“Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people.” – Henry Kissinger,  1970

This is the type of future Henry Kissinger had in mind in 1970. This is not a new tactic or strategy.

Food fuels our bodies. Without the knowledge of how our bodies work we can not fully understand how food feeds our body and to what ends.    Not devoting great time and study to our Biology is a disservice to humanity, the planet and all its inhabitants! Biology should be the foundation on which all else is built and integrated into. We should begin our education by counting our feet and understanding how they work. Instead we count numbers and wonder what the numbers mean. They have  no meaning by themselves.  Our schools must reflect such awareness if we are to climb out of this darkness we have plunged!

What is Biology? Merriam-Webster defines Biology as:

Forbes says food is The World’s Largest Business.  And as those before us have known; food is the best way to control people. The ways in which our food is being controlled today is much less direct than for instance, our war to win the American west. There are no Buffalo to target this time. Now the control is much more illusive. More scientific. The human population is approaching seven billion…and everyone wants to be fed!  The World Bank puts the food and agriculture sector at 10% of global gross domestic product, which, taking the bank’s 2006 estimate of about $48 trillion, would make the sector worth about $4.8 trillion.

 ”Governments have figures for the percentage of personal-consumption expenditures that go toward food,” says David Palmer, senior food analyst at UBS(nyse: UBS - news - people ). “But if you want not just any food, but what we call packaged food, you have to define what packaged food is. Then you start to deal with the nuances of that, and you have a near impossible task.”

This ‘impossible task’; who is responsible for undertaking the nuances of what goes into our food? The population has put its trust in governments to safeguard our food. What kind of job has been and is being done? Those in power are obsessed with procuring ‘cheap food’ for the masses.  Growing food in an abundance as fast as we can, using whatever science to fertilize this obsession in order to feed an ever growing population; people are the cheapest resource of the world. Cheap food and cheap labor is the dream of the 1% controlling our world.  Encouraging population growth is essential to having a constant source of expendable and renewable energy. A type of slavery that President Polk’s administration could not have imagined when they sought to win the American West!

“For most opponents, the war to win the west was a transparent attempt to extend slavery into new territories that would become new slave states, thus ensuring that the South would control Congress and the presidency into the foreseeable future.”

- Miller Center, University of Tennessee, An american President: A Reference Resource

 ”In 1870, some U.S. government officials  promoted the destruction of the bison herds as a way to defeat their Native American enemies, who were resisting the takeover of their lands by white settlers. One Congressman, James Throckmorton of Texas, believed that “it would be a great step forward in the civilization of the Indians and the preservation of peace on the border if there was not a buffalo in existence.” Soon, military commanders were ordering their troops to kill buffalo — not for food, but to deny Native Americans their own source of food. One general believed that buffalo hunters “did more to defeat the Indian nations in a few years than soldiers did in 50.” By 1880, the slaughter was almost over. Where millions of buffalo once roamed, only a few thousand animals remained. Soon, their numbers dwindled, with the largest wild herd — just a few hundred animals — sheltered in the isolated valleys of the newly created Yellowstone National Park.” 

- Nature, American Buffalo: Spirit of a Nation

Food Manipulations: A Quick Fix for Humanity

On a much broader and bolder scale, our government and industry have developed manipulations to our food in order to control the people. Manipulation which have deathly affects to our Biology. Government and industry have neglected making biology the foundation of  our education. Our institutions have not prepared us to understand the implications of the food manipulation by science; the masses are inflicted with an inferior education; stressing reading, writing and arithmetic without biology as there foundation and  point of integration. The people of the world suffer disease and dying…and look to science for a cure! We fight not feeling good, little energy and apathy with drugs from science. We hunker down and do little to take responsibility for our condition. We chose science to develop the cures for our disease and dying; a quick fix for humanity is not what is needed.

Our bodies need a strong foundation. That foundation consists of an intricate understanding and appreciation for the geography within our bodies. When we have this understanding we learn to respect and nurture ourselves with pure and unadulterated food, we will find our bodies have the ability to heal itself.  Biology should be the foundation of our education. Reading, writing and arithmetic are inclusive.  Everything is connected. Understanding the geography of my body, and what purpose these intricacies have is essential to my understanding how everything is connected. All the religions I have studied requires we treat our bodies as some kind of temple. It took me, as I said 30 something years to understand this belief and/or concept. And now, 30 something years later, I can not imagine ever thinking differently. The condition of my temple determines what I can do or not do on this planet.

