...one good turn

2009-01-07T07:11:00.000-08:00

Anyone that knows me, knows that I have problems with focus (after all, when is the last time this blog was updated?) There is just so much out there to learn and explore, I often find myself drowning in the expansiveness of knowledge - I want to understand it all - modern art, popular culture, technology, literature, sociology, and (of course) my one true love: music. And my academic history is a reflection of that irking need to know more about almost anything: 4 majors as an undergraduate, a masters in museum studies (it doesn't get broader than that), and now I'm completing my MBA. Business? Yes.

I've often been questioned about why I'm studying business, and to be honest, until recently I never had an answer. I'm different from most MBA candidates - I'm not a working professional, I'm not looking to merely improve my status in my organization, and (GASP!) I'm not in it to get rich (and yes, I'm generalizing slightly). Certainly an MBA is a marketable degree, and I certainly considered that when I "joined up" (after all, as much fun as museum studies is - there just isn't a huge market for folks that know how to handle Peruvian pottery and 19th Century oil paintings). But I've come to terms with business management and I have also realized that business doesn't automatically equal scrupulous capitalism.

Business encompasses the nonprofit sector, the public sector, and, to my delight(!) a brilliant hybrid = social entrepreneurship.

Huh? Here's the Wikipedia definition:

A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Whereas a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a social entrepreneur assesses success in terms of the impact s/he has on society. While social entrepreneurs often work through nonprofits and citizen groups, many work in the private and governmental sectors.

The main aim of a social enterprise is to further its social and environmental goals. This need not be incompatible with making a profit - but social enterprises are often non-profits. Social enterprises are for ‘more-than-profit’ (a term coined by a BBC journalist).

What does this mean, you say? I'm not sure yet... but it's got me thinking.

Who covets more, is evermore a slave. - Robert Herrick

2008-11-28T15:32:00.000-08:00

I'm still chugging away on my crazy amount of school work. But here was a blog post that I just had to take the time to read. I hope that you will, too.

Black Friday Feminism
from Disobedient Mother. Disobedient Daughter.

Now, before anyone thinks that I am pro-recession, pro-depression, or anti-prosperity, let me squash those thoughts right now. As an American citizen and feminist, I recognize that the economy is run by consumers and the face of the global market largely depends on the flourishing of the US economy.

That being said, I offer this: Maybe this is an excellent time for US Americans to experience a financial crisis. Maybe there are some gains to be made in this difficult time which cannot be measured in the Dow Jones or home buying rates.

Black Friday is called Black Friday because it signifies when business companies are supposed to go into the black, showing surplus and profit. Notoriously, this is the day when US citizens open their wallet and begin the costly splurge of commercial gift-giving.

The less news I watch and the more observant I become of the people around me, the more I am convinced that this time of crisis can be an opportunity for many to deepen their lives and rethink the function of material goods in their homes. Perhaps a bit simplistic, but the concept of Americans re-evaluating what is necessary and what is superfluous in their homes sounds fabulous to me. It is common knowledge that US Americans are some of the most wasteful citizens on the planet, nonchalantly eating more than our share of the world's pie and throwing out any leftovers that weren't ours to begin with. We are all guilty of this. Our society thrives on convenience, comfort, and "if it's there, use it up" mentality.

What does this - consumerism, wastefulness, and intentionality - have to do with Feminism?

Alot.

Jessica Hoffman wrote an excellent article that envisioned what a feminist liberation looks like and how systematic powers (racism, economic hierarchy, ableism, sexism) - particularly capitalism - function as a multi-systematic team of oppression. She writes that it is not enough to recognize "intersectionality," as a lens to view feminists themselves, but also how to analyze the existing oppressive forces around us. She argues, "I do think that resisting capitalism, globally, is integral to antiracist, progressive, social-justice feminisms — that is, the only kinds of feminism I think have a chance of liberating anyone/everyone, and the only kinds of feminism I want to have anything to do with." MORE...

Put plainly, most would rather see a sermon than hear one. - The Global Living Project

2008-11-25T17:54:00.000-08:00

From AlterNet

Living the Good Life on $5,000 a Year
by Kevin O'Connor

Today's global financial cloud got you feeling gray? Vermonter Jim Merkel sees a silver lining.
Back in 1989, the Long Island native was a weapons engineer who helped design a cutting-edge computer that could transmit military secrets, survive a nuclear blast and, a decade before the dawn of the BlackBerry, fit in the palm of his hand. Sitting at a hotel bar in Stockholm, Sweden, he was drinking in his accomplishment when a bulletin flashed on television.

