There is also good in the world

When there is so much negative things going on in the world it’s very hard to see beyond the bad. Each day we are assaulted with what is “wrong” in the world. How this person screwed the pooch or how this person killed their family. It can really do a number on your psyche, to the point where you continue to look for the bad things and eventually fail to see the better side of life.

I found myself caught in this same trap recently, I have gotten so wrapped up in the BP catastrophe that I found that I had blinders on saw nothing else. I traveled down this really dark rabbit hole of corruption that made my outlook on the world and humans in general very dark. I began to lose hope in humanity.

However, today I found a small blurb in the paper about a 84 year old retired insurance salesman in Australia who lives across the street from Australia’s most notorious suicide spot, a rocky cliff at the entrance to Sydney Harbor call the Gap. He keeps an eye out and if he sees someone alone standing to close to the precipice he hurries to their side, and simply asks if they’d like to come back to his place and join him for tea. He is offering them an alternative and helps those who are suicidal think beyond the terrible current moment.

How many times have you walked past a questionable situation, where part of you thought maybe you should do something but continued on about your business because you do not want to intrude? How many times do you see stories on the television where securities camera have caught a struggle or kidnapping out in the open with people just sanding by ignoring what is happening? Have we become so selfish and wrapped up in our daily lives to stop caring what happens to others?

This gentle man does not sit idly by and let the world go to crap around him; he takes action by showing a simple act of compassion to some one in a time of need. He has personally walked 160 people from the edge and offered hope where none was before.

The story has reminded me that I too need readjust how I interact with the world around me, I have been absorbed in the entropy of the world that I failed to appreciate the power of a smile, and beauty of a sun rise. That there is more to the world that just how I feel about it, that others feel the same as well, and if I just offer a smile more often and a few kind words I just make that persons day a little bit better.

As you all well know who have read so far, I am a HUGE fan of sustainable energy, and I found the best form is in a smile. A smile can be the spark of happiness, and happiness is true sustainable energy. Please don’t let the folly of others in the world distract you from what makes you happy. There is also good in the world.


Here is the article from TBT June 14th 2010

THE MAN WHO SELLS LIFE

In those bleak moments when the lost souls stood atop the cliff, wondering whether to jump, the sound of the wind and the waves was broken by a soft voice. “Why don’t you come and have a cup of tea?” the stranger would ask. And when they turned to him, his smile was often their salvation. For almost 50 years, Don Ritchie has lived across the street from Australia’s most notorious suicide spot, a rocky cliff at the entrance to Sydney Harbour called The Gap. And in that time, he has shepherded at least 160 people away from the edge. How wonderful, the former life insurance salesman said, to save so many. How wonderful to sell them life. “You can’t just sit there and watch them,” said Ritchie, now 84, perched on his beloved green leather chair, from which he keeps a watchful eye on the cliff outside. “You gotta try and save them. It’s pretty simple.” If he spots anyone standing alone too close to the precipice, he hurries to their side. He asks if they’d like to talk and invites them back to his house for tea. Sometimes, they join him. “I’m offering them an alternative, really,” Ritchie said. “I always act in a friendly manner. I smile.” By offering compassion, Ritchie helps those who are suicidal think beyond the terrible current moment, said psychiatrist Gordon Parker, executive director of the Black Dog Institute, an Australian mood dis¬order research center. “They often don’t want to die, it’s more that they want the pain to go away,” Parker said. “So anyone that offers kindness or hope has the capacity to help a number of people.”

BP Oil Violation of Freedom

BP Oil Violation of Freedom

In my first post about this epic disaster I made mention that one the things that one can do to help clean up the spill is to learn how to clean the oil off birds and wild life and volunteer to clean any effected animals. I have had a chance since then to read a bit more on the subject and I have changed my opinion. I do not feel cleaning the oil off the wild life is a viable way of helping. In fact I feel that you are doing more harm than good, it just may be better to euthanize the life effected to end their suffering.

I read an article that explained the process that it takes to clean the birds, and the poor things suffering before they get picked up by a volunteer. But the process it self if grueling and by the time is over most do not survive and if they manage to live a week after the cleaning they are released in an area not likely to be affected by the oil. But a study after a previous oil spills have found that only about 10% live up to two years after a cleaning and then they still have yet to find evidence of breading.

Imagine you are a brown pelican going about your day and you find your self covered in a mess, and being a creature of instinct and habit you begin to clean yourself. Because you find that you can not fly with this stuff all over your feathers. You preen and clean continuously, not eating, and sleeping because you need this stuff off of you to fly and hunt. You become exhausted but continue you still don’t eat and you’re even swallowing some of this really vile stuff that your body has been violated with.

Then all off a sudden you’re a swooped up by something much bigger than you and you begin to fight franticly, flapping your wings, biting and squalling in fear. You go into fight or flight and your heart is racing, you haven’t ate in days and your body is covered in this stuff. You get stuffed into a hard a metal cage or plastic crate and now you find yourself trapped, you begin to clean again, and maybe just maybe if you get this stuff off you can fly away to safety.