Nature’s Tide

The tide of our education must co-inside with the way of nature.  The nature of how our body works must be the foundation of our education.  Each community has to understand this as imperative to healing ourselves and the planet. Is this a difficult concept to wrap your mind around? Yes.  However, once you take time to understand what it takes to optimize our body you will understand how  the food we eat, the environment we live in impacts how our bodies function.  Once you understand; you have the power to govern like no government or industry ever will!

Look closely at the CHANGE that is ahead for all of us; the heart and soul of what life is about, not just what it looks and smells like; new doors to how we connect are opening.  ’What happens to the least of us, happens to all of us’.  Me, I’m just a ‘whimsical kid’. I keeps dreaming and discovering all the beautiful possibilities. Penny Politics works! Try it on and see how it feels!

The changes needed today will go beyond much of what we have loved and coveted. We have a couple of choices when it comes to the changes we need. We can choose to leave a bright and shiny world; full of everything healthy and beautiful; or, continue chomping away at the heals of our world, leaving a sick and fearful world. This is difficult journey; making time to study before you make a purchase. The upside: You can participate in governing this planet with every penny you spend.

As long as human beings remain fragmented and continue to disregard our connection to all that is apart of this world we breed discord, fear and discontent! We must strive to understand how our body works, how to become the ‘super beings’ we are meant to be. Embrace our congregation and keep our temple clean and healthy. Understanding our innate connection and benefit to each other. This acceptance and understanding will dissolve our discord, fear and discontent; it is our responsibility to all that is apart of this world, as stewards we are obligated to insure the highest quality of life for all.

Happy trails within!

“The livestock industry is the last wildlife-genocide program in the United States,” says Bruce Apple, the director of an Oregon-based environmental organization appropriately called Rest the West. “All-out war is declared on a diversity of species every day to benefit a single industry.” 

This ‘single industry’, the Beef Industry, is one example of how our dollars have an impact to not just the wild horses, but our health and the environment. Think differently about your purchases. Every penny you and I spend makes a political statement.  Take time to look ‘behind the name’. Understand what your purchase means to others.

Is this a difficult concept to wrap your mind around? Yes. However, once you take time to understand everything that happens behind the products we purchase and realize the power of every dollar you spend, then you can begin to govern like no government ever will!

Behind the Burger:

Our sensational appetite for Whoppers, Big Macs and Wendy’s burgers is chomping at the hills of our nation’s wild horses; people eat approximately 200 billion burgers a year! The United States has a population of a little over 307 million; “Modern plants can process 800,000 pounds of hamburger meat a day, from many thousands of different cattle”. Last year the U.S. Population Ate 26.4 Billion Pounds of Beef Cattle! And according to ‘Freakonomics, The Hidden Side of Everything’, “Our Future Looks Fat; Study Predicts Nearly Half the U.S. Population Will be Obese by 2030″.

About 45 million beef cattle roam some 870 million acres, more than two thirds of the land mass in our seventeen westernmost states. There are about 33,700 wild horses and 4,700 burros roaming on BLM ranges in 10 Western states.  The Bureau of Land Management says, if these horses were left on their own, the population would explode. Let’s see, 45 million beef cattle and 33,700 wild horses…and why is the BLM focusing on the wild horse population? Chomp! Chomp! Oh, by the way, there is a huge difference in the way cattle and horses graze.  I’m not saying to stop eating beef…just slow down! Try eating only ‘organic’ and eat less.

The changes needed today will go beyond much of what we have loved and coveted. We have a couple of choices when it comes to the changes we need. We can choose to leave a bright and shiny world; full of everything healthy and beautiful; or, continue chomping away at the heals of our world, leaving a sick and fearful world. This is difficult journey; making time to study before you make a purchase. The upside: You can participate in governing this planet with every penny you spend.

Look closely at the CHANGE that is ahead for all of us; the heart and soul of what life is about, not just what it looks and smells like; new doors to how we connect are opening. Welcome. ‘What happens to the least of us, happens to all of us’.  Me, I’m just a ‘whimsical kid’ that keeps dreaming. Penny Politics works! Try it on and see how it feels!

Happy Wild Horse Trails!

