Quote of the Day

"Many of man's activities are conditioned by his cultural environment, and satisfied by certain interrelations with it. The term environment here is not intended as a metaphor: when man comes into the world he rapidly comes into contact with things, people and ideas outside himself. If a man lives among  people, these are part of his environment s much as the local geology, or plant life, or the weather. If he lives in a house, this is part of his environment. If he is taught a religion, this too is part of environment, since his behaviour and activities are conditioned by the forces which he believes act upon him rather than by those which the sceptic may recognise" - Colin Renfrew. The Emergence of Civilization, 8.


I like this quote; it recognizes the importance of structural and cultural impacts on the human environment. It's a bit too structuralist. I like to think that people have a more agency than he permits with this sentence, but the general idea is spot on for anyone to whom environmental justice matters!

Lock 'em up

Why would they focus on education, on the environment, on clean public transportation when they can reserve the majority of their budget for cops and prisons! What good could fostering community and increasing our educated population do for safety! Funding more green jobs, parks, clean-burning buses, and thus improving air quality couldn't possibly do anything to keep Angelenos in better health or give them cleaner, safer streets. Supporting more cultural activities? Giving youth more opportunities? You must be crazy! Our tax dollars should be used to keep us in perpetual check. What we need are cops! Clearly, they are doing great things for our city.

Heal The World

I'm still sad about MJ's death...A true genius.

Insightful words for greenies:

There's A Place In Your Heart
And I Know That It Is Love
And This Place Could Be Much
Brighter Than Tomorrow
And If You Really Try
You'll Find There's No Need To Cry
In This Place You'll Feel
There's No Hurt Or Sorrow

There Are Ways
To Get There
If You Care Enough For The Living
Make A Little Space
Make A Better Place...

Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me

If You Want To Know Why
There's A Love That Cannot Lie
Love Is Strong
It Only Cares For Joyful Giving
If We Try
We Shall See
In This Bliss We Cannot Feel
Fear Or Dread
We Stop Existing And Start Living

Then It Feels That Always
Love's Enough For Us Growing
So Make A Better World
Make A Better World...

Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me

And The Dream We Were Conceived In
Will Reveal A Joyful Face
And The World We Once Believed In
Will Shine Again In Grace
Then Why Do We Keep Strangling Life
Wound This Earth
Crucify Its Soul
Though It's Plain To See
This World Is Heavenly
Be God's Glow

We Could Fly So High
Let Our Spirits Never Die
In My Heart
I Feel You Are All My Brothers
Create A World With No Fear
Together We'll Cry Happy Tears
See The Nations Turn Their Swords Into Plowshares

We Could Really Get There
If You Cared Enough For The Living
Make A Little Space
To Make A Better Place...

Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me

There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me

IOU

CA Budget cuts will

• Reduce per-student spending by $448 - cutting K-12 spending by $3.8 million
• Eliminate the Healthy Families Program
• Make Medical significantly more complicated; dental and eye exams will no longer be convered
• CalWORKS will be reduced by 4% even though it has been frozen since the 2004-5 fiscal year
• Benefit corporations: "Eighty-seven percent of the benefits from credit sharing will go to the 0.03 percent of California corporations with gross incomes over $1 billion" ("To have and Have Not")
• Potentially close 220 parks, including Will Rogers or hand them over to the Federal gov They say this is a last resort. Who knows. I think WR will have a chance...Palisadeans can fight for it, and they have the money to win if necessary. Sadly, saving it would probably be at the expense of parks in neighborhoods who are hit hardest by the budget cuts - those of the poor and minorities. I love Will Rogers, I must admit.
  

Margattack and me at Inspiration Point, Will Rogers State Historic Park, Pacific Palisades, CA

These cuts would obviously have devastating effects on the most vulnerable Californians, particularly students of all ages. But as of today, July 1st, the senate and Gov have not passed the budget, which could end up hurting us Californians even more. John Chiang, the state controller who issued my lovely unclaimed paychecks last year, is prepared to dole out IOUs by tommorrow, July 2nd.

Hey CalGrant recipients,
Did you need that money we promised you? About that. We're in a bit of a squeeze here. How's about a nice IOU?
Sincerely,
Your ELECTED officials.

Good luck paying your tuition with an IOU.

The CA budget proposes to cut non Prop98 General Fund spending for k-12 education by 19% while only cutting Corrections and Rehab by 8.7% (Summary of Major Changes..., 33,38). We seem much more willing to anticipate crime than to prevent it. Cutting per-student spending, shortening school years, closing parks, decreasing jobs and complicating and eliminating health care? Less education, less green space, less income, less health. Less, less, less; cut, cut, cut.

What does this have to do with going green? We are maintaining a system that prioritizes corporations over laborers, prison beds over child health care, everything over education. Even prop 98 has not cured our notoriously troubled public schools. I fail to see how this will free us from the habit of fast tracking environmentally unhealthy and ethically unsound development and industry. I can't imagine how it will encourage or enable people to green their own lives. As a self-proclaimed environmentalist, I refuse to limit my understanding of the environment to bioecology and saving the rainforests. While those are essential, the social aspects - education, efficient and clean mass transit, safe neighborhoods, equitable access to resources - all enable an harmonious lifestyle, at the very least, by allowing people to care about their environment. This budget just might suppress a lot of the individual-level environmental enthusiasm that has recently arisen.

It is as though the state, that distant, powerful, too-irresponsible body of governors, has attempted to make its subjects as desperate and high-risk as possible so that it can fill the $34 million in contracted out of state prison beds for which their 2009-10 budget calls.

I have become so disenchanted with politics lately. Bush, Schwarzenegger, Villaraigosa, Obama, Jindal. At least we can claim ethnic diversity. Finally, we can celebrate equality. We have conquered our vile prejudices and can now see that under no circumstances does skin color or national origin prevent politicians from spewing out equally ludicrous bullshit to every corner of the world.

I wish I could spare my eyes the pain of having to witness my home wrestle a seemingly unconquerable giant. With blurred vision and a tired mind, we appear to have stopped fighting, slowly but surely accepting our decline from mansion to a ramshackle hut so dilapidated that its resident family has plummeted through the floor gazing upward though a cracked foundation at a structure too blighted to hope for reconstruction.

Public Transit

I have made a resolution to take the bus or subway somewhere. I will save on gas. I will reduce my single occupancy vehicle use. I'm scared, I'll admit. I think I'll have to start with a buddy project. I'll propose a public transit adventure with the girls. I want to be able to navigate the city by MTA by the time Helen and Ben get here on July 17th. Booyakasha. Goal #1 set. Goal #2 - accomplish goal #1.