Then after being bumped around in this cage and still not able to clean your self you get grabbed again and you begin to struggle. Your heart is racing, you’re still covered in this stuff and now your beak is being held closed, your legs are being held and your wings are being spread. Your now being put into water and pulled out, you’re having stuff rubbed all over you. You are still trying so franticly to get away. You’re scared so far out of your wits at this point.

You were once free to fly, fish and sleep where ever and when ever you want, and now you’re being violated in the worst way. Your freedom has been taken away from you and now your heart is failing and you going into shock. You have not ate in days, you have not sleep and you have ingested something that is making you sick, and the stuff your skin is soaking into your body. The home you once knew is gone, the torment your body has gone through the past few days has taken its toll, and your body simply can’t take this last final violation. Your body goes limp, your heart stops, all because the freedom you once had has been stolen.

I would rather see these animals misery shorten rather than trying in vain to save a life when it is only making the death more painful. I would rather take the bodies of the all the dead life and the oil soaked sand and have it put into a truck and dumped onto the lawns of the U.S. BP executives for them to clean up.

I want to grab the oil execs and have them covered in oil and not eat or sleep for days trying to futile clean themselves. Then make them drink about cup full of oil, and be grabbed and thrown into a cage. Transported away from the home they know, and be scrubbed and violated in every way possible. I would recommend using a bottle brush or two to make sure their anal cavity is sufficiently cleaned.

I don’t want them to die form this process though, I want them to live on with the poisoning they will have from the oil, and experience pain and suffering for the rest of their lives. Then once a year on the anniversary of the spill, be put through the whole process again, but this time on public display! Because the poor pelican that is covered in oil didn’t ask to be put on the cover of newspapers for all to see either!

BP Opinions…Part 2 Educating Your Self

BP Opinions…Part 2

I am not going to sit here an d bitch about what a horrible injustice and how much of an epic fail BP has committed against the earth, humans and the ocean. That much is a given. I am not going to sit her and go over the scores of people who are going to be out of work, and the scores of lies that VP is doing to cover up their screw up and the fact that 32% of the gulf of Mexico is officially unfishable and will not be for quite some time. What I am going to do is bitch about people and their lack of intelligence in response to this matter…. That is where I feel the media is lacking, and I will pick up the slack.

I was tickled a few days after I originally posted part 1 on my face book I read an article in the local paper here that was addressing the boycott of BP gas stations. It basically said that it’s the little guy that is being hurt, and supported my argument on the matter in Part 1. I was so ecstatic that the media was finally addressing this small facet. I went home from work feeling a little vindicated… I was right.

So the following day, same paper I read some whining bitch talk about the article “missing the point, and the people are grasping to find things that they can do to relieve the pain of watching the oil spill on the new every day” –(Mary L Barnich St. Petersburg fl) And how she is not able to buy BP gas because she can not get past the sign, and the same reason she does not by Exxon gas because of the Valdez spill. What she failed to see in the same article is said that BP sells their gas to anyone who will by it to put in their tanks, and that the BP gas stations may not even have BP gas in their tanks to sell. She was so focused on the “emotion” that she failed to see the facts. If she feels so strongly about the spills that she refuses to buy gas at these stations then she should be just as strong in her conviction to give up her car all together! No mater where she is buying her gas she is still supporting the industry. And the only way to be true to her convictions is give up EVERYTHING in society that relies on petroleum.

So for everyone who feels so strongly about sticking it to BP and to any of the other oil giants this is what you need to do….

1) Sell your car!
2) Stop buying food at the market and grow your own.
3) Raise your own meat, cows, pigs, chickens… and this means you have to slaughter them to…
4) Turn off your electricity…. They put gas in those trucks that come out to fix your power. Don’t worry about keeping your meat fresh with out a fridge, live animals is natures way of keeping food fresh!
5) Grow your own veggies, and the wonderful thing here is that there is a sustainable form of farming called aquaponics that allows you to grow fish, their waste feeds the veggies and the veggies clean the water. So YAY you get meet and veggies! Isn’t the circle of life grand!

Basically going back in time and giving up any form of electronic comfort you have grown up with, no microwave oven, TV dinners, video games, iPODs and cell phones! Forbid you have to work for you food, and support your self and just maybe you won’t be quite so fat or sloth! You will learn to socialize with people in your community trade what you have to much of for what you don’t have enough.

There is a lot of pro’s and just as many con’s to living like this. I am not writing this to promote living off the grid. I am promoting educating your self on the whole picture. Learning about the oil industry, the only way you can fight an enemy is know your enemy.

Myself I am very much plugged into the grid, and I have no intention right now to give it up. And I am VERY angry at what is happening in the gulf and what BP is doing. I know that there is nothing that I can do personally to bring down BP or any of the oil giants. But I do know that if I get the word out there for others to learn how not to be as dependent on petroleum. Then together WE ALL can make an impact in BP’s and ALL the oil giants’ bottom line!