An oil tanker had hit a reef half a world away in Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil, contaminating 1,300 miles of coastline and killing more than 250,000 seabirds, otters, seals, bald eagles and whales. Video showed the culprit to be the Exxon Valdez. But peering into a mirror behind the bar, Merkel saw only himself.

He drove. He flew. He consumed goods produced with or propelled by fossil fuels.
"Of course, the entire industrialized world stood indicted beside me," he recalls. "Our 'need' for ever-more mobility, ever-more progress, ever-more growth had led us straight to this disaster. But in that moment, all I knew was that I, personally, needed to step forward and own up to the damage."

Returning home to the states, Merkel decided to simplify. He not only cleared away stuff (enough for 13 yard sales) but also tapped his engineering degree from New York's Stony Brook University to calculate the economic and environmental savings. By doing so, he figured out how to live comfortably -- and income-tax-free -- on $5,000 a year. More

Self is the only prison that can ever bind the soul - Henry Van Dyke

2008-11-22T08:51:00.001-08:00

This blog post is going to seem a little off-topic. But I assure you - it is not. When I was 13 years old, my mother and my grandmother decided that it would be a good idea to take me to a Weight Watchers meeting. I spent my childhood being "big". I wasn't fat - the more I look at old pictures, the more I realize it, I was just bigger than normal. First of all, I was very tall for my age. Until I hit puberty, and everyone around me did also, I was the tallest kid in the class. Always. Second, I come from gigantic genes! My dad's family is full of amazons (not really - but he was 6'4", my aunt is awfully close to 6', and my grandmother was certainly NOT teeny). My mother's side is also made up of some tall, big people. Not to mention a shelf-like rear end that I have obviously inherited. But I did spend my childhood feeling... odd. Unsure of myself in my own skin. And then, at age 13, that idea that I had in my head about myself was confirmed. I was obviously fat, and I needed to be fixed... so I was taken to Weight Watchers.

Funnily enough, my stint at Weight Watchers at 13 was a one-time occurrence. My beautiful mother and grandmother, like me, were doomed to failure - in fact, as I recall, we went straight from that meeting to the Baskin & Robbins next door because "it is okay to treat yourself every so once in a while." Geesh, talk about mixed messages.

Luckily, as I've aged, I've begun to feel better about myself, how I look, and what I represent in to the world. It isn't all about looks, but I do LIKE to look good, and I get a big kick out of make-up and fashion - if for no other reason then make-up is like painting and fashion is creative and interesting.

So I loved this article/interview from Stephanie Losee on AlterNet.

Thin is the New Miserable

I know better than to diet constantly. Dieting makes you fat. Dieting makes you distracted. Distracted women tend not to make history. And yet here I am. Dieting. Even a global economic meltdown and a historic election could not take my mind off the fact that I have gained nearly 10 pounds and my wardrobe doesn’t fit. And I can’t afford to buy new clothes. Which means not only that I haven’t managed to find a way to take the shortest break from obsessing about my pants size, my dieting isn’t even working. But I don’t know any other way. My mother put me on my first diet when I was in the sixth grade, and I’ve been gaining and losing ever since.

It turns out I’m not alone -- my experience mirrors that of Valerie Frankel, self-help journalist and author of 19 books, including The Accidental Virgin. Thirty years after her mother put her on a diet to lose her baby fat, Frankel was still riding the dieting rollercoaster. She had vowed to keep her own daughters off it, but as they approached puberty, she began to suspect that not sabotaging their body image wouldn’t be enough.

"They had eyes and ears," she writes in her wry and affecting memoir, Thin is the New Happy. "They saw and heard what I put myself through: my dieting cycles, anxiety about food, dread of bathing-suit vacations, rising and falling and rising weight. I was a bad example."

Her efforts to become a good example required nothing less than a head-to-toe exorcism. She confronted her unrepentant mother, who said that if she could go back she wouldn’t act differently, even after Frankel catalogued the damage her mother’s harping had done. Frankel counted the number of negative thoughts she had about herself and her body every day (triple digits). She phoned one of the toughs who had taunted her in junior high. She posed naked in Self magazine. She asked her former Mademoiselle colleague Stacy London, now host of TLC’s "What Not to Wear," to help her throw out her figure-hiding, all-black wardrobe. And finally, she developed the Not-Diet, which had just four rules: Eat what you want. Stop when you’ve had enough. Don’t insist on perfection. Work out four times a week. Within a few months, she had reached a healthy weight and has maintained it, and her sanity, ever since. MORE...