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it.Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.
—Chief Seattle

As I sit in the sun I’m delighted to hear the flutter of  wings. My eyes revel as the birds feast. Cautious, fearful, yet determined to feed, no matter how close I come;  as long as I remain still they succumb to bravery and peck away at the bird feeder.  There are maybe a hundred or more waiting their turn at the feeder. Fluttering wings and chirping surrounds me. If I move too quickly, they flicker away. What is this invisible line of connection? Drawing them near; then frighten them away with my movement. I’m a giant in their world. Their language and pecking order are a mystery. Yet, they too are an intricate thread within the web of life.

“Is there something wrong? I’m somewhat concerned. One of the village men came and said there were stirrings of trouble in the forest. What kind of trouble? The village man said, “creatures are being killed and dying in the forest. Insects, animals and birds are struggling for life.”

- Clive Cussler, Blue Gold, a novel from the NUMA files.

Fiction? We all recognize the ‘trouble’: It’s all around us; fear is nipping at everyones’ heals.The novel brings a glimpse of one mans movement that caused the death of a pod of whales and more. He places an enormous blister on humanities face. Deliberately bringing imbalance to life and the planet.

How do we begin changing lifestyles and habits? We do it with each step we take. Until each of us acknowledges what Chief Seattle so eloquently said; ‘all things connect’, the imbalance we’ve created is killing us.  Is it our lack of education? Or is it acceptance and greed that provokes humanity to take such stupid steps? Our rampant and irresponsible development and consumption reveals our societal immaturity on an enormous scale!

Think ‘non-consumption’. Opps, that won’t work…the basis of our economy would go bust! Oh, our economy is already a bust. For me, shifting from ‘want’ to ‘need’ is the basic foundation for curing most everything that is wrong in our world. We need to tilt the scales back to when we were a ‘need based’ society. And now is the time to do it. We have become gluttonous! Starving for purpose! I heard a woman at the market say, “I want an SUV! I’m having a mid-life crisis!” Well, that pretty much sums it up. We chase after ‘things’ to fulfill ourselves. Never giving a thought about how these kinds of actions affects the world around us. Even when we are aware, we seldom go beyond the name of a thing; at the depth beneath a name.

Just as you, I yearn to have a voice. Be heard. Express what I know. Converse with friends and those I don’t know. Be understood and respected. Breath and see clearly. I have a dream: Stewardship is practiced by everyone. Each of us is a good and loving person. Each of us can take the time to ‘go beyond a name’ and become familiar with the ‘essence of life’, which is ‘biology‘; a branch of knowledge that deals with living organisms and vital processes. We will see a beautiful living thing and know how it is connected to ourselves and its environment. We will no longer lose all that we hold dear. There is a natural balance and every community thrives.

Happy non-gluttonous trails!

Rocky Mountain Trail

The following story was sent to me in an email. I am so pleased to present it here. I asked about who the author was and could not get an answer. So, if anyone knows who wrote this, I hope you will let them know that I have published their words; which are addressed to any and all those who believe the ‘boomer generation’  didn’t do enough to help the environment.

In the line at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. The woman apologized to him and explained, “We didn’t have the green thing back in my day.” The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment.”

She was right — our generation didn’t have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.

But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.

But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts — wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old lady is right; we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana.

In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us.

When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not a Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she’s right; we didn’t have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water.

We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But we didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service.

We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need computerized gadget to receive a signal from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?

Conservation isn’t just a ‘state of mind’…it’s taking a close look at where we want to go and how we want to get there.

Tightening our belts with regard to the economy also means changing many of the way we do things. If each of the 310,950,000 people in the United Stated changed one little thing with regard to conservation…what a huge difference we could make.

Happy Conservation Trails!

Welcome. I’ll try and make this short, sweet and maybe a little entertaining.   And, of course, it’s somewhat free.

We’re all looking for ways to lighten our load; cut expenses and still get things done and maybe find some enjoyment.  We are in the time of the ‘shrinking dollar’. Jobs are almost non-existent and we have to ‘tighten our belts’, in far too many instances,  without starving. Who’s to blame? I’ll point my finger at you and me.  Who else can be held responsible. We each participated in someway to bring us to this juncture…again. You would think we would have learned a few lessons…just shows you how much attention some of us are paying.  Much of what we are doing is simply not working.  Now, we’ve got to dig ourselves out…yet, again.

