Get It Done! (Another Climate Failure in Durban)

 

Despite this rousing speech by youth delegate Anjali Appadurai, the UN climate talks in Durban, South Africa, have once again ended without any agreement to lower carbon emissions, essentially damning the world to catastrophe.

 

Are you okay with this?

 

 

I’m not. The time for action is now. Well, really, the time for action was decades ago, but scientists say we now have a five-year window, AT MOST, in which to turn this doomsday machine around, after which climate change will be irreversible and the planet will become unrecognizable and unlivable. The primary obstacle to action is the inertia caused by the confusion, thanks to denialist propaganda funded by the fossil-fuel industry and promulgated by their corporate media outlets, regarding the reality of climate change. This has created the lack of political will we see evidenced every time the UN meets to confront carbon emissions. We need to get it done. This is not a political issue; this is an issue of survival. Conservative or liberal will mean nothing when the water rises at the coast and refuses to fall from the sky on former breadbaskets. Those who oppose action on carbon emissions stand on the wrong side of history. In the end I suppose that won’t matter. No one will be around to write it.

Comment to the NY DEC Draft SGEIS on the Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Regulatory Program (September 2009)

I’m writing as a concerned citizen of Tompkins County. Whether or not my voice carries any weight compared to the corporate profits of the “persons” who have pushed to be allowed to carry on this dangerous process (hydraulic fracturing of the Marcellus Shale) is doubtful, which is a shame and a commentary on the level of corruption evident in the approval process thus far.

This extractive process, using dangerous chemicals and water that would be better used for drinking and agriculture, puts at risk the health of everyone here by contaminating our drinking water with chemicals known to cause nerve damage and cancer. Even if none of the wells experienced a leak (hardly likely), the fluid would so tax our water treatment plants that contamination would be unavoidable. It also threatens to disrupt the relatively healthy existing local economy, which is based on organic dairy farms, vineyards, and the many small farms that feed us, as well as the tourism attracted to the bucolic surroundings and good, healthful cuisine in our many locavore restaurants. Our roads will also be over taxed by heavy trucks hauling hazardous chemicals. It is all around a very bad idea that will benefit only the few who will profit. Everyone else will suffer. It is a glaring example of the corruption of our society by corporations that put their profits above the welfare of human beings. New York State is collaborating with these corporations instead of protecting its human citizens. If our government refuses to protect its citizens, it should not be surprised if some of them use a diversity of tactics to frustrate the fossil-fuel industry’s ability to operate here. I would hate to see anyone harmed by such tactics, but I would also hate to see children suffer cancer because our government failed to protect them from gas drilling and its affects on human health.

We moved to New York from Shreveport, Louisiana, where we witnessed a disturbingly high cancer rate, with victims among our friends. We discovered afterward that the area we left had been contaminated by this same process decades before. We chose this area because we wanted our children to be able to grow their bodies in a relatively healthful environment. I implore the Department of Environmental Conservation to rethink its collaboration with the fossil fuel industry and stand instead with the citizens of Tompkins County.

A Book You Need to Read

Yesterday my recommendation of Wendell Berry’s book of essays, What Matters?: Economics for a Renewed Commonwealth ran at The Lit Pub, which is a very cool site where the literary community shares their favorite books. Check it out.

Open Letter to Lt. John Pike

I was going to send the following to Lt. Pike privately, but I’m informed that his email box has been shut down, flooded with messages, no doubt, from other outraged citizens, after this photograph, along with his personal information, circulated on the internet. Since I can’t send it, I’ll post it below the photo.

Does this guy look like he's being threatened? Click on the photo to sign the petition to have the Chancellor resign.

Re: Your recent violence

Lt. Pike:

I’m writing to express my disgust at your recent violence toward peaceful protesters. I’m sure you’re aware that it’s now public knowledge, thanks to a photograph circulating on the internet of you walking along a row of seated, peaceful  young people, pepper spraying them directly in the face at close range. This violates your guidelines, not to mention human decency.

My father spent his life in law enforcement, ultimately running the police academy in Daytona Beach. He stressed to his cadets the importance of following procedures to ensure that justice was done. What you did was not just, and undermines the valid efforts of law enforcement everywhere. You should turn in your gun and badge and submit to psychiatric care, because you are clearly a sadist who is not deserving of the public trust.

I’m sure your superior officers will be hearing from plenty of citizens, as well, but you might save them the trouble of firing you and go ahead and resign. You are not suited to wear the uniform.

Sincerely,

Wendy Babiak

ADDENDUM: In addition to signing the petition to ask that the Chancellor resign (which  you can access by clicking on the photo above), you might want to go here and sign the petition asking President Obama to call off the dogs.

Open Letter to the US Government

Greetings from Ithaca! Lovely weather we’re having in this American Autumn. Well, right here, right now, at least. Around the world of late, not so much. I’ll address that later.

