Category Archives: Advocacy

Umpqua Community College

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The mariner is not a gun advocate. He is not a hunting advocate. Further, he thinks that people who are afraid that government will take their guns are paranoid and irrational. The easiest solution is not to own a gun so there is nothing for the government to take. The mariner thinks people who hole up in remote places and maintain an arsenal of weaponry to defend themselves against government are the very crazies that should not be allowed guns in the first place. The ne’er-do-wells that gathered round the rancher who was to be arrested for grazing cattle illegally are the very ones who should not have guns.

In American culture, the gun is easily absorbed into the owner’s psyche. Somehow, owning a piece of steel and gunpowder magnifies one’s sense of self importance and minimizes one’s rationality. These are the very people who should not own guns.

In Australia, guns were outlawed. In the next year, death by gun statistics dropped by half. In the United States, more people die from guns than die in automobile accidents. The mariner is more afraid of gun owners than he is of government – and that says a lot considering his opinion of government.

The mariner knows an individual who owns a fifty caliber machine gun. Fortunately, it is too heavy and bulky to carry around and cannot be concealed. But weapons like the AK-47, grenade launchers, automatic handguns can be carried about, even concealed in some cases.

None of the gun owners mentioned would be identified as mentally ill. However, mentally ill is not a constant state in most people; mental irrationality pops up in everyday life. In those moments of duress, a gun should not be handy.

Instead of providing military hardware to civilian police departments (tanks?), government should bolster data bases sophisticated enough to identify domestic disturbance, spousal abuse, underage (21) applicants, and a registration system that will catch the ownership of any weapon obviously intended for hunting people rather than game.

The President spoke forcefully today. It is worth watching at

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=umpqua+community+college+obama+speech&FORM=VIRE5#view=detail&mid=D90E69944FB2AEA7518FD90E69944FB2AEA7518F

The President made a plea to US voters to vote only for those who oppose undocumented gun ownership. He was sincere but the mariner fears the plea is futile. Mariner is skeptical about the wisdom of voters. It remains true, to the President’s dismay, that voters get what they vote for.

To check on a candidate’s record on gun control, simply search online for the candidate’s name along with “voting record guns.” It is as important, if not more so, to search local and state candidates as well as federal. As an example, the mariner typed “Steve King voting record guns”. The search sent back pages of sources. The first source, http://www.ontheissues.org/House/Steve_King.htm#Gun_Control

returned the following sorted by subject for his entire record:

Voted YES on prohibiting product misuse lawsuits on gun manufacturers. (Oct 2005)

Voted YES on prohibiting suing gunmakers & sellers for gun misuse. (Apr 2003)

Rated A by the NRA, indicating a pro-gun rights voting record. (Dec 2003)

No United Nations taxation on firearms. (Sep 2003)

Loosen restrictions on interstate gun purchases. (Oct 2011)

Allow veterans to register unlicensed guns acquired abroad. (Jul 2011)

Ban gun registration & trigger lock law in Washington DC. (Mar 2007)

Allow reloading spent military small arms ammunition. (Apr 2009)

Anger fades now, to sorrow for the victims and families. But this must not fade as any other fading massacre has. It is a bridge too far. There is a very important election in 2016. The mariner urges the sane among us to change the stranglehold of the National Rifle Association and gun manufacturers who lobby and give too much money to elected, in-it-for-the-buck, officials.

Ancient Mariner

Reverence is not Advocacy

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Tim Pitt, City Council member in Knoxville, Iowa, recently wrote an angry article on facebook denouncing the intent of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The atheist organization was challenging the decision of the City Council to place a memorial art piece in Young’s Park – a government sponsored park – that included a cross similar to the crosses familiar in military cemeteries.

Knoxville

In Part, Councilman Pitt wrote:

Knoxville IA

Concilman Pitt continued at length to berate the organization for its disrespect of valid and reverent feelings for fallen soldiers. There is conflict in the atheists’ case because similar crosses are in many government cemetaries around the Country – including Arlington National Cemetary. Clearly, this is headed for the court system – if the courts choose to hear the case.

Broadly speaking, the atheists are a counterpoint to those who would establish a Christian theocracy, primarily religious conservatives fighting similar battles from the opposite side of the issue. Similar conservative events are Chick-Fillet, Hobby Lobby, the clerk in Kentucky who refuses to grant marriage licenses to homosexual couples in spite of high court injunctions against the clerk, the insistance of creation history as valid history in public school books, vocal prayer in schools, etc.