How can we make things easier on ourselves and maybe change directions? This may sound simplistic, however, increasing our Bartering efforts is just a tiny tip on the iceberg of getting through these ‘hard times’. Some seem embarrassed when offering to barter. There is  nothing to be ashamed of; societies often turn to ‘bartering’ when in a time of  ’money crisis’. And, we certainly can’t argue about the ‘money crisis’ we’re in.

In case you are unfamiliar with the bartering system; it is a method of exchange by which goods or services are exchanged for goods and services without using a medium of exchange like ‘money’. It’s usually ‘bilateral‘ and has always existed along side monetary systems. Most cultures of the world have based their ‘exchange system’ on ‘flat money’. And look at what most culture are experiencing!

Bartering has a long history. I’ve been bartering in one way or another all my life. Interestingly, when I looked ‘bartering’ up I found out that ‘there is no evidence of a society or economy that relied primarily on barter’. Non-monetary societies operated largely along the principles of gift economics. That sounds like the movie ‘Pay It Forward’ or going deep into ‘living from the heart’ …here’s hoping you’re a ‘Taoist’ or a serious ‘Christian’.

Just to recap. The dollar bill is all but disappeared, it’s time to look at other strategies and integrate more of our heart into the economy; which may include a combination of  ’monetary systems’; flat money, barter, gift economy and looking at new ways of supporting each other.  Let’s  increase our efforts to do these things.  Let’s think ‘outside the box’ a little more. We all know jobs are limited. The feed back about our circumstances seems bleak! But we humans are incredible, we always seem to get up after a fall.

Here are some things we can do to make life easier.

1. Go over your expenses and cut back everywhere you can. I just cut my expenses $130 a month. That’s almost $1600 a year.
2. Barter whenever possible.
3. Practice ‘gift economics’.
4. Look closely at companies that offer ‘enlightened capitalism‘.
5. Get back to a more ‘need based’ economy.
6. Call everyone you are doing business with and see what specials they might offer.
7. Do more outdoor activities; hiking, camping, picnicing, etc.
8. Support your Parks.
9. Scrutinize every dollar you spend.
10. Be prepared for great things to happen.

I’m making a commitment to do all 10 of these things…let’s see what happens.

Happy trails!

Coexisting with animals, humans and the planet is such an intricate journey. It takes courage just to walk out the door. Often times I don’t.

A’ responsible father’, unbeknown to me at the time of our initial encounter, rents my neighbor’s garage driveway space. How ‘the responsible father’ got there; I answered a Craigslist ad the ‘responsible father’ had placed looking for a space for his RV; I gave my neighbor ‘the responsible’ father’s information.

We will call the responsible father ‘Troy’. Troy works hard at labor intensive jobs and travels a great deal following work. Troy has a pick up, young and strong. He has a glow of health about him; tan and handsome. Me, I’m an ‘old woman’ trying to grasp every straw of ‘health’ and ‘goodness’ I can; often leaving me breathless and sore.

Troy was kind enough to take me to pick up a couch that I purchased. I gave him a few dollars…he didn’t want to take the money, but I insisted, I know how hard his money comes and gas is expensive.  For awhile I let Troy to use my outside plumbing to fill water containers. However, Pieper and Sprout barked a great deal when he came; which was disturbing to me and the neighbors; so, I had to ask Troy not to use the outside water anymore. He seemed to understand.

Troy goes to the downtown library regularly. Recently, he found a car on Craigslist that he wanted to check out. However, he does not know how to respond to the ‘seller’ using his email. He asked if I would contact the seller and give him/her his phone. I responded twice, leaving the ‘seller’ Troy’s phone number.

Initially when Troy called at around 8:30 a.m this morning and asking if I would contact the ‘seller’, I told him my computer was down. It wasn’t. I just didn’t know how to say ‘no’. Having asked Troy a couple of time over the past month if he would help me do a couple of things I was feeling muffed that he had not asked what he could help me with. Here I go expecting something from someone I hardly know.  Not a good idea.  It takes time to know someone:  However, my thinking was, if he pays alimony, then he’s a good guy…and good guys offer to help out an old woman. Well, as they say, ‘timing is everything’; I don’t know about ‘timing’ be ‘everything’, but in this instance, mine didn’t seem to be all that good.  Even when you’ve spent time to know someone, expecting a certain behavior can be setting yourself up for a fall. And I barely knew Troy.

I decided to do some yard work and while moving a pile of wood, I thought about my lie to Tony and felt a little guilty. That’s when I decided to call him back and offer help, and ask if he could make time to help me.

