moon girl is laughing

moon girl is laughing

she told me the hope was a ruse

some piece of toxic plastic

that wouldn't bless a tree, a person, a soul, or a star.

stay in the woods

moon girl toned

don't go to the lights

unless you go for the real fight

My Friends Were Right -Nothing Short of System Collapse Will Bring Change

They all said it was silly to "work with the system." They all said that nothing will change till the power structure really falls down. They said things won't get better if the system stays on. The earth would die just like people around it are dying. Taking a look at this joke of a health care reform I realize that they were right.


They said that only a collapse of the system will bring change for the good. The system is starting to collapse. Let it come down.
The real enemies are the liberals in the power structure. Bring it down. Blow it down. Write it down. Throw mud at its arrogance.

Deforestation of Amazon Rain Forest at New High

The deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest in June was four times worse than the month before. What will it take to end this self-destruction? I guess nothing, really. We're beyond the tipping point. But one can still monitor the criminals.

Campaign for Forest Protection Moves Forward to Copenhagen

"All Copenhagen bound climate parties urged to get back to basics of avoiding deforestation and degradation as a keystone climate change response. The focus must be upon ending first time industrial logging of primary forests while providing local peoples alternative incomes based upon fully intact standing old forests".

ANYTHING LESS IS UNWORTHY OF GREEN SUPPORT

Public Option

The Urban Institue has published a study about the importance of a Public Plan Option.

Public Option

Public Option. Without it this is bullshit.

Uninsured Should Camp in Front of Congress

They are going home for August.

The uninsured should be camping in front of Congress as they leave. Build a tent city of the sick and those who have lost insurance. People with stories of how they couldn't afford tests that would have given them a chance to survive a serious illness.

Dare the police tear down that camp. Make the Republicans deal with Americans of all situations. Let all these cowards stand up or sit down. Put bodies, faces, and souls on the line. Bring the children.

What are we waiting for? The internet has distracted us from the real moves that would accomplish the goal. Part of the reason is that sick people don't fight back. Who can blame them? But someone needs to organize this. Now. As the congress with their golden insurance plans head out. Dare these bastards to not vote for a decent plan that works immediately. Dare them. Dare yourself to do more than blogging.

Harmony Perhaps?

It's been some time since I've dealt with a relationship. I hate the word "need." As for these so-called "needs," I don't have any. I have aspirations and visions. When the visions and aspirations come together, there's a sense that love will follow, a sense that bodies are earth-connected and not sky-blind. I've gone for a poet and a "thinker." I've heard a lot of bad poetry and high-minded thoughts. Finally, a musician. Harmony perhaps? Some sense of a true song? Kali's a hard girl to please. Welcome to the forest.

On Health Insurance WE ARE NOT THE LEFT

As Paul Krugman points out, with the majority of Americans supporting a public option for health insurance, it's clear that those who support it are NOT THE LEFT BUT THE CENTER of public opinion.
How can Obama cave in to pressure from the right wing of the party? We don't need any bipartisan result after an election that we won. We don't need any compromise or bipartisan plan with support of the majority of Americans.

WE ARE NOT THE LEFT. Don't let any of these clowns portray us as such.

Obama Will Consider "Compromise" --No Thanks

Now we hear that the president will consider a compromise on healthcare and health insurance.Well, NO THANKS. THAT IS NOT WHAT I VOTED FOR. Mr. President, you and your family don't need to "compromise" on your health insurance. How about the rest of us? What a joke --but it's on the people who supported you, fought for you and gave you hard earned dollars.

Meghan McCain Supporting Gay Rights- Where Are The Rest of Us?.

It's a pretty bad state of affairs when John McCain's daughter is in the news supporting Gay Rights and there is barely a peep about the cause from TPM bloggers. Why no interest in such an important and momentous cause on a progressive blog?

I don't get it. 5 blogs about torture. That's important. But nothing on Gay Rights?

MIchelle Obama. How About Inviting Elizabeth Edwards to the White House.

All kinds of silly things get on the news. Firemen rescue a dog from an ice pond. This celebrity or that celebrity is pregnant ,or is breaking up a three-month marriage. Some off-balanced woman creates a paparazzi frenzy by having six babies. Entertainment Tonight and CNN run a shows about how many diapers they will need a day.