The mariner believes those tangled in symbolic issues like crosses, Stars of David and even secular memorials, are distracted by irrelevant idol worship. Memorials, regardless of their shape, are simply memorials, perhaps suggestive of a legitimate association with religious reverence but certainly not a tool of proselytizing and, as Tim Pitt contends, not representative of a state church.

It is insane to separate church and state with a cataclysmic act like removing crosses from graves or religious icons from past sites of remembrance. Such an act would be comparable to ISIL destroying temples and historical artifacts. The rows and rows of white crosses only speak loudly of a long age of human desecration.

In 1982, a Vietnam Veterans Memorial was built in Washington, D.C. commemorating 58,272 killed in that war. There is no cross, yet the “wall” is one of the most powerful commemorations ever dedicated to soldiers killed in action. When it was built, a mother refused to believe that her son would be remembered among the tens of thousands who died. Her friends traced his name from the wall and took it to her; she clutched the drawing as if it were the American Flag at a military funeral. A simple wall as powerful as 58,272 crosses.

The point is this: The role of religion in society is changing as secular awareness grows in an age of information. There is no blame in this transition nor is there permanence in religious beliefs – else we still would worship the Gods of the Pantheon. The separation of church and state is a Constitutional requirement assuring religious freedom for all – and thereby preventing a “State Church” from existing.

It is not the crosses or Stars of David that are sacrosanct. It is the soldier buried in his time, in the way of his faith. The crosses, Stars of David and non-religious memorials are for us to remember the heavy price we asked them to pay.

Ancient Mariner

Distribute Your Wealth Now!

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Yes, you. If you have the wherewithal to read the mariner’s blog, you have wealth. No one else can address the depravity, greed, ignorance, prejudice, starvation, disease, death, destruction of the biosphere, incessant war, and class abuse.

The United Methodist Church has a mission project called “Imagine No Malaria.” One can acquire a tee shirt that says, “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try spending the night with a mosquito.” This proverb is a fine challenge; it can apply to any issue around the world or around the corner. If you want to support this project, send a contribution to your local Methodist Church.

Below are other efforts that need your wealth and your health.

Habitat for Humanity. (www.habitat.org) Builds homes for the homeless. This is an organization that has immense impact on a family’s life in a very short time. HH will accept your body and a hammer as well. Check the website for information.

Salvation Army. (www.salvationarmyusa.org) “ONE MISSION: Into the world of the hurting, broken, lonely, dispossessed and lost, reaching them in love by all means.” Contribute goods and cash. SA also helps those in disaster zones and ignores national boundaries. Check local phonebook for free pick up; donate cash on the website.

Religious Institution. Visit your institution or search for that institution’s website to find a magnitude of mission projects for people in need around the world.

World Wildlife Fund. (www.worldwildlife.org) “The group’s mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. Currently, much of its work focuses on the conservation of three biomes that contain most of the world’s biodiversity: oceans and coasts, forests, and freshwater ecosystems. Among other issues, it is also concerned with endangered species, pollution and climate change.” Visit website for gifts and donations.

Food and Water Watch. (www.foodandwaterwatch.org) “Food & Water Watch works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainably produced. So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping the global commons — our shared resources — under public control.”

The mariner is a member of FWW. He feels there is a need to protect shared resources by keeping resource administration in the public sector where profit is less of a threat to our health and access to critical resources is not denied for any reason. FWW is an advocacy organization that responds to federal, state and local legislation that may be detrimental to the wellbeing of citizens.

Local charities. In your search engine, type “charities near me” to find organizations supporting every sort of need from homeless to abject poor to neighborhood cleanup to slum restoration to medical need to foster children services, even to homeless pets. There is no shortage of need for your wealth and your health.

Add to this list your commitment to improve local government by becoming active in local issues and participating in the primary and voting process.

The mariner has provided a short sample of ways by which the reader can become engaged in improving the world. One does not have to wait for an election.

Ancient Mariner

The Great Barrier of Nationalism

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In the last post, Today is Earth Overshoot Day, the mariner wrote of global issues that are ignored by governments around the world. Water and minerals have reached an end game and face inadequacy during this century. Food is both abused by waste and unavailable to millions because of political obstruction. Ecosystems of all kinds are wantonly destroyed to increase profit. One-third of the Gulf of Mexico is a dead sea because of the toxicity flowing off the Mississippi River. 90% of Monarch butterflies have disappeared. Coral reefs around the world are dying. Coral is the bottom of the food chain; without coral whole species of fish and mammals will disappear. Much of Micronesia will vanish beneath the sea in 50 years. Although we know deforestation of great forests is not good for our atmosphere, yet the clearing continues.