When I got him on the phone,  and Troy asked me for the third time to contact a ‘seller’, I asked if he had an Email address and he said absolutely. I offered to teach him how to do respond using his email. He said if it was too big of a deal, that he had friends in other places that would drive him someplace at the drop of a hat. He then said he didn’t have time today that he was going to a friend’s house for a barbeque. And kept repeating himself. Saying that if it only takes a minute and if it’s such a big deal…and then repeated about his friends. He did not want to give me an opportunity to speak. I finally shouted for him to stop and let me speak. I told him it did not have to be today and asked him to give me the information so I might help him. It was difficult for him. He finally gave me the information, and that was when I realized it was the same info he’d given me two other times. I said if the person has not called as yet, I didn’t see the point in sending his phone number again.  And that when he had time I’d be glad to show him how to respond by email to people on Craigslist who do not list a phone number; he began repeating himself again. I’m not sure how I squeezed out about helping  me do a couple of things sometime.  He began repeating what he had said before and that he wanted to hang out with people who he could learn from…and then made accusations that I was bragging about helping him. It was clear that Troy was upset and had made his mind up about the situation. I finally told him;’ you see what you want to see…and hear what you want to hear’.  I think we said ‘goodbye’, I’m not sure. I don’t believe Troy heard much of what I said. Nor, do I believe he wanted to take time to listen.  He had made up his mind about the situation.

Making our minds up about a situation, without taking the time to listen and understand, can create such ‘chaos’.  Who wants to take the time to repeat back to someone; “this is what I hear you saying”, “this is what I understand”.  Therefore, the majority of the world ‘hears and sees what they wants’. Someone said ‘no one can know you as well as you know yourself”. What are you thinking? What are you doing? Inquiring minds, yes, there are ‘inquiring minds’ out there…and they really do want to listen and understand what you have to say.

We are just specs on this planet.  Most of the time it seems to me, that we are ‘specs on steroids’!  Short ‘tweets’ camouflaging for conversation. Believing what we want; more often without spending the necessary time to listen and understand. We long for someone to listen.  Thinking if we speak loud and as fast as we can, someone will hear; we saturate the internet; trying to ‘Brand’ ourselves. Wagering our time on this or that.

If there is more to ‘A Morning’s Tale’ I’ll let you know. In the meantime…’You hear what you want, you see what you want’ and ‘no one can know you as well as yourself’. Are you living from your heart? Can you hear it beat? Does it matter? How long must you and I take? Can you hear me? Tweet, Tweet!

Happy trails,

Walking the line between sensuality and reality leaves me a little dizzy. ‘Give me Freedom or give me Death’ is obsolete. There are varying shades of freedom and death in Blueray and Digital surrounding me. A colorful vortex sucks at my bones; luring me with promises that I know will leave me docile. Jump in, be happy!

Fraud discovered humans had feelings we repressed because they were too dangerous: remnants of our animal past. As he witnessed the horror of war mounting; he believed war to be terrible evidence of exactly how we should have expected people to behave given the knowledge of our psychoanalysis.

I surmise that our ‘animal past’ may have given us limited ability to communicate; and as a result we were more inclined to battle for what we wanted. However, our evolution into intelligent beings, with increased communication skills should have curtailed our nature to battle for what we want. Is it our ‘animal past’ that keeps us in ‘battle’?  Or, is it purely economics that keeps us in battle? How big is the business of War? Over 50% of Federal Funds are spent on war! Is it no wonder its the most popular commodity being sold to the American people? Who profits?

“The normal profits of a business concern in the United States are six, eight, ten, and sometimes twelve percent. But war-time profits – ah! that is another matter – twenty, sixty, one hundred, three hundred, and even eighteen hundred per cent – the sky is the limit. All that traffic will bear. Uncle Sam has the money. Let’s get it. Of course, it isn’t put that crudely in war time. It is dressed into speeches about patriotism, love of country, and “we must all put our shoulders to the wheel,” but the profits jump and leap and skyrocket – and are safely pocketed. Let’s just take a few examples:”

- General Smedley Butler

Fraud’s American nephew, Edward Bernays was the first man to show American corporations how to make people want what they do not need; manipulating the masses; linking mass produced goods to our unconscious desires. Out of this a new political idea of how to control the masses: by satisfying peoples inner selfish desires, one made them happy and thus docile. The start of the all consuming ‘Self’ which is come to dominate the world today!