Why am I talking about this? Because I, like so many, have spent a great deal of my life worrying about appearance and just worrying about MYSELF. I still do this, much more than I would like. Much more than I should. Don't we waste so much time thinking about the silly things - worrying with self-doubt, fearful of appearing _______ (fill in the blank: different, lazy, silly, stupid, too smart, unlovable, fat...)? How great would it be if I could take the effort that I've put into worry, and instead applied it to something useful and meaningful? Art, agriculture, feeding the hungry... so much wasted time.

I better learn how to starve the emptiness and feed the hunger - Emily Saliers

2008-11-20T13:33:00.000-08:00

In discussion after discussion with some of my more conservative-minded family members, I have often made this argument: sure, if would be great if we could just all "take care of our own" and leave the government out of it when it comes to social/welfare aid. But not everyone has someone to fall back on. And that is, perhaps, where we reach a standstill. Non-profit organizations do what they can and do what they can to fill in the gaps. But, non-profit and government partnership-type organizations, like the food pantries discussed in the following article, are struggling to make ends meet and face the economic challenges that ALL businesses face: rising fuel prices, rising food prices, lack of funds, etc.

This is for your consideration:

When the Cupboard Is Bare
by David Cay Johnston - New York Times Online

REBECCA MUSCARELLO had long worked as a secretary, so she never imagined that at age 35 she would be left with no choice but to take her two children to a food pantry to get groceries. But like a growing number of Americans whose jobs have evaporated in a shrinking economy, Ms. Muscarello ran out of money and then food.

Since the spring, the number of people showing up hungry at food pantries and soup kitchens has surged, straining the capacity of many organizations in the vast, largely unseen and lightly financed network of volunteer emergency feeding operations. Many are newcomers who were reluctant to seek help until they had no choice.

In the four months since June, demand for food aid has risen 20 percent in areas of the country with the healthiest economies and more than 40 percent in areas with the weakest, leaders of nonprofit food-distribution organizations say. And they predict that the need will keep growing in 2009 if the job market continues to contract, as expected. More...

Seeing is deceiving. It's eating that's believing. - James Thurber

2008-11-18T12:38:00.001-08:00

Here's a great article from AlterNet. Checkedy-check it out - it is a great resource!

Finding the Best, Local Food Near You Just Got Easier
By Tara Lohan, AlterNet. Posted November 15, 2008.

Food is making big headlines, and it's about time.
In a year marked by rising food prices and riots throughout the world, we've seen what happens when the reality of our energy, climate and water crises collides with trying to feed a planet. As Vandana Shiva writes in her newest book, Soil Not Oil, "The era of cheap food and cheap oil is over." Add to this changing precipitation patterns, melting glaciers and increasing drought from climate change, and we have a recipe for disaster.

Michael Pollan has warned the next incoming U.S president, "What this means is that you, like so many other leaders through history, will find yourself confronting the fact -- so easy to overlook these past few years -- that the health of a nation's food system is a critical issue of national security. Food is about to demand your attention."

While Barack Obama may have his hands full, the rest of us need to be thinking about our plates. Interestingly, one of the ways to start doing this would be to stay right where you are -- in front of your computer, that is. While technology may not always have been the best companion to agriculture (think biotech), the Internet has emerged as an incredible tool for planning the future of food. A Web site called the Eat Well Guide is hoping to help people make good decisions about what they eat and how, with a few clicks of the mouse.

Read the rest here.

And be sure to visit the Eat Well Guide.

Forget about your ego, forget about your pride, and you will never have to compromise - Indigo Girls

2008-11-11T21:28:00.000-08:00

Agghhh....sorry blogosphere! I almost forgot today! School has been so crazy!

Check this out... you'll like it.
http://idealist.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=392992

Education is not received. It is achieved. - anon.

2008-11-10T15:56:00.000-08:00

Still crazy busy with school assignments, but here is a news story to warm your heart. I TOTALLY stole this from Rachel Maddow's twitter... but hey... I think she'll live.

FSU's Rolle choosing Rhodes interview over Maryland game
When 6-2 Florida State visits 6-2 Maryland on Nov. 22, there's a decent chance the game could decide the ACC's Atlantic Division. Unfortunately for the 'Noles, they may be without one of their top defensive players.

