect bees in your own back yard? NRDC has the following suggestions:

Bee Friendly, Bee Safe: Here's How

You can also help keep bees healthy by making your yard and garden colorful, diverse and pesticide free. Here are some tips on how you can Bee Safe:

• Bee Native: Use local and native plants in your yard and garden. These plants thrive easily and are well suited for local bee populations, providing pollen and nectar for bees to eat.


• Bee Diverse: Plant lots of different kinds of plants in your yard. Plant diversity ensures that your garden attracts many different varieties of bees and gives them a range of flowering plants to choose from throughout the year. Make sure your yard plants vary in:
• Color: Bees have good vision and are attracted to several different colors of flowers.
• Shape: Different species of bees are better suited for different shapes of flowers. Give your bees some variety!
• Flowering times: Having a sequence of plant species that flower throughout the year helps sustain the food supply and attract different species of bees.


• Bee Open to Pollen: Pollen is bee food. Genetically engineered pollen-free plants trick bees into thinking they'll find food, and then leave them hungry. (Don't worry, flower pollen isn't a big contributor to most people's allergies.)


• Bee Pesticide Wary: There are many natural methods to control pests in your garden. Researchers believe pesticides are a contributing factor to Colony Collapse Disorder. Moreover, some insecticides are harmful to bees and wipe out flowers that provide bees with food. If you must, use targeted pesticides and spray at night -- when bees aren't active -- on dry days.


• Bee a Hive Builder: Building your own bee hive is easy and fun. Creating a wood nest is a good place to start -- wood-nesting bees don�t sting! Simply take a non-pressure treated block of wood and drill holes that are 3/32 inch to 5/16 inch in diameter and about 5 inches deep and wait for the bees to arrive.

Photo of a bee house from *Susie's* photostream at Flickr.

In her natural habitat

Graphic from Zina Saunders.