Armed with this knowledge American Corporations learned how to package and present anything they could make a ‘buck’ on to the American people…war was dressed in patriotic speeches and love of country  becoming the ultimate commodity for those who would benefit.

Jump in, be happy! The American Dream is your ‘fix’! Everything comes with a promise. Be careful what you buy…defining and understanding the ingredients are crucial to your life. How do you know who keeps their promise? Who can you trust? Trust is much more than a name. How can you chose without knowing? How do you find out? You have to spend precious time. It takes time to filter through all the muck out there. If you are not taking the time to filter through the information; a colorful vortex is sucking at your bones; luring you with promises that are leaving you docile.

Education is one of the Pillar Posts of humanities foundation. Everyone must have equal education. Unless we each have similar knowledge we can not sustain ourselves. Until every individual has equal resources; which begins with a sound and equal education, someone is left behind. And as president George Bush said, “no child left behind’. What surprises me most is that we have sadly neglected this most important foundation to our society.  ‘When one of us suffer, so shall we all’. Without equal knowledge we are devalued. Everyone suffers.  Society’s chaos; wars abound across the planet and Death marks its tracks; and the wounded seem to disappear. Everyone looking to feel good with little left to believe in and grasping at the American Dream with all their might!

Society’s management and organizational skills are undisciplined, uncoordinated; contributing to the planetary shifting and species extinction… as our weakened immunity leaves us diseased and dying.

Solutions to this bleak reality does not exist in continuing the model we created…it is NOT working! We need new kind of ‘Paradigm’. Whenever given the opportunity and mechanism to do so, people are good, kind and supportive. There are new ‘paradigms’. New ‘opportunities and mechanisms’ to be apart of. We simply must not give up our pioneering spirit.

I’ve worked hard for some piece of the American Dream for almost 70 years. I’ve come up with a tiny bit…and I could probably stop with what I have. However, my ‘pioneering spirit’ and my nature to be ‘good, kind and supportive’ will not let me be content just to be. I’ve a vision that we can be all that is good in the world. Through my ‘looking glass’ I’ve found some ‘new paradigms’.  If you are visionary enough and can learn to trust a little more you will seek out these ‘new paradigms’ and change our History! Here is one such new ‘paradigm‘!

Happy Visionary Trails!

“The American public does not want to be uplifted, ennobled–it wants to be amused.”

-Alice Dunbar-Nelson (1875-1935). novelist. social worker. and teacher

Alice was a poet, journalist and political activist. And, some sort of visionary, from where I stand. She was among the first generation born free in the south after the Civil War, she was one of the prominent African Americans involved in the artistic flourishing of the Harlem Renaissance. Alice and I have much in common. She knew what many of us are aware of…I wonder what she would think if she were here today?

Who doesn’t want to escape? You work hard all day, at a job you’re not crazy about; for a boss who doesn’t appreciate how brilliant you are; then you come home too exhausted to cook; so you through an empty of anything nutritious excuse for food into a microwave; which kills any remaining nutrition; or you open up a carton of ice cream hoping to stop that ineffable hunger you just can’t seem to reach! Even when you are aware of the diabolical account of how four Anglo-American agribusiness giants plan world domination by patenting life forms to gain worldwide control of our food supply and our lives; remnants of how we controlled the Indians’. Destroy their food and you control their destiny! Dealing with all this reality is just too darn daunting! Isn’t it?

A recent New York Times article reports; “The average American spends more on entertainment than on gasoline, household furnishings and clothing and nearly the same amount as spent on dining out, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.” It’s been estimated by the Twentieth Century Fund that Americans spend 40 billion dollars per year for total recreation expenditures in the United States.  Personally, I believe that’s a conservative figure and agree with Alice; we’re on an ‘amusement ride and we don’t want to get off‘. I also believe that keeping the population entertained is high on the list for those few men who control all our lives. Contemplating this, I tear myself away from a recorded segment of  ‘American Idol’!  Me, I’m just another willing victim.

William Engdahl’s book ‘Seeds of Destruction’  is a diabolical account of how four Anglo-American agribusiness giants plan world domination by patenting life forms to gain worldwide control of our food supply and our lives. This review is in three in-depth parts. Part I was published and is available on this web site.