The mariner knows he sounds like Chicken Little but the ramifications of not caring about our planet or ourselves already are measurable. While there is a futile attempt by multiple nations to limit Carbon Dioxide, that effort miserably falls short of functional change, let alone actually modifying global circumstances. Still, governments feign ignorance about global warming and converting to alternative energy now and deny passing legislation to prevent profit taking at the expense of everyone’s biosphere.

Why is each nation so reticent to join with others to avoid terminal catastrophes for humanity? The answer is nationalism. The twenty-first century presents issues that can only be solved if the world politic changes its priorities. These priorities are not nation-sensitive. The type of government does not matter be it communist, socialist, capitalist, authoritarian, monarchy or tribal. In every case, the wellbeing of the nation, its economy, its culture, and its advantage among nations, are the first priority.

The one new nation that has evolved without nationalist priorities is corporations. Focused on profit as a first and last cause, corporations glean unfathomable amounts of cash and assets from the world economy. This cash is used to grow and acquire more assets or it is parked in long term investment. Corporate profit is sufficient to take serious steps toward global rejuvenation but does not for the sake of profit. If the sums stored away by corporations were taxed for the benefit of global issues, relatively simple issues like fossil fuels could be bought outright – diminishing the pressures against Earth’s biosphere in short order. Although the solution is simple, the process is tangled in worldwide nationalism – nations who benefit from their corporate contributors.

Operating largely outside the jurisdiction of nations, corporations are in effect today’s pirates – not roaming the seas but roaming the Internet that allows rapid reorganization and fast-dollar marketing and to move to nations that are more amenable and enable larger profits. The Trans-Pacific Partnership in Congress right now will make participating corporations virtually impervious to nation-based human rights and labor law. Corporate payoffs to legislators and kings are huge and difficult to resist.

To a small degree, one can understand greed as a goal. Certainly, it is personally rewarding. On the other hand, fairness is a tangible factor. If one makes a mess in a friend’s home, one pays the price of cleaning the mess rather than leaving it for the friend. Somehow, governments have forgotten fairness. Some of this forgetfulness can be attributed to outdated government concepts. The founding fathers of the United States left fairness to the individual so that there can be freedom for all, freedom to pursue happiness, etc. This liberated the new country from the abuses of colonialism but it provided no structure for fairness. If one could pick a single issue why the US and State governments are broken, one would have to say the governments don’t enforce fairness – hence the ease with which the US has become an oligarchy and allows the fast-buck, under-taxed marketplace.

Humanity has been unfair to Mother Earth. All of human history has been an expansion of skimming Earth’s riches but not cleaning human mess, not restoring or respecting what Earth has given toward our arrogant sense of success. Not only has humanity been thoughtless, humanity has been wanton. Without Earth, there would have been no success; without Earth now, there will be no humanity tomorrow. A respected ecologist has put the end 600 years from now.

Ancient Mariner

Today is Earth Overshoot Day

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Many may not know this term. It is the day of the year that humanity requires more of the Earth’s resources than Earth can provide for that year. In 2015 that day fell on August 14. From now until December 31, humanity is borrowing against future years. An example is the use of aquifers – water stored deep in the Earth. We are rapidly draining aquifers dry. What will happen when we have drained all the water? It took hundreds of thousands of years to create aquifers; humanity is draining them dry within 200 years. The chart below shows that earlier each year, humanity consumes more than the Earth can provide:

The latest population projection shows that by 2100, 85 years from now, the number of humans will grow from 7 billion+ to 12 billion+. That number is approaching double today’s population. Ecological resources are a global issue. It is larger than one nation, or the many international coalitions. It affects every nation on every continent. Every day the world dickers with economic and military wars, and ignores bellwether changes like global warming and creating dead seas that used to provide large quantities of life, global issues loom closer. Solving global issues will require every nation’s participation and will take decades to accomplish.

On a more imminent topic, the United States and most of the temperate climate nations will be affected by the strongest El Nino since 1950 – the first year records were kept. Southern California likely will get the rain it needs, albeit via heavy storms and flooding; Northern California and the top tiers of states all the way to the great lakes will be drier and warmer through the winter; the Upper Mississippi Valley and the Ohio Valley will have drier weather, perhaps even drought-like. The South, coast to coast, will have much wetter weather again via large storms. A second jet stream will come from Alaska and pass over the Great lakes into New England and the Middle Atlantic states.

The degree to which this strong El Nino will disrupt agriculture or cause flooding is still unknown but NOAA advises “above average” changes to our weather patterns. A tip to how much above average is in the name given by the cable weather channel: Godzilla El Nino. Crudely bilingual but a tip. If one remembers 1997-1998, El Nino produced snowstorms in New England that fell in feet per hour, rainstorms across the South that fell in inches per hour. Iowa and Missouri flip-flopped from very cold to very warm to very cold again.

