If I left my house right now it would take me 20 hours, 57 minutes to get to my favorite food. Fried clams at Kellys. I’m writing this post in case any of you have a private plane and just by chance your flying from Boston to Martin County. It’s fifteen minutes out of your way. Really it is. There’s even a line in “Good Will Hunting” about Kelly’s being fifteen minutes away.
I actually hadn’t thought about Kelly’s in a while but a friend of mine told me she spent most of the summer up north and with her very proper London accent told me she went to Kelly’s on Revere Beach. I was so jealous. She also talked about the very friendly birds.
Your best friends when you go there.
revere beach birds cyndi lenz
revere beach birds cyndi lenz
revere beach birds cyndi lenz
For those who do not know anything about Revere Beach. Before I was even born it was place where my parents and grandparents went.
old photo revere beach public domain
old photo revere beach public domain
It was the carney when I was growing up. My Mom would tell me not to go to the beach and I would head straight there. Cotton Candy and skiball. My heart still skips a beat if I find myself near skiball.
“Revere Beach is a public beach in Revere, Massachusetts, USA, located about 4 miles north of downtown Boston. Revere Beach was founded in 1895 as the first public beach in the United States.”
There is even an old bathhouse. It’s now a bathroom but in the olden days you rented your bathing suit there.
And there’s the old bandstand.
And there is Kelly’s.
When I worked in Boston I lived in Beverly and I would stop after my 3-11 shift to pick up food.
The night I gave birth to my son I begged for Kelly’s fried clams.
When I fly into Logan it’s my first stop after I drive past my old house and think to myself “Boy this hill is really steep!” “How did I ever get up this hill in the winter?”
Lot’s have changed but one thing remains.
Kelly’s is still there serving up the best fried clams you’ll ever have.
I really never knew that much about Phil Ochs. I knew his voice that’s for sure. It is so distinct which makes watching his story even harder. Harder but compelling. I watched this documentary and could not stop thinking about it and all the important lessons we could learn from him I decided to watch it again a few weeks later.
I try to watch as least one doc a week. I start off telling myself that I’m working on craft and production style but its when I get sucked up into the story is when I knows its good. When I forget about angles, the footage and just want more.
It’s all about the story. It’s always about the story. It’s all about THIS story.
Phil never even knew what folk music was until he went to college and his roommate introduced him to “left wing music.” He was brought up with movies. John Wayne. He strove to be the “hero” and Sean Pean said “perhaps even the hero in his own movie.
1. Lesson number one. Be the hero in your own movie.
This is not so easy. We tell people to do this and then when they do it we say “Who do you think you are being the hero in your own movie?”
Phil quits college and goes to NY and says “I’m going to be the best songwriter in the country. He goes to the village. He met his girlfriend/ wife and Dylan would come over for dinner.
The backdrop of Phil’s life was the 60’s. For a folksinger there was plenty of material. He went to the south to work on civil rights. He would turn down commercial jobs for a benefit because it would reach more people. He would never turn down a cause he believed in.
He sincerely believed that people should be treated equally.
He worked hard and got a contract with Electra Records.
In 1963 he was Newport Folk Festival performer of the year.
Phil’s father came back from the war and was so manic he had to be hospitalized. The family was not close.
Phil played the clarinet and escaped by going to the movies.
“I aint marching anymore.” became the anthem of the antiwar movement
He got involved in the theater of the absurd and a protests called “the war is over!”
lesson number 2
intention is everything
“you can create your own reality when you become children of the media”
changes
Probably one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard.
Lesson number 3
always have a plan b
Phil’s life was parallel to 60’s movement and he took personally the killing of JFK, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King.
But how he could not? How could you not write these incredibly intricate songs and not feel what was going on personally?
Phil was one of the people that started the Yippie Party so there could be an united front against the war. Phil liked the spirit and the theater. During the democratic convention Mayor Daily issued shoot to kill orders and there were no permits issued.
Non of the rock and roll stars would go but Phil went to commit himself to the first amendment.
Phil was inside singing at an event that was permitted.
But it was at the main unpermitted event that that someone spontaneously lit their draft card. Then everyone lit up their draft cards. Then police and dogs were unleashed with a green light from the justice department.
It just happened. It was random. No one planned it ahead of time. One of the most organic meaningful symbols of the time. It just happened.
Lesson number 4: Sometimes we need to let things happen organically.
You can’t plan these things. The best things come out of well intentioned people with pure hearts that allow their movement to be organic. That’s where the magic happens. In some crazy space between the soul and spinning towards the moon.
Richard Nixon was elected.
Phil started drinking day and night. It was really hard for him to understand that he could not make the changes he thought he could. So he drank.
Then Kent State happen.
There was a lot of frustration. The movement became more militant. There were more bombings. The weather underground.
lesson number 5
There is never any reason to hurt another human being or commit a crime. When you feel this way what your feeling is frustration. Civil disobedience is founded in frustration. We have to learn how to deal with the frustration and move forward.
Phil shows up in a gold lame suit at Carnegie Hall.
Then he stopped writing “My subconscious wasn’t feeding me the material.” He said.
He was depressed and drinking. The highs would get higher and the lows would get lower.
Then he decided to see the world and “wash America out of his system.” He went off. He found hotels , a good meal and the best bordellos. According to his traveling partner he had no regard for his personal safety.
He went with Jerry Rubin to Chile. He got meet Victor Harra who was the “Pete Seager” of Chile and they became great friends.
Phil decides to go to Africa to record there so he can write the trip off. He recorded one of the first world music albums. He went for a walk and was jumped and when he woke up they bent his vocal cords and his voice was never the same after this.
He was devastated that he lost his voice and he thought it was done by the CIA. He came back to the US and had a bad accident while drinking heavily.
and then on on Sept 12 , 19 73 there was a military coup in Chile and the US was involved. The CIA was involved. It put Pinochet in power. The army put Victor Harra in a soccer stadium and they beat his hands up and walked over to the stands and told him “Lets sing a song for el commedante !” it was too much for the colonials and Victor Jara was murdered along with all the poets and the writers.
The poem was written on a piece of paper that was hidden inside the shoe of a friend. The poem was never named, but is commonly known as “Estadio Chile“.
“There are five thousand of us here
in this small part of the city.
We are five thousand.
I wonder how many we are in all
in the cities and in the whole country?
…
How hard it is to sing
when I must sing of horror.
Horror which I am living,
horror which I am dying.
To see myself among so much
and so many moments of infinity
in which silence and screams
are the end of my song.
Víctor Jara, “Estadio Chile”
(translated from Spanish)”
Phil lost his mind and he did a benefit for the Chilean refugees. Arlo Gurthie, Pete Seager supported him. He even talked Bob Dylan into doing this. It was sold out!
This event opened up peoples eyes to what was going on in South America.
It was a great event for everyone and for Phil because it brought him back into what he did best. organizing.
Nixon resigned.
The war was over and Phil became really depressed Lesson number 6 : Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
in 1975 he spiraled out of control. He was totally psychotic.
He kept on drinking. He felt worthless. He felt humiliated.
