Minutes of Van Buren County Greens, Jan 2007
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF VAN BUREN COUNTY GREENS
January 20, 2008, at the home of Barbara Geisler and Maynard Kaufman
People attending the meeting: Chuck Jordan, Patrick McKearnan, Julie and David Ludwig, Ryan McCoy, Art Toy, Barbara Geisler and Maynard Kaufman.
The first item on the agenda was a report by Chuck Jordan on the meeting of the Michigan Green Party, from which he had just returned. Green candidates for President of the US were discussed.
The second item was introduced by Maynard who reminded the group that the Greens were, and still are, both a movement and a party. As a movement the Greens can focus on issues that may not be appropriate for election campaigns. The issue to which Maynard called attention was the pressing need for us in this country to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. This is necessary in order to mitigate the severity of global warming and to prepare for the imminent end of cheap oil. Maynard argued that it is the most important issue facing us and the group agreed that it underlies the war for oil in Iraq and the possibility of other resource wars..
What followed was a brainstorming session in which the group identified actions and policies that could be suggested to different levels of government as ways to reduce use of fossil fuels. Most of these were relevant to South Haven and Bangor and a few were on the county and state levels.
Policies and Actions on the local city level.
Require green buildings with LEED or Energy Star ratings
Monitor energy use in grounds-keeping by the city
Establish and encourage community gardens and community kitchens for food processing
Promote compact flourescent lighting and require energy-saving tips on utility bills
Help people recognize and avoid phantom loads in electricity use
Give public recognition to energy-conscious and energy-efficient businesses
Help to re-establish recycling possibilities with volunteer monitors
Encourage the city to establish regular bus runs from suburbs to grocery stores
Encourage bicycle and walkways along streets.
Encourage schools to teach real life skills, the importance of healthy local food
Encourage energy audits in schools and in the community by the students.
Policies and Actions in Van Buren County
Encourage continuation of home insulation by Van-Cass-Cap
Begin promoting the need for bus service from South Haven to Kalamazoo
Raise the issue of light rail for passengers on the Van Buren Trail
Policies and Actions on the State level
Make building codes more energy-efficient; require more renewable energy
Encourage manufacture of renewable energy equipment in Michigan, discourage coal and nuclear
Raise awareness of the problems with Confinement Animal Feeding Operations
Start a public campaign for a net metering policy that is fair to small scale energy producers
Discourage bottled water in small plastic containers, or require a deposit on them
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"Whichever Way the Wind Blows"
So why did Bush turn away from Wind on the National level?
Whichever Way the Wind Blows
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN Op-Ed Columnist
December 15, 2006 The New York Times
http://select. nytimes.com/ 2006/12/15/ opinion/15friedm an.html
Midland, Tex. Time for another news quiz: Which American state produces
more wind-generated electricity than any other? Answer: Texas. Next
question - this one you'll never get: Which politician launched the
Texas wind industry? Answer: Former Gov., now President, George W. Bush.
Yes, there are many things that baffle me about President Bush, but none
more than how the same man who initiated one of the most effective
renewable energy programs in America, has presided over an
administration that for six years has dragged its feet on alternative
energy, used its regulatory powers to weaken efficiency standards for
major appliances and stuck its head in the sand on global warming. I'll
wait for historians to sort that out. But here is some immediate advice
I can give the president: If you want to salvage any positive legacy, it
will not come from Iraq. There are only tears left there. No, the only
way for you, Mr. President, to salvage any legacy is to get back in
touch with your green Texas roots and devote the rest of your term to
REALLY ending America's oil addiction, liberating us from dependence on
petro-authoritarian regimes and making America the leader in renewable
energies that combat climate change. If this isn't the core of Mr.
Bush's next State of the Union, he might as well go back to Crawford
now. At least there he might be able to contemplate what went wrong with
his presidency under lights powered by clean, wind-generated electricity
that he promoted.
Continue reading ""Whichever Way the Wind Blows""
By Chuck Jordan, December 19, 2006Permanent Link | Comments (0)
Defeating the Bill of Rights: Bush's Lone Victory, by Paul Craig Roberts
When a nation so willingly relinquishes its hard-won liberties, it ain't the emperor who's standing around with no clothes on. The people are.
November 22, 2006
Defeating the Bill of Rights: Bush's Lone Victory
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
George Orwell warned us, but what American would have expected that in the opening years of the 21st century the United States would become a country in which lies and deception by the President and Vice President were the basis for a foreign policy of war and aggression, and in which indefinite detention without charges, torture, and spying on citizens without warrants have displaced the Bill of Rights and the US Constitution?