Many planetary events have heightened profiles. In the mariner’s opinion, global warming is an indirect cause of stronger weather patterns and may, along with a weakening magnetic field, exacerbate plate tectonic activity. Because of the Sun’s cycle, scientists predict a small ice age in mid-century. Times they are a-changing!

Where will we put another 5 billion people? Not on islands or seashores – they will be underwater.

Ancient Mariner

Befuddlement

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On Friday, Stanford University released a study by internationally prestigious scientists that declared planet Earth is well into the sixth mass extinction (Holocene). The report has charts and other references that indicate the fabric of the planet’s ecosystem is collapsing at an ever increasing rate. The report predicted the collapse would occur in about three human lifetimes (315 years+or-). The report further suggested that humans will be one of the earlier extinctions because of human dependence on so many environmental and specie services, e.g., naturally cleaned water, pollination by bees, and stable weather patterns for vegetation.

The mariner is befuddled that no television outlet grabbed this issue. If the reader hadn’t come across an article on a few websites, the reader would never know that extinction of Homo sapiens has become a statistical reality – near enough that today’s elementary school children will have their lives disrupted in significant if not fatal ways. Despite what the Bible says about Armageddon, it will not occur in one day. It will occur faster and faster over time. For the most part, symptoms will involve starvation, disease, economic collapse, vandalism and true anarchy as governments will not have the resources to quell the collapse of rule by law.

There is a book on this subject published recently by Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism versus the Climate. (The mariner’s town library has a copy as well as a copy of The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert). Klein has written several books on the subject of economic greed destroying the planet. Following is an excerpt from the New York Times book review for This Changes Everything:

“Klein diagnoses impressively what hasn’t worked. No more claptrap about fracked gas as a bridge to renewables. Enough already of the international summit meetings that produce sirocco-quality hot air, and nonbinding agreements that bind us all to more emissions. Klein dismantles the boondoggle that is cap and trade. She skewers grandiose command-and-control schemes to re-engineer the planet’s climate. No point, when a hubristic mind-set has gotten us into this mess, to pile on further hubris. She reserves a special scorn for the partnerships between Big Green organizations and Immense Carbon, peddled as win-win for everyone, but which haven’t slowed emissions. Such partnerships remind us that when the lamb and the lion lie down together, only one of them gets eaten.

In democracies driven by lobbyists, donors and plutocrats, the giant polluters are going to win while the rest of us, in various degrees of passivity and complicity, will watch the planet die. “Any attempt to rise to the climate challenge will be fruitless unless it is understood as part of a much broader battle of worldviews,” Klein writes. “Our economic system and our planetary system are now at war.”

The point is, there is a mountain of resistance to change – especially on capitalist philosophy and the ingrained demand for ever increasing profits. How long will it take Earth’s humans to break the most successful profit engine in history? The Mass Extinction report implies that everything must be corrected in two lifetimes to prevent full collapse of the environment.

The mariner includes one chart from the report that ties the development of the mass extinction, or conversely, the destruction of the global environment, back to the beginning of the industrial age.

extinct animals

An easy to read article is available at the following link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/02/11/there-have-been-five-mass-extinctions-in-earths-history-now-were-facing-a-sixth

As Naomi Klein pointed out (and Pogo), our own perceptions of what is good, better and best for each human, each of all species, and the planet environment itself, is a myth. We do not have a model of human behavior that matches the reality around us – nor will reality accept it. Yet, humans are delinquent and tardy in how they manage their own place on the planet.

How many years will it take for humans to eliminate arrogance and hubris and recognize that we are not the reason for the Earth to exist?

How many years will it take for core cultural values to recognize that Homo sapiens is not, by a high count, the superior species. We are more dependent on many other species than they are on us.

How many years will it take to dismantle capitalism and nationalism? If history serves correctly, once a nation has cured its unstable situation of war and abuse, it won’t be until the third generation thereafter before that nation will have leaders unscarred and unbiased in their decisions about national policy and culture.

The mariner will have more on the Holocene as matters develop. He presents only high level concepts and ideas in this post; he depends on the reader to pursue links and news sources that will add more substance to this issue.

Ancient Mariner

Red Brain, Blue Brain

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The following information was published in the PLoS ONE journal on February 13, 2013:

“Red Brain, Blue Brain: Evaluative Processes Differ in Democrats and Republicans

Liberals and conservatives exhibit different cognitive styles and converging lines of evidence suggest that biology influences differences in their political attitudes and beliefs. In particular, a recent study of young adults suggests that liberals and conservatives have significantly different brain structure, with liberals showing increased gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, and conservatives showing increased gray matter volume in the in the amygdala.