He went to his sisters and he wouldn’t leave the house.
His friend came and got him and took him out to montauk
Then he hung himself.
He was 35.
Today is Dec 19th 2016. Today the electors will be voting for Donald Trump. Today is Phil’s birthday. Happy Birthday Phil where ever you are. You live on through you music.
Florida legislators file bills that would prevent communities from regulating fracking
Posted By Erin Sullivan on Wed, Sep 23, 2015 at 7:45 AM
“On Sept. 17, the League of Women Voters of Florida held a town hall on fracking. The event, which featured speakers from both pro- and anti-fracking factions, was well-attended by people concerned about the idea that utility companies are eyeing our state as fracking’s new frontier.
What better time, then, for two state legislators to quietly file pro-fracking bills, while so many activists were occupied?
On Sept. 17, Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, introduced SB 318 (aka, “Regulation of Oil and Gas Resources”). The bill summary is completely blunt about what it’s proposing: “Preempting the regulation of all matters relating to the exploration, development, production, processing, storage, and transportation of oil and gas.” Not only that, if a municipality has already decided that it does not wish to allow fracking within its jurisdiction, this bill would declare “existing ordinances and regulations relating thereto void.” The bill would provide an exception for certain zoning ordinances (it doesn’t say which zoning ordinances, but we like to think that it would at least respect your right to not have fracking companies set up shop in your residentially zoned backyard) but only if those ordinances were in place before Jan. 1, 2015. Interestingly, the bill doesn’t contain the word fracking anywhere in its text – nor does it contain the words “hydraulic fracturing.” Instead, it refers to fracking as the very innocuous-sounding practice of “high-pressure well stimulation.”
Meanwhile, over in the House, Rep. Ray Wesley Rodriques, R-Fort Myers, filed a bill the same day that would do essentially the same thing as SB 318. Rodrigues’ bill, HB 191, declares that it’s the state’s job to regulate all things relating to the oil and gas industry, “to the exclusion of all existing and future ordinances or regulations relating thereto adopted by any county, municipality, or other political subdivision of the state. Any such existing ordinance or regulation is void. A county or municipality may, however, enforce an existing zoning ordinance adopted before January 1, 2015, if the ordinance is otherwise valid.”
Sen. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, is one of the legislators leading the charge against fracking – he’s put forward a bill for the 2016 session that would ban fracking in the state completely: “We have a very unique geology here,” he says, pointing out that the fragile limestone bed beneath our soil would not be able to withstand the practice of shooting chemicals into it at high pressure. “Our geology does not allow for fracking to be done safely.”
Soto predicts that these pro-fracking bills will likely “sail through the House,” but that there will be a battle in the Senate. Soto says that if people do care about how fracking could impact the state, or about the state’s attempt to pre-empt home rule, they should contact their legislators. “We need all the help we can get from Floridians across the state,” he says. “We’d love support for the ban. Other states have done it. New York did it last year, so it’s not like it can’t happen here.”
If these bills pass, he says, “there would be no sanctuary against this in any county in the state. … it’s concerning, to say the least.”
Something similar happened recently in Texas. The small city of Denton, Texas banned fracking within its borders in late 2014. Less than six months later, the state of Texas signed a bill into law that banned any bans on fracking, nullifying Denton’s law. A story in the Dallas Morning News pointed out that “numerous studies” have tied fracking to earthquakes, and here has been a marked increase in seismic activity in the Dallas area recently. On Sept. 21, an earthquake that measured 2.6 M on the Richter scale shook the city. The San Antonio Current says it was the “more powerful than any of the other multiple earthquakes that hit the area this year.”
Although the U.S. Geological Survey has said that the cause of recent quakes in Dallas is not clear, a study released in May by Southern Methodist University concluded that stresses caused by “oil and gas activity” in the area are likely contributors.
“That was the message from a press conference held Monday afternoon in St. Petersburg, as state Representatives Dwight Dudley (D-St. Petersburg), Jose Javier Rodriguez (D-Miami), and Amanda Murphy (D-New Port Richey) spoke out against a decision last week by the Florida Public Service Commission that would allow Florida Power & Light to collect up to $500 million per year from customers to further invest ratepayer money in natural-gas production. FP&L has roughly 4.6 million customers, but none in the Tampa Bay area (where Duke Energy and TECO are the main providers).
“Consumers are getting screwed again,” Dudley said in a phone call with Florida Politics late Monday afternoon. “A five-member panel of unelected people decide they’re going to allow this huge corporation get $500 million a year from ratepayers to subsidize and pay for fracking – drilling exploration and production of natural gas and oil,” he said with obvious disdain, adding, “It’s a staggering ripoff.”
More unelected people stealing thing from us.
Fracking is not happening right now in Florida. In late April, a proposal by Naples Republican state Senator Garrett Richter that would put “responsible regulations” in place for fracking failed to advance.
What’s it to him?
Our savings BTW will be 2 bucks a year. We can buy what two cucumbers with that. I can’t even buy the ingredients for my smoothie with that (cucumber, cantaloupe, almond milk, local honey and ice cubes). FPL wants 500 million dollars from you and can’t even buy you a smoothie.
Drilling has come under increased scrutiny in the past year, partly because the Collier-Hogan well, south of Lake Trafford, was fracked at the end of 2013.
Richter’s bill (SB 1468) defines the process as a “well intervention performed by injecting more than 100,000 gallons of fluids into a rock formation at high pressure” to create fractures to increase production at an oil or gas well.
He said the bill was crafted by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, with input from other stakeholders including Collier County and the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.
Dee Ann Miller, a spokeswoman for the DEP, said the agency collaborated with Richter on the language of the bill but could not confirm if it would suggest changes or push for its passage.”
You can go on the link and read the rest. He said. She said.
But here is deal. We want no fracking. Just one more thing we do not need here.
My county Martin County said a big fat no to fracking.
My friend and tireless advocate for the water Merilee Malwitz-Jipson came to town. ( Where was I?)
The vote was unanimous and unequivocal, with Palm City, and Indiantown Commisioner John Haddox leading the way with the motion to sign a state-wide ban on fracking.
The worst oil price rout since 1986 is beginning to claim victims in the shale oil patch, and now its every man for himself.
Investors in $158.2 million of Goodrich Petroleum Corp.’s debt agreed to take 47 cents on the dollar in exchange for stock warrants for some note holders and a lien on Goodrich’s oil acreage, according to a company statement today…
“In the industry it’s called ‘getting primed,’” said Spencer Cutter, a credit analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence. “It’s every man for himself. They’re trying to get in and get exchanged, and if you can’t you’re getting left out in the cold.”
Investors in shale oil frackers like Goodrich aren’t the only ones writing off huge losses.
Earlier this month, Halcon paid about 65 cents on the dollar to investors in $1.57 billion of the company’s debt, in exchange for being third in line to get paid if the company fails… “The bubble is bursting,” Cutter said. “And if oil stays where it is, the worst is yet to come.”
With creditors of fracking companies taking huge losses on their investments, and with more losses coming, it isn’t surprising that frackers have been basically locked out of the bond market, and regulators are worried that banks are overexposed.