Today, government subsidies for agriculture in the industrialized nations of North America, Western Europe and East Asia (Japan and South Korea) is over a Billion Dollars a Day! Did I mention this is just the subsidies. Oh, and I’m pretty sure that the organic farmer is not the recipient of any of these dollars. You might ask why; inquiring minds want to know…including mine.

Take a step back in time; December 23, 1913

“I am a most unhappy man, I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominate men”

- President Woodrow Wilson

What Did He Mean

when he said, “I have unwittingly ruined my country”? He was referring to; on December 23rd 1913, he signed the Federal Reserve Act. With all opposition out of the way: Benjamin Guggenheim, Isa Strauss and Jacob Astor; the three richest men in the world had sank with the Titanic; the way was laid clear for the Federal Reserve Banking system; a private bank, owned by private stock holders for their on personal profit!

Spirit, Heart and Mind

I did a search on Google; ‘Who Rules the World’? If you are here, you probably already know what the video reveals, however, you might want to check it out and forward to others.

“Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it”

-President Woodrow Wilson

We Need Audacious Leaders!

We need audacious leaders to carry out our demands! Our livelihood has suffered enough. We are playing with Big Boys; details of their frolic have dominated the headlines. They do not wish us to see the details of their frolic. They bail themselves out and we reward them with almost a TRILLION DOLLARS! We need not look far to see how our politics and lifestyles are severely oppressing people, destroying the planet, and bringing extinction (one in four mammals face extinction) to those we share the planet!

These are very big Boys and they are not playing; they keep a keen eye on the bottom line. They would have you believe the economic crisis is an accident. The truth is that citizens of the world have been enticed (public relations or propaganda) into believing it is important to ‘keep up with the Jones’ and to buy into frivolity at an unprecedented pace! All on credit! Invisible money slipping through business and banks like water. The poisoning of the environment and the people are a natural occurrence.  Who benefits? Our Health Care system can not cure or keep up with the disease of it’s people. Pharmaceutical Companies are the only ones who seem to be benefiting in this time of crisis. They talk about cures and drugs; no one in power wants to address  the causes.

Recently, after a minor fender bender, I put my car into a body. I chose not to have a rental; thinking I would spend time at home doing things around the house and save gas.

After spending three and a half days at home: cooking, eating, sleeping, watching Animal Planet, the news, movies, working on my lack of lawn, going through and getting rid of ‘stuff’, I called my sister, a few friends, wrote two posts, installed Photoshop CS3 (anyone know a good beginners class?), and visited Steve and Marsha (a hike away) for some icy blended drink and talk about retirement life. Yes, it’s been a relatively easy first week of retirement.

Staying home was not difficult. However, by Thursday I wanted and needed to get out of the house. I called my insurance to arrange for a rental and treated myself and Pieper (my companion and Golden Retriever) to a hike and swim. The trip to where we hike and swim is about a 20 minute drive and a 30 minute hike. The temperature was a whopping 91 degrees. When you are over a mile high…well, we were cooking. Unfortunately, Pieper is the only one allowed to swim in the reservoir; I’m left panting on the shore.

After the hike and swim, my normal routine, in an effort to coordinate trips and conserve gas, is to stop at the market on the way home. I’ll find some shade and park; leave the windows half way down in my Blazer, and Pieper being damp is fine while I pick up a few items at the grocery.

The rental car (a 2007 Ford Focus), had huge windows all around, letting far too much sun into the car. The car would hardly cool down with the air condition on maximum! No way was I going to leave Pieper in this car. I passed the market, did not collect groceries and went directly home.

As I think about my efforts to conserve; I got to thinking about the vehicle I drive. It’s an ‘oxymoron’. I’m embarrassed to be seen driving a gas guzzling SUV! How can I justify my vehicle choice? How can I find real solutions and answers to my ‘gas woes’ and the ever increasing price of everything? What can I do? What can each of us do?

Here are 11 things I thought of; please add to the list. Take action on as many as you can. I intend to do the same!

• more employers could establish the ‘four day work week’.
• re-establish ‘Blue Laws’ (close business on Sunday).
• extend public transportation hours, frequency and numbers.
• carpool.
• establish and coordinate practical routes for errands.
• cook and eat at home.
• plan entertainment and activities that can be enjoyed at home
• vacation at home (look inside your own town and state)
• build a community (get to know your neighbor).
• Buy locally grown food.
• Buy United States products.

Happy Conservative Trails!