Here, we explore differences in brain function in liberals and conservatives by matching publicly-available voter records to 82 subjects who performed a risk-taking task…. Although the risk-taking behavior of Democrats (liberals) and Republicans (conservatives) did not differ, their brain activity did. Democrats showed significantly greater activity in the left insula, while Republicans showed significantly greater activity in the right amygdala….. These results suggest that liberals and conservatives engage different cognitive processes when they think about risk, and the results support recent evidence that conservatives show greater sensitivity to threatening stimuli….. Conversely, liberals had stronger responses to situations of cognitive conflict than conservatives.”

Red brain art

The mariner apologizes for the scientific journal lingo – rather dry reading. He will paraphrase while contemplating what this means in the world of politics and beliefs in general. His comments easily can be interpreted too literally; the reader should consider the mariner’s informal interpretations as parables.

Republicans orient attention to external cues. What this means is Republicans find it less important to understand how they feel inside; more important is their control of potential risk outside.

On the other hand, Democrats orient attention to perceptions of internal feelings – how they feel about the external cues. This orientation also borders the temporal-parietal junction, and may reflect the perceptions of internal feeling and motivation in others as well.

Now the reader has a clear and firm understanding of the difference between a Republican and a Democrat. The mariner perceives this may not be true. Let’s take a real example but remember that simply saying something for clarity may be overstated and may not be wholly true in the first place.

Republicans are good managers because they are risk averse. Republicans are sensitive to anything that blocks their range of decisions in dealing with risk. Therefore, Republicans do not like labor unions because labor unions have the ability to limit what the Republican may want to do regarding job profiles and salary – risk-laden issues in any business. This does not mean Democrats aren’t good managers, too. Remember the statement in the journal lingo: “Although the risk-taking behavior of Democrats (liberals) and Republicans (conservatives) did not differ….” In other words, a good manager will deal with risk appropriately – liberal or conservative.

The Democrat manager, however, is sensitive to his/her feelings about jobs and salary and, because the temporal-parietal junction is nearby, empathy may play a role in how the risk is perceived. As long as labor unions play by fair rules, the Democrat is more likely to accept why being in a union is important to the employees’ perception of risk.

How are we doing? Maybe one more example. But to keep it simple, no elected government folks are allowed:

Bah, Humbug! People have nothing to do with global warming! Republican or Democrat? We don’t really know for certain but several surveys show that this is a Republican. Global warming is nothing if it is not constrictive, behavioral (the right amygdala doesn’t know about behavioral) and interferes with profit strategies across the board. A Republican would run from the restrictive regulations that cure global warming. The same is true of the fossil fuel industry, the banking industry and a myriad of other corporate interests that do not want to be curtailed in their decision making regarding risk to profit.

What is the future of humanity if it all boils down to Left Posterial Insula versus right amygdala?

Ancient Mariner

Standing in the Penumbra of Advocacy at Home

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Penumbra is the word of the day. The mariner doubts it will be replaced by “get” or “got.” The general meaning is to stand in the shadow of something. More than just a shadow, it alludes to a shadow that doesn’t have an edge like our shadow or the shadow of a building. An example may be an eclipse or, on a sunny day, standing beneath an altocumulus cloud – high enough that its shadow line is diffused by the time it reaches the ground.

The mariner will confess that penumbra is not one of his usual words. He doubts there are very few except scientists who need a word like penumbra. It is a word the mariner remembers from something he read long ago; it comes to mind whenever the word “eclipse” is mentioned.

It is the appropriate word for our thoughts about the Advocacy at Home (AH) series of posts. AH has advocated a form of behavior; it has set standards for that behavior. AH is, in fact, a law book. It is a law book without an end.

There is no line between advocacy and no advocacy. We may have a lifestyle that involves low grade advocacy, that is, taking note of an issue and having an opinion, and then have something else catch our attention. We may have strong feelings about a subject, idea, or activity and may physically react in some way to counter the situation. But there always is advocacy; else, prejudice and accomplishment would not exist.

The mariner looks back at the brutality and stupidity of Homo sapiens referenced in AH. Humans are no different than any other animal except humans are capable of malice aforethought, destroying just to destroy, or destroying because it is easier than assuring optimum or fair conclusions. Defenders of this characteristic claim it is done in the name of progress – akin to Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest.’ Progress for whom? Perhaps not progress for humans. Malice aforethought is part genetic and part sociopathic.