On one side are the bankers who have been grappling with the plunge in oil prices and the need to shore up billions of dollars in credit extended to the energy industry. On the other are regulators eager to prevent another financial crisis while not knowing what it might be. Caught in the middle are the small- and medium-size exploration and production companies that rely on credit lines that use their energy reserves as collateral.”
So it very interesting that a person who was prescient of bank is all for fracking.
So again as happened last year there are people in our legislature that say they are for local control. They tell that to you when they are running. “I’m for you!”
Here is a trailer for program that at UCF. It’s called Booktalk. My son was really involved with the project. It was a program that made trailers from books and then showed them to kids so they would get interested in reading. The two people in opening are my son Adam and Dr Kenny.
“The City of Ember is a post-apocalypticscience fiction novel by Jeanne DuPrau that was published in 2003. Similar to Suzanne Martel‘s The City Under Ground published in 1963 and Helen Mary Hoover‘s This Time of Darkness published in 1980, the story is about Ember, an underground city threatened by aging infrastructure. The young protagonist, Lina Mayfleet, and her friend, Doon Harrow (the second protagonist), follow clues left behind by the original builders of the City of Ember, to safety in the outside world.”
Every time I thing about electricity I think about this trailer. I think about the darkness and I think about the light. Then I think about the sunshine that is completely devoid in the State of Florida.
At about 1:07 “I’m your man!” That’s what I hear when people who do not have our best interests at heart do bad things. Then he says “it’s alright!”
Will they save ember or will the city be lost in darkness forever?
Harvard Law School’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics is out with a fascinating new report measuring legal and illegal corruption in American states, and Florida does not fare particularly well.
Illegal corruption is “moderately common” in Florida’s executive branch.
Illegal corruption is “very common” in the state’s legislative branch.
No state has a high ranking for illegal corruption in its judiciary.
When it comes to “legal” corruption, Florida falls into the “very common” category in both the executive and legislative branches.
Florida is also listed as one of America’s most corrupt states, along with Arizona, California, Kentucky, Alabama, Illinois, New Jersey, Georgia, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Rhode Island, and Texas.
The Safra Center compiled its corruption rankings in part by surveying news reporters covering state politics across the country, in addition to the investigative reporters covering issues related to corruption during the first half of 2014.
A few weeks ago I put out a call for books that people thought would be good for our Florida Legislators to read. I got a great response. Thank you all so much. I put up my poll. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the 27 people who cared and took the time to vote.
I’ve done this before. Sent books that I thought was important. Not just to politicians but to friends. I think I have bought at least 50 copies of my favorite book “The Art of Racing in the Rain.”
I can tell you that people from both sides that have never read “The Swamp.” Many have not even heard “Paving Paradise.” Most can’t be bothered. They just don’t want to hear about it.
Our elected officials need to be bothered. They need to read.
If you don’t have time put it in your bathroom and read a little everyday.
Why? Because reading matters. It really does.
“New technology allows us to see the living brain at work. Reading can help unlock remarkable powers. Reading builds new connections in the brain which in turn helps to create stepping stones to understand other people’s worlds.
A good book literally has the power to change you.”
We should be asking the candidates what was the last five books they read. Take note question askers.
I forgot one book and I apologize to fellow WordPress blogger and future Martin County Commissioner Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch. I totally forgot The RiverKids Workbook. Yikes. So I’m adding it in. Because like me you guys forgot also.
“In an award-winning newspaper series, two investigative reporters from the St. Petersburg Times chronicled how federal rules meant to protect the nation’s wetlands were more illusion than law. Now, that series has been expanded into a book, delving into how we got to this point, starting with land speculators making waterfront property out of sand dredged from the bottom of the ocean. Now, read how the nation’s wetlands protections were formed in clashes between developers, bureaucrats, judges, activists and con artists over Florida swamps.”
This is an exhaustive, timely and devastating account of the destruction of Florida’s wetlands, and the disgraceful collusion of government at all levels. It’s an important book that should be read by every voter, every taxpayer, every parent, every Floridian who cares about saving what’s left of this precious place.” — Carl Hiaasen
I am amazed, horrified and delighted that you wrote Paving Paradise! You have uncovered the perfidy that we always knew existed … You have named the key figures that led to the loss of thousands of acres of Florida wetlands.” —Nathaniel Reed
“The Everglades: River of Grass is a non-fiction book written by Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 1947. Published the same year as the formal opening of Everglades National Park, the book was a call to attention about the degrading quality of life in the Everglades and remains an influential book on nature conservation as well as a reference for information on South Florida.
Douglas was a freelance writer who submitted stories to magazines throughout the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s. Her friend Hervey Allen was an editor at Rinehart, responsible for the Rivers of America Series. Allen asked her to write a story about the Miami River, but Douglas did not find it very interesting, calling it only “an inch long”. She began learning more about the Miami River though, and in her research, she instead suggested to her editor to write a story about the Everglades. Douglas spent five years researching the Everglades, consulting with Garald Parker of the US Geological Survey, who was studying the Everglades hydrology systems, and eventually wrote nearly 40 papers on the ecosystems in the Everglades.
The Quarterly Review of Biology reviewed the book and commented on Douglas’ “convincing evidence” in her assertion that the Everglades are a river instead of a swamp, and declared that “it is hoped that this excellent account of the area and its history may provide the needed stimulus for the establishment of an intelligent conservation program for the entire Everglades.”
“The Everglades was once reviled as a liquid wasteland, and Americans dreamed of draining it. Now it is revered as a national treasure, and Americans have launched the largest environmental project in history to try to save it.
The Swamp is the stunning story of the destruction and possible resurrection of the Everglades, the saga of man’s abuse of nature in southern Florida and his unprecedented efforts to make amends. Michael Grunwald, a prize-winning national reporter for The Washington Post, takes readers on a riveting journey from the Ice Ages to the present, illuminating the natural, social and political history of one of America’s most beguiling but least understood patches of land.
The Everglades was America’s last frontier, a wild country long after the West was won. Grunwald chronicles how a series of visionaries tried to drain and “reclaim” it, and how Mother Nature refused to bend to their will; in the most harrowing tale, a 1928 hurricane drowned 2,500 people in the Everglades. But the Army Corps of Engineers finally tamed the beast with levees and canals, converting half the Everglades into sprawling suburbs and sugar plantations. And though the southern Everglades was preserved as a national park, it soon deteriorated into an ecological mess. The River of Grass stopped flowing, and 90 percent of its wading birds vanished.
Now America wants its swamp back. Grunwald shows how a new breed of visionaries transformed Everglades politics, producing the $8 billion rescue plan. That plan is already the blueprint for a new worldwide era of ecosystem restoration. And this book is a cautionary tale for that era. Through gripping narrative and dogged reporting, Grunwald shows how the Everglades is still threatened by the same hubris, greed and well-intentioned folly that led to its decline. ”
“Long before “going green” was mainstream, Dr. Seuss’s Lorax spoke for the trees and warned of the dangers of disrespecting the environment. In this cautionary rhyming tale, we learn of the Once-ler, who came across a valley of Truffula Trees and Brown Bar-ba-loots (“frisking about in their Bar-ba-loot suits as they played in the shade and ate Truffula Fruits”), and how his harvesting of the tufted trees changed the landscape forever. With the release of the blockbuster film version, the Lorax and his classic tale have educated a new generation of young readers not only about the importance of seeing the beauty in the world around us, but also about our responsibility to protect it.”