This may be the rare occasion where that's considered a good thing. More...

Thank you, Mr. FSU Coach-guy (Bobby Bowden), you have helped me to believe in the decency of the human race for one more day.

Be cool, stay in school... oh wait, I don't need to tell YOU that - My Mother

2008-11-09T15:10:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I'm taking a little break today, to work on my many MANY school assignments. SO - take a look at what some local people have been up to... this is happening in Frederick County!

Volunteers help local farm owner go green
http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?StoryID=82507

Awesome, right?

Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputations...can never effect a reform. - Susan B. Anthony

2008-11-08T11:08:00.000-08:00

I took a step towards facing my fear today. I am UTTERLY afraid of speaking my mind to strangers. When I feel strongly about something I get flustered and even upset because, although I know what I want to say, I can't ever seem to put my thoughts into comprehensible, let alone influential, sentences. I need to be able to speak with confidence and thoughtfulness under pressure. I'm assuming that the only way to learn is to practice.

So I have signed up for Museums Advocacy Day 2009! First to clarify - I am a museum freak. I love them. I believe that they make the world a better place to live. Museums preserve our material culture, our scientific discoveries, and our natural world; they informally educate and engage. I can't say enough. But back to Museum Advocacy Day...

Here is the description from the American Association of Museums website about the event:

During the two-day program, participants will be briefed on AAM’s legislative agenda and will learn how to effectively communicate the value of museums to public policy makers. The second day will consist of visits to Capitol Hill where advocates will make their case to Congress.

"MAKE THEIR CASE TO CONGRESS"...agh! I'm scared out of my mind just thinking about it!

I think we all have a responsibility to speak out for what we believe in... so why is it so hard? I suppose their are lots of reasons. Gee, it is so easy to speak on an anonymous-sort of platform, like a blog. But face-to-face... well, I'm gearing myself up for it.

Expect for me to talk more about advocacy in the next few weeks. It is definitely a topic I want to explore more.

So - what can you do? Well - speak up! And if you are paralyzed by shyness...well then - work on it (what else am I supposed to say?). Oh - and go visit your local museums. Trust me, they need the business. And you just might learn something!

Action expresses priorities. - Mohandas Gandhi

2008-11-07T15:27:00.000-08:00

I dared to hope today. We are a country with big BIG problems. People are struggling (heck, I'm struggling) and people are scared. Every day when my phone doesn't ring is a reminder that the job market is tight and that, if I am panicking, then I can't imagine what people with children or elderly parents must be feeling. I'm lucky, in a way. I don't own a home... so I'm not worried about losing it. My car is old and paid off... so I don't have to worry about a monthly payment. I have food to eat, a roof over my head, and gas in my tank. There are so so many that do not. But still, it has felt hopeless.

Then, this week, the world began to change. And today, as I drove down a country road, with the leaves turning and the sound of our new president-elect's voice on my radio, I felt the hope and excitement about what this country can be again. We have been so selfish and so self-centered. I KNOW that I have been. We consume until we are satiated, and then we complain when we believe that our "rights" to that consumption might be at risk.

So here's the thing about Barack Obama: he thinks that we are better than that. He has called on us to serve. It seems so simple, right? I grew up in a household of hard working people. But I was never really taught about service. And perhaps, because I have come into it on my own terms, it is more meaningful. My gifts aren't extraordinary - but they are something... they are a start. And right now, they are all I have to give.

My grandparents are part of what Tom Brokaw has dubbed the Greatest Generation. They came of age in a world with two particular realities - economic depression and war. And they are considered great because they worked together, in service to their fellow citizens and to their country, towards recovery and prosperity. Can we not take inspiration from their example?

I urge you to read and consider President-Elect Obama's Universal Voluntary Citizen Service plan. Don't worry - you won't become a lily-livered, bleeding heart liberal if you just take a look. I promise.

Let us treat the men and women well - Ralph Waldo Emerson

2008-11-06T16:34:00.000-08:00

I ate at Chick-fil-A today. What? Yeah..that's what I said. And why is that important? Well, Chick-fil-A is closed on Sundays. The company first opened in 1946. And all those years, they have been closed on Sundays. Now the company is franchised...but they are still closed on Sundays. Let's go to the numbers...shall we?