Referenced in the post, Po Pouree, from letters to the editor in Scientific American, Robert E Marx responded to an article about why neandertals became extinct (apologies for repetition of earlier posts):

“Kate Wong’s suppositions about what brought about neandertals’ extinction in “Neandertal Minds” are contrary to the known history of anatomically modern Homo sapiens (that is, us). Her assertions that neandertals were just out competed and that the 1.5 to 2.1 percent neandertal DNA within people outside of Africa is the result of occasional “dalliances” would be historically unlikely.

The most likely scenario would involve waves of immigrating anatomically modern humans taking over land and causing death by plunder and disease, as Europeans discovering the New World did. And it would be naive to think that our neandertal DNA was the result of consensual dalliances when rape went hand in hand with the pillage of every other civilization.”

Pogo-1

From Walt Kelly’s comic strip, Pogo, April 22, 1970.

Putting aside our treatment of other species, consider how we treat human beings – our own species.

John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834-1902). The historian and moralist, otherwise known simply as Lord Acton, expressed this opinion in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”

The letter was written at the end of the Victorian era when the Edwardian era was emerging and which peaked during the years of 1901 – 1910, then slowly disappearing as the First World War drew near. That was a time very similar to the United States today: a very few were incredibly wealthy and the rest of Great Britain was in a crisis.

Is it true that if the reader or the mariner were given absolute power, we would be “bad men?” At the least, would we be immoral? Would our arrogance and indifference be obvious? Vladimir Putin has absolute power. Would he be less immoral if he had no power? Assume we had absolute power over one person. Would we abuse that person? Would we, in a twisted desire for absolute power be like Phillip Garrido, who kidnapped and kept Jaycee Dugard in a backyard shed for 18 years and had two children by her? Famous studies of power over another person show that, indeed, immoral if not violent behavior will occur.

What is it about power that is so destructive?

The oldest reference to rule by law was written by the reformist King Urukagina of city-state Lagash in Mesopotamia during the 24th century BC. It consisted of a list of rules that were generally beneficial to the very poor and the labor class. The rich were curtailed in their abuses by what the mariner calls “Clintonesque restraints,” that is, in exchange for paying silver to their laborers, one could have 1,500 sheep instead of 500. Good people die young – King Urukagina was overthrown seven years later by his neighbor city-state Urek.

The reader would think, after 4,600 years, humans would have mastered the three elements of ruling by law. The three elements are power, intervention of power, and individuals. If intervention or individuals weren’t present, who would need rule of law? Perhaps the less powerful would lust after those who may be more powerful. Intervention would become battles between powerful people and individuals would become a commodity like chickens. Isn’t that called the Dark Ages (500 – 1100 AD)?

The reason for this run around Robin Hood’s barn is to highlight the similarities between AH and rule by law. We must be firm, committed and assertive in our AH laws. It is the only way to fix our dysfunctional nation.

Earlier it was mentioned that there were three elements to rule by law: power, intervention of power, and individuals. The dysfunction in the US is that it is the powerful that write the rules for intervention of power. Individuals are out of the loop. So AH is a beginning. The more individuals that create their AH rule books and enforce them, the sooner individuals may take their place in the triumvirate known as rule of law.

Ancient Mariner

Advocacy at Home – Local Organizations

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In this final section, the point is made that one soldier is a good soldier – even a hero. However, one soldier will not win a war. Toward the end of the last segment, neighborhood organizations were mentioned as a form of vitality, a force that sustains a good gestalt. Many of these local organizations have outreach components that go beyond the neighborhood to address state, national and global issues. Add to the local organizations the many larger organizations that focus on various issues, and one has assembled an army of good soldiers.

Local organizations with established outreach include the majority of churches, particularly connectional denominations, where many local churches contribute to a fund-raising distribution center. Many social organizations adopt a cause beyond the neighborhood from simple causes like the Lion’s Club eyeglass redistribution to widespread campaigns like the Methodist Church’s “No More Malaria” campaign. At the following website, 51 veteran support organizations were listed:

https://www.nrd.gov/other_services_and_resources/veterans_service_organizations/chartered_veterans_service_organizations

For  virtually endless numbers of wildlife organizations, use:

http://www.bing.com/search?q=List+of+wildlife+protection+Organizations&go=Submit+Query&qs=n&form=QBRE&pq=list+of+wildlife+protection+organizations&sc=0-31&sp=-1&sk=&cvid=9fedf1e8b48949c097ef6008f02d68a8