Between roughly 25 and 31 degrees north latitude, a combination of flat topography, poor soils, and limited surface water produce deserts nearly everywhere on earth. In Florida, however, these conditions support a lavish biota, more diverse than that of any other state east of the Mississippi.
In this first comprehensive guide to the state’s natural resources in sixty years, thirty top scholars describe the character, relationships, and importance of Florida’s ecosystems, the organisms that inhabit them, the forces that maintain them, and the agents that threaten them. From pine flatwoods to coral reef, Ecosystems of Florida provides a detailed, comprehensive, authoritative account of the peninsular state’s complex, fragile environments.
In this book a master scientist tells the story of how life on earth evolved. Edward O. Wilson eloquently describes how the species of the world became diverse and why that diversity is threatened today as never before. A great spasm of extinction — the disappearance of whole species — is occurring now, caused this time entirely by humans. Unlike the deterioration of the physical environment, which can be halted, the loss of biodiversity is a far more complex problem — and it is irreversible. Defining a new environmental ethic, Wilson explains why we must rescue whole ecosystems, not only individual species. He calls for an end to conservation versus development arguments, and he outlines the massive shift in priorities needed to address this challenge. No writer, no scientist, is more qualified than Edward O. Wilson to describe, as he does here, the grandeur of evolution and what is at stake. “Engaging and nontechnical prose. . . . Prodigious erudition. . . . Original and fascinating insights.” — John Terborgh, New York Review of Books, front page review “Eloquent. . . . A profound and enduring contribution.” — Alan Burdick, Audubon
My Florida by Ernie Lyons
Publications of books “My Florida” and “The Last Cracker Barrel,” compilations of Mr Lyons columns from the Stuart News, can be purchased at Stuart Heritage Museum, 161 SW Flagler Avenue, Stuart, FL.(http://www.stuartheritagemuseum.com)
Here is a blogpost about Ernie Lyons that could simply be emailed.
A Land Remembered focuses on the fictional story of the MacIveys, who migrated from Georgia into Florida in the mid-19th century. After settling, this family struggles to survive in the harsh environment. First they scratch a living from the land and then learn to round up wild cattle and drive them to Punta Rassa to ship to Cuba. Over three generations, they amass more holdings and money, and move further from their connection to the native, untamed land.
I love this book and I’m including it because it was geared towards a second grader. It simply is a marvelous accomplishment and enjoyable to read. I sent my niece’s in Colorado a copy each because I want them to know about what goes on here at Aunty Cyndi’s house.
When I call them on the phone they asked me “How is Barney?” then “How are the Dolphins?” then “How are you?”
“The first verse of the River Kidz’ Song, written by River Mom, Nicole Mader, and the River Kidz goes:
“The River Kidz are here; Our mission’s quite clear; We love our river and ALL its critters; Let’s hold it all dear…”
The rest of this wonderful song can be found on page 36 of the new workbook below.
After over a year of creative preparation, and community collaboration, the River Kidz’ 2nd Edition Workbook is here!”
This is from Jacqui’s blog:
”
The really cool thing about this workbook is that it was written “by kids for kids,” (Jensen Beach High School students for elementary students). The high school students named the main character of the book after Marty Baum, our Indian Riverkeeper. The students had met Mr Baum in their classroom (of Mrs Crystal Lucas) along with other presenters and field trip guides like the Army Corp of Engineers, South Florida Water Management District, and politicians speaking on the subject…
The books will be going into all second grade public school classrooms and many private school classrooms beginning in February of 2015. Teacher training will be underway this February at the Environmental Studies Center in Jensen.
River Kidz will make the booklet available to everyone. Some will be given away, and some will be used to raise money at five dollars a booklet. To purchase the booklets, please contact Olivia Sala, administrative assistant for the Rivers Coalition at olivia@riverscoalition.org —-Numbers are limited.
In closing, enjoy the workbook and thank you to Martin County, Superintendent, Laurie J. Gaylord for encouraging the workbook and for her beautiful letter in the front of the booklet. Thank you to Martin County School Science Leader, Valerie Gaylord; teacher, Mrs Crystal Lucas; Mom, Mrs Nicole Mader; Sewall’s Point artist, Ms Julia Kelly; Southeastern Printing’s Bluewater Editions’ manager and River Dad, Jason Leonard; to River Kidz founders Evie Flaugh and Naia Mader, now 14/13; years old–they were 10 and 9 when this started,—- to the Knoph Foundation, and the Garden Club of Stuart, and to the hundreds of kids, parents, students, businesses, politicians, state and federal agencies, and especially to Southeastern Printing and the Mader Family who made this concept a reality through education, participation.”
So that’s it. I’m going for the top five. Also if you have read any of these books please feel free to write a review and I’ll post it.
Day 11: Writing and not writing: When I’m not writing I’m still writing.
If I told you I would have to kill you.
Dr No
Writing my blog is the therapy that helps me to unremember the day that I really can’t talk about. It’s puts a period at the end of the work day and moves my intention, my attention to focus on something else besides work. It helps me keep the HIPPA promise.
I spend my work days driving around to people’s houses. I have great thinking time in the car. I have a computer. I have two computers. I have two computers and an iphone. I try to chart in real time. It never happens. My hot spot doesn’t work most of the time. I still have a hard time computing at the job because I like to look at the people I’m talking to but I have grown to accept this.
A judge agreed Friday morning to hear arguments Oct. 1 that could stop Florida’s bear hunt.
Speak Up Wekiva Inc. and Chuck O’Neal of Longwood, opponents of the state’s first bear hunt in more than two decades, want Circuit Judge George S. Reynolds III to impose a temporary injunction to prevent the hunt from taking place Oct. 24.
The lawsuit alleges the state Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission has crafted rules that could unwittingly lead to the killing of more than 320 bears, the kill quota established by the wildlife agency.
More than 2,100 hunters have gotten a permit.
“The FWC is not above the law or common sense,” O’Neal said.
Next month’s black bear hunt is a quintessential Florida event, blending our state’s love of guns with its disdain for reason and science.
Shoot first, get the data later.
“You should have all your science in place before you hold your first hunt in 21 years, especially when you’re dealing with an icon animal,” a hunt opponent told me Friday.
That quote didn’t come from some Sierra Club tree-hugger or PETA paint-thrower, but a Broward businessman, hunter and outdoorsman who answers his phone by saying, “Alligator Ron.” That would be Ron Bergeron, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation commissioner who voted against the hunt.
Alligator Ron was on the losing end of a 3-2 vote earlier this month. That’s bad news for bears.