First: Please don’t crush me. I know you could. You’re really, really huge, and really powerful, and apparently completely without scruples, and I’m just a housewife and a scribbler who’s barely published. You could probably frame my husband for it and make my two kids have to go live with their grandparents and make everyone involved really sad. So please don’t do that. Because I’m just a messenger, and to kill the messenger is, as you’ve probably heard, very bad form.

So, about that weather. It’s bad, and it’s going to get worse before it gets better, even if we get on the clean-energy train right now. You would know and freely admit this if you weren’t beholden to the money coming to you from the fossil fuel industry. Please get your head out of whatever dark, rank hole you’re hiding it in. We (meaning the whole world!) need you to do this, because the longer you wait the harder it’s going to be to correct the problem. Already this summer crops have been poor in more places than not. Rain isn’t coming when it needs to, and comes in buckets when it shouldn’t. And people are hungry. Have you ever been hungry? Have you ever had to send your kids to bed hungry? On top of the weather influencing the price and availability of food, we’ve got speculators creating price hikes. Do you think that’s okay? I’m thinking it’s not, and it seems like you could do something about that. In fact, it sort of seems like that’s your job, as part of a social structure that makes the pursuit of happiness possible.

Another thing: all those people in the street, the folks some want to call a mob? You can’t ignore them, and you can’t vilify them, no matter how the corporate media tries. It’s not sticking, and that’s because more and more the crowds are a cross-section of our society, including, even, some of the 1% with integrity who want no part in your plutocratic cruelty. People are waking up to the inherent unfairness of our system, and they’re hurting badly enough to risk police violence and looking foolish. Unless you wanna go all Tiananmen Square on us (you don’t really wanna go all Tiananmen Square on us, do you?), this isn’t going to stop. So, please inform the various police departments involved that they’d better start serving and protecting the citizenry, and not the corporations who have been giving them money. Our taxpayer dollars are the only source of income any of them should have. And those who have been guilty of violence in an attempt to incite the peaceful citizens to riot must be prosecuted and relieved of duty.

Finally, enough with the corporatism. It has reached its toxic tentacles into every aspect of your operations. It must be rooted out for the good of all. Whether it’s our broken for-profit health-care system (which would be better labeled a disease-management system), our broken monopolistic faux-food industry, the for-profit prison industry and attendant wars on drugs and immigration and dark-skinned people, or our broken banking system, godawful injustice abounds. Do you really want to keep this going? Every single one of you inherited this system. None of you are to blame. But you are all complicit as long as you perpetuate it, as long as you turn a blind eye to the consequences of your disastrous decisions. And the kingpin of this beast of a machine is the military-industrial complex, led by the fossil fuel industry. Enough. Human persons must become again the beneficiary of your power, not corporations and their soul-dead leaders.

Anyway, I do hope you consider what I’m saying here. We’re at a tipping point and a turning point. This could be something beautiful, democracy in action. Or it could be the beginning of an even darker age. It’s pretty much up to you.

love,
Wendy Babiak

The Pathology of Greed and Power

That’s the title of a book that needs to be written. Any psychologists out there looking for a non-fiction project? Because dang.

So I’m reading a book of non-fiction (I usually have one or two going, as well as a book or two of poems and a novel). It’s called A Mind Apart: Travels in a Neurodiverse World, by Suzanne Antonetta, and it’s a resonant meditation on mental illness reflected through her experiences as a manic-depressive. And reading it, and reflecting on my own experiences with depression and the stories I hear from my psychiatrist husband, I come to the conclusion that like so many arbitrary binaries (like male/female, for example, or the left/right political spectrum) the binary of neurotypical/neuroatypical is a false one, and that what we really have is a spectrum. And I think it’s foolish to imagine that ANYONE short of a Buddha sports a spotless mental health.

Given that, I think it makes sense to ensure that society maintains checks and balances against any individual exercising too much power. The wreckage that is the global economy manifests what happens when greed is elevated to a virtue and allowed full reign. Surely excessive greed is a pathology that ought to be studied and prevented from doing harm. And same goes for power. Is there any doubt in your mind, dear reader, that Ghadafi is a lunatic? His fashion choices alone show that. Never mind the dead.

Speaking of the dead, and the real impetus behind this blog post, I heard this morning on Democracy Now! that President Obama has succeeded in having assassinated an American citizen, the Muslim cleric Anwar Al Awlaki, without due process. That’s whacked. Literally! I think it’s safe to say that’s way worse than wire-tapping. Or water-boarding. That’s dead.

And no man should have that kind of power. I’m not saying Pres. Obama is a lunatic, but you can’t convince me that anyone, as I said, is completely sane. And you’d have to be kind of crazy to WANT to run this mess of a country. So what do we do?

I don’t know. I’ll leave that to the lawyers, just as I’ll leave writing a book with the above title to an academic (and I sincerely hope both lawyers and academics do the job well!). But I think for the rest of us, hitting the streets in a massive protest is starting to sound like a pretty sane thing to do.