For organizations dedicated to improving the environment, see:

http://www.nrdc.org/reference/environGroups.asp and

http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2008/09/24/25-environmental-agencies-and-organizations/

Further, government agencies abound:

http://www.grinningplanet.com/5005/government-agencies-environmental.htm

If the reader is serious about stemming the tide and extending the day of Armageddon, one is in constant communication with many of these organizations. They are the reader’s army. They will be glad to receive one’s participation and financial support. The mariner endorses all of them as helping in some way although some may be better organized than others. A list of efficient organizations follows but may not cover one’s specific interest:

http://www.fundraiserinsight.org/articles/environmentalfundraising.html

Do not forget the sportsmen organizations. While they may be self-serving in goals, they improve the environment to sustain the wildlife they hunt. Often on counterpoint to sportsmen is:

http://www.humanesociety.org/ which is involved in a plethora of animal rights and abuse issues around the world – not just pets.

To provide a concise wrap up to the series on Advocacy at Home, the list is briefly revisited:

Utilities (water, gas, travel): Virtually all the issues in utilities can be improved by improving your own home. Consider some modern upgrades that will reduce the use of fossil fuel byproducts. If your vehicle has a few years on it or is a larger vehicle for when you had children, consider replacing it with something more efficient. Use cloth shopping bags. Some national issues are the legislative battles between pipelines, oil wells and environment, fossil fuel versus renewable fuel, and international trade agreements that directly affect oil prices.

Global ecology (air, water, use of chemicals):  Water is the most critical resource on the planet. Secondly, carbon emission already is killing sea life. Finally, the Environmental Protection Agency needs triple the budget it has to police the many chemical violators (speak constantly with vigor to each of your representatives at all levels of government). They are all sizes from gasoline stations to Dukes Power Company and the coal, gas and oil industry at large. Advocacy and policing by citizens is very effective in this issue.

Food (water, quality, chemicals, land use): Commercial food production consumes immense, almost unbelievable amounts of water. The greatest reduction of water use is to grow your own vegetables or buy home grown at farmers markets – enough to store in the freezer or can. Purchase protein products from a local butcher/locker or directly from the wharf – an interesting experience if one has never purchased fresh seafood. Finally, cut back on red meat. Land use is legislated in favor of farmers and developers; many regulations are local and hearings are open to your attendance and wise advice.

Specie ecology (Microsystems, estuaries, wildlife): You MUST step out and be an active advocate of your cause. Belong to an organization that will extend your influence. Jump in and “save a whale or a bear or a fox, etc.” with your own hands.

Neighborhood gestalt (trash, abandoned housing, loose pets – and your house!) It takes more than owning a tract in a neighborhood to contribute to a good neighborhood gestalt. Be part of the neighborhood through interaction with neighbors, organizations and charitable behavior.

Local organizations (scouting, youth clubs, nursing homes, PTA, Lions Club): There are many, many volunteer organizations in the reader’s community. In many communities, there are volunteer fire and first responder companies; dozens of volunteer organizations exist from preschool to high school; every neighborhood has unofficial neighborhood watch groups for people in difficulty on the street. Interestingly, the various motorcycle brands publish handbooks full of volunteers within a half hour of wherever the reader’s bike fails. If the reader has a bike, pass it forward and put the reader’s name in the handbook. Lastly, but importantly and entertainingly, get to know one’s police officers on a personal basis. The reader eventually will meet them while on a walk.

The mariner worked many years ago with the Maryland State Police. He joined the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). At the time, he was an independent consultant in the law enforcement sector and traveled around the country. He was able to use the FOP as his private ORBITZ and once in Washington, DC, was put up on FOP premises and treated like royalty. It takes a village – AKA neighborhood. For broader perspectives, see the list above in this post.

Tools

Many newspapers, even if online versions and especially local newspapers: Read the news headlines from Bing (news not show business), Google (news, not show business), Huffington Post, Atlantic, New York Times and other known and respected news sources. The content is better presented, more relevant, and more diverse than any television station. Local issues will be found only in local newspapers.

Two or three respected soft cover journals, even if they’re at the library: These are the journals that can be boring if the subject is not one you are interested in. However, if the subject pushes your button, there is no better source to become informed. Try:

Agenda (for your reading pleasure – excellent poetry)

American School Board Journal

Education Week

InfoWorld (computer news)

National Journal

Scientific American

The Atlantic

The Economist

Washington Post

Neighborhood walks: Once a week, if not more, walk all the streets of your neighborhood. If nothing else, it’s good for your health. Make a mental note of changes of any kind. Do not hesitate to introduce yourself and start a conversation with individuals you meet who obviously are not in a hurry. Ponder a future conversation that may need to be had with someone in an organization who may be interested in that change. Make note of something you and your family can do to improve a situation.