Not long ago, Florida’s black bears were considered a threatened species, numbering only a few hundred. They have rebounded to an estimated population of 3,100.
Starting Oct. 24, roughly 10 percent could get wiped out in a week.
It’s refreshing to read about a hunter who actually believes this bear hunt is wrong. I guess I will have to take back my “the only good hunter is a dead hunter” viewpoint. The problem is not too many bears; it’s too many humans moving to Florida. Too many lazy humans who…
The commission decided to allow an unlimited number of hunters off up to 320 bears, a curious decision because Bergeron said they haven’t even gotten updated bear information in all the hunting zones.
“The state is divided into seven bear regions, with four allowing hunting [next month],” Bergeron said. “Two of those four regions’ stock assessments have not been finalized. We’re making assumptions based on the 2002 assessments…We don’t have all the data.”
Bergeron still hunts one deer, one turkey and one hog a year, but he won’t be taking aim at any bears next month.
“Until all of the science and stock assessments are in and show that we have a sustainable bear population and we have a population greater than the balance of the food chain, this seems premature,” Bergeron told me.
State Rep. Frank Artiles, R-Miami, has no qualms. He’s among the 2,100 (and counting) who’ve paid for bear-hunt permits.
“This is to sustain a population, not to eviscerate it,” Artiles said Friday.
Artiles said thinning some older aggressive male bears will allow younger bears to stay in their natural habitat.
Part of hunt supporters’ rationale: Bears have become a nuisance in some populated areas in central Florida, foraging through trash for food.
“One thing I hope this hunt will do is train bears to be afraid of humans again instead of there being no repercussions,” Artiles told my colleague Dan Sweeney last week.
Say what? How are we going to train bears since the ones who learn the lesson will be dead? And how does killing a bear in Collier County translate to reforming nuisance bears near Orlando? Will the bears who dodge bullets in the western Everglades go on Bear Facebook to alert their friends: “Those crazy humans are shooting at us! Stay away from trash cans and houses!”
“It’s not teaching like a circus animal, but I believe the hunting will pressure them,” Artiles, an avid hunter, told me. “It’s proven and documented that deer know to avoid humans during hunting season.”
“I don’t really believe this will change behavior,” Bergeron said. “Bears really want to avoid people. What brings them to town is garbage. It’s an easy meal.”
A better solution than a widespread hunt, Bergeron said, would be bringing bear-proof trash cans to the 14 counties where nuisance bears have been reported. And Bergeron led an effort to halt the harvesting of palmetto berries from state land, giving bears a better chance of finding meals in the wild. “We were taking away their natural food,” he said.
Next month, hunters will try to take away much more.
Come Oct. 24, I’ll be rooting for the bears.
mmayo@sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4508.
Here is MY letter to the editor at our Stuart News.
Letter: Those opposed to the bear hunt are not ‘animal-rights extremists’
What is going on now in reaction to the Florida bear hunt is not a circus. It’s the reaction of most Floridians. Most of us are fine with hunting. We have many things in Florida you can hunt. In Florida, if it moves you can shoot it. Unless it is protected.
At last week’s hearing in Ft. Lauderdale I heard the hunters say they are for conservation and they know what they are doing. Well, they don’t. The hunters are being used to promote a bigger agenda, and that is deregulating everything so developers can develop and builders can build. Florida has the most protected species in the world — “developers.”
There will not be any land to hunt on because it going to be full of shopping centers and no-lot-line houses. There will be no hunting because there will be no place to hunt. When I spoke to a representative from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission last year the plan was education. The issue was humans feeding the bears. There was no doubt about this. People needed to be educated.
There was a bill approved by the Senate that made it a third-degree felony to feed the bears. So instead of educating people we’re going to charge them with something that is as serious as possession of cocaine. Makes sense only because we live in Florida. We don’t fix things in Florida like normal people. Logic has no home here. The downlisting came after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was petitioned by Pacific Legal Foundation, a private property advocacy group in Sacramento, California. So let’s all settle down and do what needs to be done for our black bears. Stop the hunt. Educate.
So all good!
If you can please take a moment and vote on our poll. We just have a few days left.
Coloring Books and Meditation. What’s up with this? Why meditation is so good for us.
Wherever I go lately people are coloring. They tell me it quiets their mind and they feel better after. This is so cool.
Meditation is the intention for attention. It’s suppose to bring us into the moment. We let go of the past and we stand firmly in the present. The more you meditate the better it gets.
Here is an article from psychology today on Meditation.
“Sitting every day, for at least 15-30 minutes, makes a huge difference in how you approach life, how personally you take things and how you interact with others. It enhances compassion, allows you to see things more clearly (including yourself) and creates a sense of calm and centeredness that is indescribable. There really is no substitute.
For those of you who are curious as to how meditation changes the brain, this is for you. Although this may be slightly technical, bear with me because it’s really interesting. The brain, and how we are able to mold it, is fascinating and nothing short of amazing. Here are the brain areas you need to know:
Lateral prefrontal cortex: the part of the brain that allows you to look at things from a more rational, logical and balanced perspective. In the book, we call it the Assessment Center. It is involved in modulating emotional responses (originating from the fear center or other parts of the brain), overriding automatic behaviors/habits and decreasing the brain’s tendency to take things personally (by modulating the Me Center of the brain, see below).
Medial prefrontal cortex: the part of the brain that constantly references back to you, your perspective and experiences. Many people call this the “Me Center” of the brain because it processes information related to you, including when you are daydreaming, thinking about the future, reflecting on yourself, engaging in social interactions, inferring other people’s state of mind or feeling empathy for others. We call it the Self-Referencing Center.
What’s interesting about the Medial PreFrontal Cortex (mPFC) is that it actually has two sections:
“Ventromedial medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) – involved in processing information related to you and people that you view as similar to you. This is the part of the brain that can cause you to end up taking things too personally, which is why we referred to it as the unhelpful aspect of the Self-Referencing Center in the book. (In reality, this brain area has many important and helpful functions – since we were focusing on overcoming anxiety, depression and habits you want to change, we referred to it as unhelpful because it often causes increases in rumination/worry and exacerbates anxious or depressive thoughts/states/feelings.)
Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex (dmPFC) – involved in processing information related to people who you perceive as being dissimilar from you. This very important part of the brain is involved in feeling empathy (especially for people who we perceive of as not being like us) and maintaining social connections.
Insula: the part of the brain that monitors bodily sensations and is involved in experiencing “gut-level” feelings. Along with other brain areas, it helps “guide” how strongly you will respond to what you sense in your body (i.e., is this sensation something dangerous or benign?). It is also heavily involved in experiencing/feeling empathy.
Amygdala: the alarm system of the brain, what most refer to as the “Fear Center.” It’s a part of the brain that is responsible for many of our initial emotional responses and reactions, including the “fight-or-flight” response. (Along with the Insula, this is what we referred to as the Uh Oh Center.)