If anyone had predicted that the election of George W. Bush to the presidency would result in an American police state and illegal wars of aggression, he would have been dismissed as a lunatic.
What American ever would have thought that any US president and attorney general would defend torture or that a Republican Congress would pass a bill legalizing torture by the executive branch and exempting the executive branch from the Geneva Conventions?
What American ever would have expected the US Congress to accept the president's claim that he is above the law?
What American could have imagined that if such crimes and travesties occurred, nothing would be done about them and that the media and opposition party would be largely silent?
Continue reading "Defeating the Bill of Rights: Bush's Lone Victory, by Paul Craig Roberts"
By Chuck Jordan, December 03, 2006Permanent Link | Comments (0)
America 101 by Bill Moyers
Here's a great article by Bill Moyers on education and the state of the economy. This is what we need to be teaching in our schools.
America 101
By Bill Moyers
TomPaine.com
Wednesday 01 November 2006
Let's be honest about what we mean by "urban education." We are talking about the poorest and most vulnerable children in America - kids for whom "at risk" has come to describe their fate and not simply their circumstances.
Their education should be the centerpiece of a great and diverse America made stronger by equality and shared prosperity. It has instead become the epitome of public neglect, perpetuated by a class divide so permeated by race that it mocks the bedrock principles of the American Promise.
It has been said that the mark of a truly educated person is to be deeply moved by statistics. If so, America's governing class should be knocked off their feet by the fact that more than 70 percent of black children are now attending schools that are overwhelmingly non-white. In 1980 that figure was 63 percent. Latino students are even more isolated. Brown v. Board' s "all deliberate" speed of 1954 has become slow motion in reverse. In Richard Kahlenberg's words, "With the law in retreat, geography takes command."
Not just the kids suffer. A nation that devalues poor children also demeans their teachers. For the life of me I cannot fathom why we expect so much from teachers and provide them so little in return. In 1940, the average pay of a male teacher was actually 3.6 percent more than what other college-educated men earned. Today it is 60 percent lower. Women teachers now earn 16 percent less than other college-educated women. This bewilders me. Children aren't born lawyers, corporate executives, engineers and doctors. Their achievements bear the imprint of their teachers. There was no Plato without Socrates, and no John Coltrane without Miles Davis. Is there anyone here whose path was not marked by the inspiration of some teacher? Mary Sullivan, Bessie Bryant, Miss White, the Brotze sisters, Inez Hughes - I cannot imagine my life without them. Their classrooms were my world, and each one of them kept enlarging it.
Continue reading "America 101 by Bill Moyers"
By Chuck Jordan, November 09, 2006Permanent Link | Comments (0)
Top Government Official Says US on Verge of Economic Disaster
Here's a good reason to vote Green, and enact Single Payer Health Insurance. And he doesn't even talk about looming energy costs. The democrats and republicans are equally responsible for this mess.
Top Government Official Says US on Verge of Economic Disaster
By Matt Crenson
The Associated Press
Saturday 28 October 2006
A dirty little secret everyone in Washington knows, or at least should. The vast majority of economists and budget analysts agree: The ship of state is on a disastrous course, and will founder on the reefs of economic disaster if nothing is done to correct it.
David M. Walker sure talks like he's running for office. "This is about the future of our country, our kids and grandkids," the comptroller general of the United States warns a packed hall at Austin's historic Driskill Hotel. "We the people have to rise up to make sure things get changed."
But Walker doesn't want, or need, your vote this November. He already has a job as head of the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress that audits and evaluates the performance of the federal government.
Basically, that makes Walker the nation's accountant-in-chief. And the accountant-in-chief's professional opinion is that the American public needs to tell Washington it's time to steer the nation off the path to financial ruin.
From the hustings and the airwaves this campaign season, America's political class can be heard debating Capitol Hill sex scandals, the wisdom of the war in Iraq and which party is tougher on terror. Democrats and Republicans talk of cutting taxes to make life easier for the American people.
What they don't talk about is a dirty little secret everyone in Washington knows, or at least should. The vast majority of economists and budget analysts agree: The ship of state is on a disastrous course, and will founder on the reefs of economic disaster if nothing is done to correct it.
Continue reading "Top Government Official Says US on Verge of Economic Disaster"
By Chuck Jordan, October 29, 2006Permanent Link | Comments (0)