Discerning eyes: Eyes help during your walk, of course, but discerning eyes look beyond the instance to see emerging patterns and ramifications, even projecting the impact of government and zoning futures. Perhaps a park is needed for children or simply green space for other creatures.

Personal blog and twitter communication: Talk to people all the time! Email, voice, twitter, facebook, your congressmen and other government individuals, your neighbors, your fellow workers, your extended family, your merchants. If a high functioning recluse like the mariner can do it – so can you.

Physical effort (scheduled time, communication, achieve goals): It’s time for discipline. Get out of your #%@$!&!! house and do something.

Ancient Mariner

Advocacy at Home – Neighborhood Gestalt

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Remember in the post, “Advocacy at Home – Overview,” an example was to pick up a trash cup in the gutter and having done so, improved the entire street? Neighborhood gestalt is about stuff like that but much more multidimensional. What can the reader do in one’s own neighborhood, even one’s home – that will provide a satisfactory gestalt?

Main Entry:ge£stalt

Pronunciation:g*-*st*lt, -*sht*lt, -*st*lt, -*sht*lt

Function:noun

Inflected Form:plural ge£stalt£en  \-*st*l-t*n, -*sht*l-, -*st*l-, -*sht*l-\ ; or gestalts

Etymology:German, literally, shape, form

Date:1922

 : a structure, configuration, or pattern of physical, biological, or psychological phenomena so integrated as to constitute a functional unit with properties not derivable by summation of its parts.

For example, a neighborhood’s government service infrastructure consists of water, gas, electricity, adequate law enforcement, fire response, education, health services, sewage, trash collection, tree trimming, replacing streetlights, collecting unwanted junk, maintaining streets and sidewalks, clearing street snow and maintaining common space shrubbery and lawns – all of which create a neighborhood that seems orderly and provides a nice neighborhood in which to live. In other words, the gestalt is pleasant and respectable, creating an atmosphere that is greater than just performing government services.

Gestalt is more than government infrastructure. It includes the reader’s home and property. Does the reader care for personal appearance in the same way the city cares for the neighborhood? Does your lifestyle reflect the rest of the neighborhood? Does the reader keep yards and porches free of junk, trash, and odd lot paraphernalia? Trimmed shrubs and cut grass? Does the reader paint and repair the outside of the home?

This tendency to comply with one’s surroundings is an evolved survival behavior that depends on normalization and tribal trust for security. Gestalt turns out to be more than government services. Some communities create Home Owner Associations to assure normalization. The mariner thinks this is a bridge too far, having a sense of the Third Reich looking over one’s shoulder. Free expression, too, is a form of normalization.

It turns out that gestalt is found everywhere, even in the worst slum – although normalization and tribal trust conform to different tribal behaviors. The super rich have gestalt, too. Who dare not have a gardener?

Gestalt includes specific tonal and dialectic differences that signal one’s neighborhood – even within a block or two. The reader could vacation in parts of Baltimore, Philadelphia and Chicago where those from one neighborhood can barely understand those from another. “Skoeet. Whameano?”

Yet, gestalt is even more multidimensional. There are expectations within a neighborhood to behave with a given set of “manners;” the way one steps aside on the sidewalk, or parks one’s automobile carefully to not infringe on the neighbor’s spot, or in a slum neighborhood, ignoring theft charges when a young person (or an old one for that matter) walks by the sidewalk fruit stand and grabs a couple of oranges without paying. Can the reader sense a form of “manners” on the part of the store owner? Life can be tough.

The behavior of the store owner leads to another dimension of gestalt. Set aside the role of government. There is an obligation for the reader to help keep the neighborhood vibrant; keep the neighborhood dynamic and meaningful in society. There is an expectation for neighbors to participate in sustaining the vitality of the neighborhood. In a middleclass neighborhood, one feels the need to participate in babysitting clubs, little league, service organizations like the scouts, Rotary and Lions, support the churches, synagogues and mosques, the local library and even be patrons at local businesses. Are you old like the mariner? Do you participate in meals on wheels or provide transportation to those who cannot fend for themselves?

The reader gets the idea. We are closely involved in the gestalt of our neighborhood. But. But – far out on the horizon, there are greater gestalts which are addressed in other posts in this series. The reader’s obligation is not only to sweep the porch steps, it is to improve the troublesome circumstances on the horizon that eventually will reach the reader’s neighborhood – and perhaps not in a pleasant way.

There are many steps to sweep, many dimensions to repair.

Ancient Mariner