The Brain Without Meditation – Stuck on Me
If you were to look at people’s brains before they began a meditation practice, you would likely see strong neural connections within the Me Center and between the Me Center and the bodily sensation/fear centers of the brain. This means that whenever you feel anxious, scared or have a sensation in your body (e.g., a tingling, pain, itching, whatever), you are far more likely to assume that there is a problem (related to you or your safety). This is precisely because the Me Center is processing the bulk of the information. What’s more, this over-reliance on the Me Center explains how it is that we often get stuck in repeating loops of thought about our life, mistakes we made, how people feel about us, our bodies (e.g., “I’ve had this pain before, does this mean something serious is going on?) and so on.
Why is the Me Center allowed to process information this way, essentially unabated? The reason this happens, in part, is because the Assessment Center’s connection to the Me Center is relatively weak. If the Assessment Center was working at a higher capacity, it would modulate the excessive activity of the vmPFC (the part that takes things personally) and enhance the activity of the dmPFC (the part involved in understanding other’s thoughts and feelings). This would lead us to take in all the relevant information, discard erroneous data (that the Me Center might want to focus on exclusively) and view whatever is happening from a more balanced perspective – essentially decreasing the overthinking, ruminating and worrying that the Me Center is famous for promulgating. One helpful way to think of the Assessment Center is as a sort of “brake” for the unhelpful parts of the Me Center.
The Brain on Meditation – I Can See Clearly Now
In contrast, if you meditate on a regular basis, several positive things happen. First, the strong, tightly held connection between the Me Center (specifically the unhelpful vmPFC) and the bodily sensation/fear centers begins to break down. As this connection withers, you will no longer assume that a bodily sensation or momentary feeling of fear means something is wrong with you or that you are the problem! This explains, in part, why anxiety decreases the more you meditate – it’s because the neural paths that link those upsetting sensations to the Me Center are decreasing. Said another way, your ability to ignore sensations of anxiety is enhanced as you begin to break that connection between the unhelpful parts of the Me Center and the bodily sensation/fear centers. As a result, you are more readily able to see those sensations for what they are and not respond as strongly to them (thanks to your strengthened Assessment Center).
Second, a heftier, healthier connection forms between the Assessment Center and bodily sensation/fear centers. This means that when you experience a bodily sensation or something potentially dangerous or upsetting, you are able to look at it from a more rational perspective (rather than automatically reacting and assuming it has something to do with you). For example, when you experience pain, rather than becoming anxious and assuming it means something is wrong with you, you can watch the pain rise and fall without becoming ensnared in a story about what it might mean.
Finally, an added bonus of meditating is that the connection between the helpful aspects of the Me Center (i.e. dorsomedial prefrontal cortex) – the part involved in processing information related to people we perceive as being not like us – and the bodily sensation center – involved in empathy – becomes stronger. This healthy connection enhances your capacity to understand where another person is coming from, especially those who you cannot intuitively understand because you think or perceive things differently from them (i.e., dissimilar others). This increased connection explains why meditation enhances empathy – it helps us use the part of the brain that infers other people’s states of mind, their motivations, desires, dreams and so on, while simultaneously activating the part of the brain involved in the actual experience of empathy (insula). The end result is that we are more able to put ourselves in another person’s shoes (especially those not like us), thereby increasing our ability to feel empathy and compassion for everyone.
Essentially, the science “proves” what we know to be true from the actual experience of meditating. What the data demonstrate is that meditation facilitates strengthening the Assessment Center, weakening the unhelpful aspects of the Me Center (that can cause you to take things personally), strengthening the helpful parts of the Me Center (involved with empathy and understanding others) and changing the connections to/from the bodily sensation/fear centers such that you experience sensations in a less reactive, more balanced and holistic way. In a very real way, you literally are changing your brain for the better when you meditate.
In the end, this means that you are able to see yourself and everyone around you from a clearer perspective, while simultaneously being more present, compassionate and empathetic with people no matter the situation. With time and practice, people do truly become calmer, have a greater capacity for empathy and find they tend to respond in a more balanced way to things, people or events in their lives.
However, to maintain your gains, you have to keep meditating. Why? Because the brain can very easily revert back to its old ways if you are not vigilant (I’m referencing the idea of neuroplasticity here). This means you have to keep meditating to ensure that the new neural pathways you worked so hard to form stay strong.
To me, this amazing brain science and the very real rewards gained from meditation combine to form a compelling argument for developing and/or maintaining a daily practice. It definitely motivates me on those days I don’t “feel” like sitting. So, try to remind yourself that meditating every day, even if it’s only 15 minutes, will keep those newly formed connections strong and those unhelpful ones of the past at bay.”
Amazing article. I know this is true because I feel it myself. It helps me be non judgmental 98 percent of the time. (I am human and when I have those moments I work hard at chasing them away. I thought I might get too blissed out and not care about things but it really helps with thinking clearly.
But Back to coloring. I’m very much for what ever works.
Sit comfortably and take a few deep breaths. Pay attention to your body, especially around the neck and shoulders, and release any tension in the muscles. Give yourself a moment to relax.
Once you’re settled, pick up a crayon or marker and start coloring. Move slowly and rhythmically. I recommend drawing or coloring circles and spirals first to get your hand moving in a circular motion because it can become rather hypnotic.
Don’t worry about staying within the lines, or about whether or not blue and orange look good next to each other, or about any other trivial details. Enjoy the process and don’t attach yourself to the end result.
Let your mind wander freely. Continue to move slowly. Simply relax, take your time, and fill the space with color.
“Focusing on a single task like coloring pushes aside worries and stressful thoughts, helping you to develop the one-pointed concentration you seek in meditation.”
When coloring, we activate different areas of our two cerebral hemispheres, says psychologist Gloria Martínez Ayala. “The action involves both logic, by which we color forms, and creativity, when mixing and matching colors. This incorporates the areas of the cerebral cortex involved in vision and fine motor skills [coordination necessary to make small, precise movements]. The relaxation that it provides lowers the activity of the amygdala, a basic part of our brain involved in controlling emotion that is affected by stress.”
In simplest terms, coloring has a de-stressing effect because when we focus on a particular activity, we focus on it and not on our worries. But it also “brings out our imagination and takes us back to our childhood, a period in which we most certainly had a lot less stress.” This leads us immediately and unconsciously to welfare, exposes the specialist.
“I recommend it as a relaxation technique,” says psychologist Antoni Martínez. “We can use it to enter into a more creative, freer state,” he assures. We can also use it to connect with how we feel, since depending on our mood we choose different colors or intensity. “I myself have practiced that. I recommend it in a quiet environment, even with chill music. Let the color and the lines flow.”
I want a coloring book! I want coloring books at work!
Seriously this sounds like a wonderful way to help people get into their zone.
Let’s work together on our compassion. Let’s be logical, balanced, see things more clearly. Lets keep those neural pathways strong.
Maybe we should be sending coloring books to our candidates instead of books about the environment.
“It’s been one week since The View returned with a (mostly) new panel of co-hosts and the ABC show is already stirring up controversy.
On Monday, the ladies at the round table, including Michelle Collins, Joy Behar, Raven-Symoné and Paula Faris, were discussing the recent Miss America pageant, during which, for the talent portion, Miss Colorado Kelley Johnson performed a monologue and discussed her profession as a nurse.