Where is Elizabeth Edwards in all this? A woman fighting for her life and her family. A woman still trying to bring us health care. She has become a non-person. Why? Because her husband cheated on her. You know that's it. Wounded and kicked and then the curb because of it. A healthy Hillary Clinton became a saint when her husband shamed her. But a seriously ill Elizabeth Edwards became a non-person. How does this make you feel? What does this say about how women are treated in this country. The husband cheats. Must have been her fault. She's sick. Maybe that's her fault too. Just pile on.

Her memoir called Resilience will be published in May. She wrote a piece in Newsweek in July about Tony Snow's death. That's all the news we get on Elizabeth Edwards. Not enough by a long shot.

Americans can't seem to find their own souls and hearts without seeing it on television. I'm ashamed in all this. We should all be. What does this poor women have to do to get respect. You know the answer. And then all the writers and pundits and politicians will get weepy.

Michelle Obama. Show the nation now that we care. Give Elizabeth a call. Invite her to the White House. Sure, she'll get on Oprah. But your call, on behalf of a nation, will take away our shame. Teach the children, Michelle.

3,528 Americans Dead From No Health Insurance Since Obama Took Office

3,528 Americans have died since Obama took office because they have no health insurance. 

I've bumped the daily number from 55 to 56 in recognition of the increasing number of people who are losing their health insurance as they lose jobs. I still think the number is low, but it will have to do for now.

The basic calculations are based on studies presented here.

Losing Energy : How to Fight On?

I'm losing the energy to fight for universal health insurance. No one is listening. Not enough people will admit that we were sold a bill of goods. Not enough people realize that we could get health care if we go on the offensive with Congress. Can't keep going.

He Forgot The Dirt

I heard you speak today. Yes that was me in the back. How nice to hear of your great trip to museums and castles. You got to speak French. Oh, how impressive ! You talked about paintings. Oh, my ! You talked about the smart people you met who spoke so finely. Oh, my, my, my ! One thing I didn't hear you talk about was the earth. You went all that way and didn't reach down and take some soil in your hands. Once you were a warrior. Now you are a slave. Gee. I wish I could say that in French. Oh my, oh my, oh my !

Cougar Hot Springs : Sacred Waters, Joyful Communion

Cougar Hot Springs is about an hour from Eugene. There was a time when many people who lived in the forest came down to it early in the morning to bathe. It's more commercialized now though still retains something of the essence of its untouched nature. Hot springs are sacred places for communion with the Earth and with others on the same spiritual journey. 

If you are trying to make a community of people for friendship, a cause, and a spiritual journey, a hot springs is a great place to get started and keep it going.

There are many hot springs one can find online. Don't live a life without enjoying the Earth. 

Life Force at Rest

Kali Images

Kali Protestors

I had an unhappy email from someone who objected to my use of Kali imagery. He wrote that the way I use pictures of Kali was offensive and in particular my posting of modern pictures done by "non-believers'" who had no understanding of the Hindu Goddess. While I understand and sympathize with his protest this is not something new to me. I am not a strict follower of a Hindu Goddess. She is not my religion. But the image and stories about Kali fit this time in my life. They inspire me and motivate me. I know that they inspire and motivate others. While I understand that this person may recoil at a modern representation of Kali done in Photoshop, I see it as something rich and proof of the success of a sacred image in the contemporary mind. The old images have a special beauty. They may seem more timeless. But if the older images and the stories inspire new representations, that process is a real spiritual force. I guess the question is should Kali be restricted only to Hindus. If I agreed with that idea I would have to agree that Mary the Virgin be restricted only for Christians. I don't believe that.  I believe that all humankind, men and woman, are open to all the spiritual imagery of the world.  I am not a Hindu or a Christian. I believe in a broad reverence for Mother Earth and make no apologies for it. I would ask my unhappy friend respectfully to view other blogs.

Back to the Trees

I think I may go back to the trees

I want to be a fighter again

a warrior for the bark

a blood-letting goddess

dancing with the others

the long dance

the circle dance

the sex dance

the fire

I want to see the friends in hiding

so clean 

without computers

and college courses

and sculpted gardens

I lived away once

from death lights

and metaled grids

of flesh- burn humming

back to the trees now

warriors

all of us now

back to the trees

More Healthcare Info at Peaceable Thingdom

Peaceable over at his blog Peaceable Thingdom has offered some solid ideas for what we can do to work each day for universal healthcare. He has links for reading and links for doing. One at time. Each of us doing something each day. 