The Occupy-Wall-Street Folks Have Spoken

Keep in mind–this is an ever-transforming document.

I got this on Facebook from a note from someone who heard this read last night–or rather, chanted via the organized, human megaphone that is the general assembly at Occupy Wall Street.

Enjoy. Post. Spread the word.

Declaration of the Occupation of New York City

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, formerly divided by the color of our skin, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or lack thereof, political party and cultural background, we acknowledge the reality: that there is only one race, the human race, and our survival requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their brethren; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known. They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give CEO’s exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated gender inequality and discrimination in the workplace.

They have poisoned the food supply, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have continuously sought to end the rights of workers to negotiate their pay and make complaints about the safety of their workplace.

They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.

They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.

They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.

They have sold our privacy as a commodity.

They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.

They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty book keeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.

They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.

They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.

They have participated in a directly racist action by accepting the contract from the State of Georgia to murder Troy Davis.

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard!

And now it’s official.

Bitter in New Orleans

It’s happy hour down at St. Joe’s Bar.
He’s there with his boys drinking pitchers
of watered-down wine. Mary’s at home

playing mah-jongg with the women
whining about housework and weeds
dollars and dime-store clerks

the jerks in line at the Canal Villere.
Ever since Jesus took off nothing’s been right.
The mosquitoes here bite harder than back home.

The antique shops offered a pittance
for His sandals, His old carpenter’s tools.
What fools they were to leave, to heave

history in that sack and take off for some dream
of freedom and art. Joseph isn’t even working
with wood anymore, and the cops here

are just as mean. But at sunset
church spires rise above the shops
on Magazine Street like hollyhocks

growing among herbs. Then nothing disturbs
the peace she feels walking at Audubon Park
watching the full moon flirt in the patches of sky

between the live oak’s branches. But tonight
it dangles a mere crescent, spare blue light dusting
borders of solid shadows. She hurried home in fright.

from Tampa Review, 37

Christianity, Cultural Identity, Misogyny and Terrorism

I’ve spoken of rediscovering immanent divinity as being necessary for creating the sustainable human culture capable of coexisting with the rest of the biosphere as it recovers from the damage we have done with our ignorant idea of “progress” during the Industrial Revolution and its ongoing aftermath. If we recognize everything as sacred, as part of The God that Is the World, we’ll treat it with the care it deserves and which will ensure a livable planet. This is not just a convenient attitude, either. There’s much evidence in the accounts of the mystics, recent and ancient, as well as modern scientific accounts of quantum entanglement, that indicate that it is, indeed, all one, and that our perception of separation is a delusion.

As part of my own embrace of my rejected spiritual heritage, Catholicism, which has been left in the hands of the stupid and the mean for too long, I’ve run up against a problem: I can’t participate in the Church because of its institutionalized misogyny. So I’ve sought to simply be a Christian. I’ve even taken to wearing a cross, on occasion (a lovely silver Celtic cross, with a dove in the top arm, created by a local craftsman): the Celtic cross, with the solar circle, acts as a symbol of the god of resurrection rather than the god of sacrifice (symbolized by the crucifix). I was saddened to discover, after acquiring it, that some white supremacists have begun wearing the Celtic cross as a symbol of white pride. So it came as no surprise to discover that the terrorist in Oslo self-identifies as a Christian, though he admitted that he’s not very religious. Like other white supremacists, Christianity for him is more of a cultural identity. It represents a means for him to align himself with a group against another group, the Muslims. (Of course, I have a feeling that Islam operates for terrorists who self-identify as Muslim in much the same way.) I should not have to remind you, gentle reader, that Christ did not condone violence, and elevated love above all other virtues, the “Christians” on TV and inside the Beltway notwithstanding.

I was fascinated to discover, though, that he also went into detail regarding his opposition to feminism (here’s an interesting analysis), and I found this misogyny to be particularly ironic in light of his self-identification as a Christian. Christ, you see, was a feminist (see, again, The Chalice and The Blade for more on this). And while Christ’s gylanic message has so far largely fallen on deaf ears (as has his call for compassion and social justice), it has not been entirely wiped out and continues to give hope to many that we will, one day, manage to create heaven here on earth and “live presently.”

Norway’s response to the massacre is heartening. Instead of giving in to terror, they are more resolved than ever to practice peace and unity in diversity, determined not to let their democratic ideals be undermined by fear. Would that we had taken a similar path after 9/11. It would be a different planet.

Fu Jiki (I Don’t Know)

Before Your Grandma’s Funeral

What do you say to the nice old ladies
after your book-worming has taught you

the religion y’all once shared is just
a bunch of stories with suspect origins

like a poor man’s quilt, pieced together
from the brightest and the darkest bits

of the generations who went before
also just guessing and imagining

while the earth shook and thunder clapped
and the stars whirled and flashed overhead?

(first published in Free Inquiry, Vol 27, No. 4)