Well, the co-hosts were not having it.
“The talent, though, I have to say, the woman who won sang opera, and she was incredible. Really good,” Collins said. “But then there was a girl who wrote her own monologue and I was like ‘Turn the volume up, this is going be amazing, let’s listen’. She came out in a nurse’s uniform and basically read her emails out loud and shockingly did not win.
”
Seriously?!” Joy Behar responded, appearing incredibly perplexed.
“I swear to God it was hilarious,” Collins replied.
“Why does she have a doctor’s stethoscope on?” Behar asked before Collins clarified, “She helps patients with Alzheimer’s, which I know is not funny, but I swear you had to see it.”
At first I was really angry and then I was really baffled as to how a person could be so ignorant and rude. It made me think I need to look at what’s on TV (Beside my beloved GH) during the day. That’s a blog for another day.
I don’t watch “The View” because I’m usually working as a nurse.
If I had anything to say at this point these folks it would be this:
There are a lot of people who are ill and poor. Many of them do not have food. One of things they do have is TV. Please try every day to make a difference in the life of your viewers.
Some of my nurse friend’s became quite upset. I was too.
“Here is my letter I posted to Joy Behar. An Open Letter to Joy Behar and The View
Hello,
I have waited to respond to your insults to nurses to make sure my response was thoughtful, informative and not full of anger. You, Ms. Behar, have insulted millions of nurses in this country who give of themselves to their patients with little to no complaints.
Let me tell you that you have shown how ignorant you are. Do you really believe that it doesn’t take talent and skill to be a nurse? What talent and skill do you possess other than sitting at a desk and talking like an arrogant individual who believes they know everything about everything? You criticize people for things of which you have no knowledge, and this week, you have stepped on one of your own, a woman.
Let me give you a little background so you can understand where I am coming from. I am a 55-year old mother and grandmother. I spent 27-years of my career in Sales and Marketing with the dream of becoming a nurse one day. At the age of 44, I walked away from a very successful career and began my education to become a nurse. I was a single mother and I waitressed, took care of 2 gentlemen who had strokes in their past and had difficulty performing their ADL’s. (I’ll be nice and tell you that is Activities of Daily Living so you don’t have to take the time to google it.) I also worked at a car dealership part time. All the while I was doing this, I raised my children on my own, sacrificed many things so my children could have all they needed. All of this was done because I wanted to be a nurse and give of myself while doing something that was noble and worthwhile for other people.
I spent many years in an ER and have held new born babies, performed CPR on infants and adults, I used my NURSE stethoscope to auscultate lung sounds, heart sounds and bowel sounds to assure that my patient was not decompensating or deteriorating before my eyes. The doctor was not around for the majority of this assessment.
Think for a moment how you would react if you were in one room performing CPR while the family is sobbing outside the room because they know you have their loved ones life in your hands. At the time that loved one is pronounced dead, a Nurse cleans the body so it is presentable for the family to view and grieve over. You will never know the heartache of hearing family members sob over a loved one who is still warm with life but has no life left in them. Fast forward to the next room to help a patient celebrate that the pains they were feeling in the lower abdomen is not a virus but a symptom of no chronic disease other than a positive pregnancy test. I just watched a life slip away and in the next room I celebrate with people who will be bringing a new life into the world in a matter of months. Multiply these events by thousands and you may begin to see the “talent” that it takes to be a Nurse.
I was brought up to lift others up and not knock them down. You have shown what lack of character you truly possess. And to bring another woman down is even worse and knocks your character down to an even lower level than I previously thought.
I have seen an uprising in my profession and believe me, it is a beautiful sight to see. You have awoken a sleeping monster and whatever consequences arise for you from that is all your responsibility and I for one will not feel sorry for you.
I currently work in a Cardiac Cath Lab where we go into a person’s heart and look for life-threatening blockages in the arteries of their heart. I’ve watched a heart that is ready to stop reperfuse with the insertion of a stent and know in my heart that this person will be going home soon instead of to the morgue in a body bag because of my commitment and dedication to my profession.
I have seen a challenge made to you to shadow a Nurse for 12-hours to see if you are able to do it. I for one think you don’t have what it takes would last a minimal amount of time. I am attaching a photo for you to see how physically demanding my “costume” is to the simple every day movements that you take for granted.
Ms. Behar, should you ever find yourself in a position that I am your Nurse I will treat you with the utmost respect and give you the care that I give each of my patient’s with no regard for your ignorance or your insults to my profession. Do you possess a talent like that? I think not.
Roxanne in the cath lab
That photo is the “The View” (LOL) of the patient when your sitting the cath lab scared to death about what is going to found in your heart. It’s your in a space ship and all these kind and wonderful people are holding your hand while they are looking at the depths of your heart. I know this first hand.
Tagged tool doctors nurses
Then THIS happened!
Kelly Johnson does not have to defend anything. She is amazing person and all us nurses out there are very proud of you.
To take all the goodness a little further, Ellen Degeneres did not make any mention of “The View.” She did not make nasty remarks. She took a bad situation and she turned it up side down and inside out into a wonderful positive experience.
I do watch Ellen almost every day because she’s on while this nurse is charting. For the first time ever I added her show to my DVR.
The View still needs to do some kind of community service here. I would suggest an entire show on nurses and all the great things they do. It would be educational to the people that work there.
So that was great right!
So the other thing that happened this week was this:
“The tech community has a message for Ahmed Mohamed, the the tech savvy Texas teen who was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school: Just keep building.
Mohamed, a freshman at MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas, was taken into police custody on Monday when his homemade digital clock was mistaken for a bomb by school officials and police. Since the incident, Mohamed has been fielding a slew of invitations from some of the biggest names in the tech world.
He is an award winning engineering student.
“Having the skill and ambition to build something cool should lead to applause, not arrest. The future belongs to people like Ahmed,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote. “Ahmed, if you ever want to come by Facebook, I’d love to meet you. Keep building.”
While Ahmed has a busy schedule ahead of him, including a meeting with President Obama, the offers from the tech community haven’t stopped there. Twitter offered him an internship.”
A child named Ahmed Mohamed bring a clock to school to impress his teachers. The interrogating officers would not allow him to talk to him parents.
They think it’s a bomb that arrest him and cart him off to jail. But its not a bomb its a clock! He still got suspended for three days. And this kid is so smart. President Obama invited him to the white house. MIT has invited him for a tour. Mark Zukerberg wants to talk to him. Nasa gave him a free trip space camp. Plus much more. What impressed was his wire box. I have a wire box like that and I know that Adam has a wire box too. So sometimes when people are assholes amazing things happen. I love this kid.
I think I totally related to him when I saw his wire box. Ahmed you should see my wire box and my sons! I have a wire cabinet.
BTW Robin from Good Morning America did a great job on this piece!
I’m including this article and I hope that Ahmed gets a chance to see.
With Columbia Journalism School’s Teacher Project.