Seeking Affordable Healthcare in Rural Pakistan

Talk about a problem across the world. This link shows efforts to bring affordable healthcare to rural Pakistan through tele-healthcare. Maybe there are important things to be learned here.

Estimating the Numbers of Americans Who Die from Lack of Health Insurance

An estimate for the number of Americans who die each day from lack of health insurance is found in a study from the Urban Institute: 

Uninsured and Dying Because of It: Updating the Institute of Medicine Analysis on the Impact of Uninsurance on Mortality.

This line of study began in 2002 by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). Their estimate then was 18,000 Americans had died because they were uninsured in the year 2000. Subsequent studies using the IOM methodology combined with Census Bureau estimates of insurance coverage concluded that 137,000 people died from 2000 through 2006 which included 22,000 in 2006.

A detailed explanation of the IOM methodology and how it is combined with Census Bureau statistics is presented on page 2 of the study mentioned above.  According to its site, the IOM was established in 1970 under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences. The IOM provides "independent, objectives, evidence-based advice to policymakers, health professionals, the private sector and the public."

The IOM site is filled with information about the organization-too much to present here. But you can go through the site in great detail to make a judgment about whether or not it is trustworthy. Among the many details that impressed me were the awards the IOM has received. One was the Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health. I wondered about the status of the recipients of this particular award. Notice the medical schools with which the recipients are associated. 

Examine also this page of projects concerning healthcare, also this page concerning education, and this page concerning child health. Here is a complete listing of IOM projects by topic. Clearly, the IOM is not some fly-by-night organization. 

The information presented in this post explains the basic estimate I use. That estimate currently is 22,000 Americans dying from lack of health insurance per year. Divided by 365 days of the year, the number is 60 Americans per day.

To argue this estimate, you would have to debunk two organizations- The Urban Institute and the Institute of Medicine. The IOM is the crucial organization. It is their methodology upon which the 22,000 estimate is based.

One can easily argue the accuracy of the estimate as either too high or too low. If you have the data, please offer it. If you want to attack the estimate, please read the complete report and explore the additional links provided in this post first. 

Spirit

a battle of egos, 

a soul misshapen, 

a heart turned oddly inward

where is the center 

of what is sure-footed?

Circling as a Shadow

some days I wake
to rustles in the garden
sounds of tiny life moving among the rocks
some days I look out and see the shadow of a hawk
crossing the water of the pond

I breathe
and listen to the rhythms of memory
and songs of the dead 
on those days I cannot rest

on those days I cannot be gentle

on those days I remember another song

the war song I sing for the Mother
on those days I become the hawk
circling as a shadow

Blogging For Healthcare

I have started blogging for healthcare at Talking Points Memo. If you are interested in this type of thing I encourage you to join and express your opinion. I believe that our lives must be a balance of rest and motion. We need motion now to bring health to our planet and our bodies.If you have questions about the steps to join TPM email me and I'll walk you through it. It is very easy. You can blog there as an anonymous person.

Perfect Day in Oregon's Old Growth Forest

Can there be anything more wondrous?

Peeking at My Mother's Garden

I decided to walk over and peek at my mother's old garden yesterday. I wondered how the new people who ended up with the house would deal with it. The fence was still around it. My mother and I painted it with one her friends, a woman named Wren. That was a sunny day. We painted the fence with two colors. The slats were purple and the posts green. But a really deep green. Almost an olive. I thought it would look terrible. But it came out wonderful. My friend Molly likes to describe people like my mother as "into neighborhoods." That would be someone who buys an old house and fixes it but keeps some part of its funky feeling. These houses are usually in poor areas of town. The new people in our old house seemed nice from a distance. I saw a woman and a kid. I'm not sure who else might live there. The garden has a few winter plantings. I'll get a better idea about it in a few months. I don't want to meet the new people. I don't want to tell them that a small part of my mother's ashes are in the garden. I don't want them to know that when they eat their vegetables from the garden they will be eating a Goddess. I just want them to eat forever.

On the Last Day of My Mother's Life

on the last day of my mother's life

she pulled me down near her mouth

and whispered I was a Goddess

on the last day of my mother's life

her friends sang songs to her and brought

flowers from their gardens

and vegetables even

so that somehow she might

eat and be healed

on the last day of my mother's life

when the tubes went dry

and the bills came in

and she knew that her home

and her garden would be owned forever by some bank

on that day, me a tiny goddess in the making,

wished my mother,  Goddess or not,  had health insurance

on the last day of my mother's life I chose not to be tiny

I chose to be Kali with the sharp knife

Composting and Cancer

Composting is important but it's not the answer to the mysteries of the the cosmos nor will it save your life if you've got cancer.