BP Opinions #1..More to come

The other day I was griping for a lack of a better term about the BP Deep Horizon Oil spill. This is a subject that deeply bothers me and as with anything that upsets me I am vocal, and can sometime rubs others around me the wrong way like it did my husband Dave. He had enough of me bitching about it and basically said there nothing you can do about it so shut it. I bit back a few things but erred on the side of caution and chose not to dive into an argument till I was fully prepared to back up my statements. Well I have thought it though and figured I would share with everyone my thoughts on the subject and what someone can do on a local level. And of course in the best way I know how, I wrote it out to share.

No keep in mind that not just one person can save the Gulf Coast. This disaster is so big that it is going to take the effort of hundreds of thousands of people to contain, clean up and stop the leak. One person is but a drop in a bucket of water, but all those drops do fill it up. So everyone working together can do something about this spill and get a message out there to reduce the need for crude oil so less oil rigs are needed.

Now as I thought about it there is nothing, I can do about the spill because I do not have the means. However, if I was in a position and had the means there would be a few things that I can do to make an impact. One, I can take a class on marine clean up, on how to properly wash birds. This is a class that is offered locally and I can use that training should the oil come this way to the Tampa area. Two, if chose I could travel and volunteer at the coast to assist in clean up. And three I can donate time and money locally to a non profit that is represented over at the site of the spill. And last there is an organization who is offering T-shirts with a BP logo that appears to be soiled with oil for $25, all proceeds go to assist with the clean up.

One thing that I see if popular right now that many people are doing on a local level, is boycotting BP gas stations and even to the point of picketing BP gas stations. Now one thing that I feel I must point out. BP drills for oil, they refine their own oil yes for their gas stations, but they also sell their oil to other companies to refine. So it is possible the gas stations you frequent is using BP oil that was refined by another company. ALSO, by boycotting BP stations you are also hurting a local economy. Yes are not being a consumer of BP gas, but you are also not buying that Slurpee or the Coke either. You see, the gas stations (a lot are local owned) don’t make money off the gas, they make money off the purchases you make inside the store. So basically, by boycotting BP stations, you are knowingly not buying a BP labeled product, but you could be still supporting BP by buying gas at a different station that purchased BP oil and refined it. And you could also be causing a local business to close down, and that means loss of jobs which in this economy NOT GOOD. So the best way to battle this nemesis is to reduce the need for crude oil by using less gas your self or to alter your habits that support the use of gas.

If a large portion of our population become more aware of what their actions do to impact the environment, then together we will be able to make an improvement that all would benefit. And I am talking about more than just littering and recycling; its knowing that the extra trips in the car to pick up something you forgot at the store or buying all your veggies at the supper market all support the need to crude oil to be refined for gas.

Now you ask “What does buy all my veggies at the supper market have to do what gasoline consumption?” You see the majority of the veggies at your local supermarket are not local. In fact most of them spent 5 days on a truck getting your store. It took quite a bit of gas for that Semi truck to put up a trailer full of veggies in California to be dropped off to some local distribution center. Where the veggies are sorted and the orders are filled and more gas is used in the small trucks to be taken to the stores.

If you bought what veggies you can from a local grower, you are not only reducing the use of gas but you are getting fresher veggies that last longer in the fridge. This means less waste, saving you money and supporting your local grower’s which puts your money in your local economy. Bonus is if you find a local grower that grows organically or does not use genetically modified seeds. Then you are benefiting the environment in more ways than just reducing the use of petrol. Also you can start a neighborhood garden. Talk to you neighbors see if everyone will be willing to work together on tending the garden, everyone who participates gets first pick of the harvest. The rest can be sold at a local market for a profit that can be put back into purchasing things for the garden.

You can also reduce the need for gas buy reducing the number of trips to the store. Make a list of everything you’re going to need for that week. And if you are close enough to the store for those mid week change of plans for dinner, ride your bike to the store to pick up the few items you need. Going to the store to pick up just three things you forgot is like a pick up truck picking up one chair at a time for a move.

This is something that I personally need to work on, I am guilty of using my car for small trips and extra trips for a lack of planning. Since I have recognized that this is something that I can improve on, I am on my way to correcting that behavior.

Lastly, (and by no means is this a complete list of things you can do, I am only scratching the tip of the ice burg here, or of what’s left of them that is) support sustainable energy. If you have the means install solar power. Did you know that if actually generate more energy it will go to the grid, and you meter will start moving backwards, and the electric company will start paying you? If you reduced your energy consumption and use only what you need, this is very possible. Also by reducing what you are using from the grid, and more people did that same this will reduce the number of trucks needing to be dispatched to fix and issue due to the grid being overloaded.

And, when your local city, county, state and Federal governments propose a sustainable energy project, support it, write letters to your representative, go to local meetings tell your friends do what ever you can to get the word out. Don’t expect your government no mater how local or big to pass something with out knowing if it will be supported by the people they represent. If they don’t know that a majority of people are in support they will not even think of supporting. Remember, our government is based on supporting majority opinion, in other words what is good for the many not the few.