“Wilmot, who is black, was suspended for 10 days and recommended for expulsion. She was also charged with two felonies, though—after great public outcry—these charges were later dropped and her record expunged. After completing her junior year at an alternative high school for troubled kids, Wilmot returned to Bartow High School, which is 60 percent white, her senior year and graduated on time.
I spoke with Wilmot—now 19 and a sophomore at Florida Polytechnic University majoring in mechanical engineering—this morning about Mohamed’s predicament. She said that her first reaction was anger: “I honestly thought, ‘How could this happen to somebody else?’ ”
Islamophobia has been cited as a (or the) factor in Mohamed’s arrest; did race play a role in Wilmot’s? When asked if she thought she would’ve received the same treatment if she’d been white, Wilmot said, “I’m not sure.” And then, after a judicious pause, “No, probably not.”
When she returned to Bartow High her senior year, Wilmot said, “There were a few students who started a beef with me, they’d say stuff like ‘next time you plan to blow up the school, let us know’ and that kind of thing,” but the administrators who’d called the police on her never apologized or even acknowledged the incident to her face.
“I still have people who harass me about it and call me a terrorist, but I’ve moved on,” Wilmot said. And some good has come from her arrest, too: “I got a scholarship to space camp and got to meet Homer Hickam,” former NASA engineer, “who’s my hero,” Wilmot said.”
So I know this was long and this is why I never go out for coffee with my friends!
Ahmed is looking for a new school. I hope that some wonderful school invites him to go someplace great!
Here’s a little mood music. In my virtual coffee shop there is always inspiring music playing.
So as Ellen says “Please be kind to one another.”
Sometimes bad thing happen to good people and karma steps up and does the right thing!
It’s impressive that he could stand for the entire thing. I could barely sit through it.
Stephen Colbert
My Open Letter to the Republican Presidential Candidates: Speak the Truth even if it hurts. and a gift for the Donald.
I write a lot of open letters.
Today I’m writing to the Republican Presidential Candidates
The other day I watched your debate. I took time out of my busy life to watch all of it and listen to all you and at the end of the evening I was totally disgusted.
Do we live in the same country?
Do you guys know there are actual people out here that are depending on your leadership?
We are a country of laws.
You all did not seem to have an issue with BushvGore so why now are you having an issue with the Supreme Court?
If you so want your religious state perhaps we can start with Sharia Law. See how that works out for you. I simply do not know what to do about this. We have a separation between church and state for a reason and you can’t pick and choose what you like to pander to a few people.
But if this is what you really want why not do that. Have your religious state. Take a few states and let that be your place and leave the rest of us alone.
You should be talking about inclusion not exclusion.
As I watched the debate I sat here and looked up jobs for nurses in other countries because frankly you guys scare me.
Your statement regarding Planned Parenthood is your opinion and not true. Your responding to an edited video by nefarious people who are so cowardly they shot this without telling the person and then edited to make their point. These people are not filmmakers. They are propagandists.
If you are having a reaction to propaganda without doing the research to find out if it’s true then you have no business running for president.
In Florida it is illegal to record someone without their knowledge. Hell, we can’t even take photos of private cows without getting in trouble.
Here is an article about that video that you all seem so interested in.
If any of you have an issue with this please discuss with the National Cancer Institute. I’m not saying I personally agree or disagree so don’t shoot the messenger.
You took a dubious video who’s intention was to incite emotion and used that. So there are only two conclusions that I come to.
You didn’t take the time to see what the story was with the video which says your lazy.
You intentionally used this video to invoke people emotions and therefore divide us even further.
Planned parenthood is just one place that you all are going after. There are many more. You are propagating something that is not quite true and therefore in my book have no business running for anything. We need honest brokers no matter what. how could I trust any of these people to tell me the truth about anything if they can’t even speak the truth.
We can’t trust alarmists with the codes to the nukes. forgetaboutit.
For instance. The Environment. God gave us the heavens and the earth. Why are you destroying it.
just a few tips:
Please Please Please be honest brokers.
Please read science.
Please research what you are talking about.
The most honest the most honest person up was Donald Trump. I might not like a lot of things he says but I do believe he has a sincere desire to fix things. His way. Bit fix them none the less.
So here is a little gift for Donald Trump. You were going down the right road with autism but your not there yet. I’ve have met hundreds of parents of children with autism.There is a theory out there that the children having these issues have an underlying immune system disorder and when they get these vaccines something happens to them.
I’ve been a nurse for a long long time and we never really saw this when we were young then when our kids were getting vaccinations the list vaccinations started to get bigger and bigger. The more you give to these kids the more your going to see something happens. (The bigger the herd)
We are seeing diseases today like we have never seen before many of them immune systems disorders. I don’t know why personally and scientifically I would guess because of so much pollution, processed food, pesticides, who know what in our food supply the list goes on.
I had the great pleasure of knowing Dr Jacquelyn McCandless an amazing woman who became interested in autism when her granddaughter was diagnosed.
“Jaquelyn McCandless received her Doctorate in Medicine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine and is certified as a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. She has been in private practice in Southern California since 1966.
In 1996 after their grandchild was diagnosed with autism, Jaquelyn returned back intensely to basic medicine in response to the complexity of Chelsey’s disorder and began working with the biomedical aspects of developmentally delayed children. Jack turned his visionary educational interests even more toward the council process in schools and the exploration with other innovative educators of inclusion programs in response to the overwhelming increase in the numbers of special needs children entering our school systems now.
Jaquelyn now utilizes the knowledge she gained exploring and using treatments for her grandchild to help other ASD children, including writing the book she so desperately needed when this aspect of her current life-journey started five years ago.”
In the midst of a worldwide epidemic of autism, ADD, and ADHD, this book is a message of hope to parents embarking on the challenging journey of finding proper medical care for their Autism Spectrum Disorder children. Genetic susceptibility activated by “triggers” such as pesticides and heavy metals in vaccines can lead to immune system impairment, gut dysfunction, and pathogen invasion such as yeast and viruses in many children. This is the first book written by an experienced clinician that gives a step-by-step treatment guide for parents and doctors based on the understanding that ASD is a complex biomedical illness resulting in significant brain malnutrition.
She was a brilliant woman and so dedicated. She and her husband took their own money and went to Africa to help the AIDS crisis. It wasn’t pretty. There were ton’s of issues but she did it.
Here is the last I saw her. Sorry about the audio its weak but please listen.
So thank you Donald Trump for talking about this very important issue.
So if you read and listen she thought there is an issue with immune systems of autistic children. We won’t see this stuff in mainstream medicine because big Pharma gets in the way and it’s impossible to do any huge studies because of the money.
I also appreciate all of your remarks about the Koch Brothers! Please keep that up.
When you say it’s a mess out there your right!
As for the rest of you there are people out there that are poor, that don’t have food, or a place to live and while your busy plotting how to take even more away from from them our infrastructure is crumbling.
Talk about real things that real people need to be addressed. Stop playing games with the American People.
Once you’re settled, pick up a crayon or marker and start coloring. Move slowly and rhythmically. I recommend drawing or coloring circles and spirals first to get your hand moving in a circular motion because it can become rather hypnotic.
cyndi lenz 