Take my mom. An old-time hippie, bead wearing, organic goddess of a Woman. She believed, and rightly so, that it should be a religion to eat organic foods provided by local farmers. She believed that following this spiritual path would make her years secure.

Then she got cancer. She had no health insurance. 

Cruel and stupid people might argue that somehow she brought it on herself, that she had some flaw in her cosmic awareness. Truth was that she did everything "right." And once she had cancer, she tried all the healthy cures. She still needed conventional treatment which was hard to get without insurance. She got some of it, but not all of it. She died. She might have lived with health insurance. Certainly with insurance she would have had yearly checkups and would have caught the cancer early.

Compost by all means. Worship the Earth. Drive a Prius. Ride your bike. Worship Kali. But saving the Earth is also saving ourselves. 

Please. Fight for Universal Health Care. Don't think you won't need it because you're young and happy.

He Said the Earth Tastes Sweet

He said the earth tastes sweet

I said I am sweet

He said the heart is cruel

I said I am heart

He said he could not live without the flesh

I said I am flesh

He said he must go and journey

I said count the steps

He said he would go by plane

I said count the planets

He said he would study math

I said count the stars

He said he would read a book

I said I am words

He said life's purpose is in counting

I said count and count again

He said we could meet for coffee

I said what time

He said he wasn't  sure

I said what happened to the counting?

He said maybe Friday

I said this year, next or next?

He said he wasn't sure

I said what happened to the counting?

He said his journey was a maze

I said make a start

He asked me would I miss him

I said not your flesh

Silently he measured ego 

He felt the measure but didn't know it

I thought what happened to the counting?

I remain the Great Null

Both spirit and flesh

I count the billions without counting

My Computer Can Never Be A Tree

My computer can never be a tree nor breathe magical air. Some say my computer will never decay in the soil as part of the Earth's natural rhythms. I suppose this depends upon how long one measures those rhythms, short measuring such a puny task for the soul. But I'm mindful of this tiny break on the skin of the Mother. And I wonder if the wound is real. I wonder if this machine's potency to reach across space to heal Her skin is greater than this tiny wound. I wonder if this wound is merely the cut of Kali's knife that ultimately brings the Earth a fine bounty.

Rare Earth Metal

This is a poem I found following links at the blog of Loveoranges.  The poet is Erin L. King. I have added this representation of the Goddess Kali above which I found here.

Rare Earth Metal by Erin L. King

I am
rare earth metal.

I temper —
last forever and ever
with internal constancy,
and when I am in air,
blue night air,
I burn.

I am loose
and wild
with the momentum of the things
I hold inside.
I am dangerous —
a threat to myself and others.

Tonight there will be nothing
in which to put my passion —
but to run
run and run and run into this night
fall to the lawn
press my face to cool grass
smell the must of earth,
the only crucible
vast enough for yearning

What Happened to Elizabeth Edwards?

We don't hear anything about Elizabeth Edwards these days. Doesn't it seem odd that a woman, once so prominent in the news and fighting for her life, would disappear? But she hasn't. The news is just not covering her. She continues her courageous fight for health care. Click on the links below to follow her latest efforts.
Elizabeth Edwards is continuing to fight for health care reform.

Minoan Bee Goddess

This Minonan Bee Goddess is one of the most beautiful images from
Old Europe. Here the form of the Goddess is stylized yet honey runs
down her body.

Mayan Calendar and Sacred Circles

The Mayan Calendar shows that the Maya understood that time is circular. The idea that time is circular and revolves like the sky comes from the most ancient belief in the Goddess of the World. She was seen as the Moon and like the moon formed a sacred circle around the earth.

Working For The Mother

Technology hasn't been kind to Mother Earth. Everywhere around us She is in pain. Can we stop the war against Her? Can we stop the war against our own bodies and our health? I don't know. Some nights it seems so hopeless to me. All I can do is look up through tall trees at the stars. But I believe that we must wage our own war of peace against all that threatens us and our ancient home. The internet is one technology that offers more boon to all humans than the power it consumes to do it.