In 2007, the company did $2.64 billion in sales. Because they are only open Monday-Saturday, that means that they only do business around 312 days a year. So, on average (and yes, I know, there is a lot more to these numbers than an average can report - time of year, day of the week, the economy...but this is just a supposition...so get over it), the company makes $8.5 million worth of sales everyday. IF they decided to be open on Sundays, they COULD be selling another $4.5 million or so. Each year. That's a lot. Duh.

But they don't open on Sundays for this simple reason: they want their employees to have a day off. Can you believe that? Now, I'm sure that we could say a lot of bad things about Chick-fil-A: their food is fattening, they leave all employee decisions to individual franchise owners (so who knows if people are making a good wage and have benefits???), and they make cows seem dumb. But they honestly believe that employees need time to just ... be. If you have ever worked in the service industry, you know how rare this is. Most restaurants will find any way that they can to work their people to death.

I know this seems like a trivial discussion. But corporate responsibility isn't just about how a company treats its customers...it is also about how it treats its employees. And Chick-fil-A obviously sees the value in creating a happier workforce. Why does that seem to be so rare these days? Companies that treat their employees with respect are more likely to instill loyalty and respect, which cuts down on theft and shirking on the job.

I'm not saying that high calorie, fried food is healthy. I'm not saying that fast-food is a good choice for everyday. I'm not saying that eating meat and processed dipping sauces (oh those dipping sauces) is the right choice. But I AM saying that if you are going to make those choices anyway, you might as well support a company that supports their workers. And maybe - if you are feeling especially inspired - look into how other companies treat their workers... and decide if that is the kind of establishment that you would choose to support with your hard earned dollars.

We love NPR - Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls

2008-11-05T13:01:00.000-08:00

I listened to NPR today. Yes... I have to admit, this wasn't a one time thing for me. I listen EVERY day. I love National Public Radio - I love it to the point of giddiness. The soothing voices (well, minus a certain morning show host out of Washington, D.C. that just can't help it) that waft from the speakers in my car or on my computer continually bring me happiness and hopefulness in this world. So many times I have tried to pinpoint what it is about NPR that is different from any other media source. I believe that it all comes down to one word: thoughtfulness. When I listen to Michelle Norris and Ira Glass and Nina Totenberg I feel focused. I'm not distracted by flashes and pictures - it isn't sensory overload. Instead it is refreshingly unflashy.

But what perhaps attracts me the most to NPR as a news source is its independence. National Public Radio is a non-commercial, not-for-profit organization. It depends on listener-members, as well as foundations and sponsors, for support. And because of its third-sector status, NPR seems to shine extra light on the organizations in this world that are working for good. I get most of my political news from NPR, but I also get to hear and to learn about so much more - art, music, theater, the environment, social issues, CARS!... I could go on and on and on. What's that you say? You don't get an NPR in your area. Good news - many of the local affiliates are streaming online. My local station is WAMU out of American University in Washington, D.C.

So what can you do? You can listen, and you can consider, and if you doubt what it is all about, well then, take a listen to a couple episodes of This American Life - you'll understand.

All politics is local. - attributed to Tip O'Neill

2008-11-04T11:02:00.000-08:00

I voted today! Yup, I even got the cute little sticker. I didn't even have to wait in a line - I walked right in and right back out. But I have to admit, I am a little ashamed about something... I was an uneducated voter. Not in the presidential election. Oh no, unless you are living under a rock you have at least a working knowledge of the platforms that the presidential nominees are running on. No, I'm talking about the other elections. The elections for State Senate, or City Council, or School Board. I really didn't know much about those people at all. Sure, I recognized names on a few... but did I make the effort to understand who they are and what they stand for? No, not like I should have.

Why does this matter, you say? Well, simply put, the President has but a small effect on your life and mine. I will probably never meet him, the decisions he makes are intentionally broad and serving to the nation AS A WHOLE, not to the individual citizens. That is how a republic is intended to operate. On the other hand - county judges, school board representatives, city council members, and, to take it a step further, state congressional representatives and administrators - they are making the decisions that do directly affect you and me. This includes decisions about zoning, taxes, business regulations, parking restrictions, school curriculum, school budgets, library budgets, arts council budgets, police department budgets... the list goes on and on. How is it that so many of us walk into our polling place with so little knowledge about the candidates and referendums that REALLY matter to out daily lives?

I recently stumbled on www.vote411.org. It is a great place to understand more about local elections. But the Internet is a great resource and, if you can filter out the baloney, you can find the information that you need to make an educated choice.

And if you haven't already, get out there and vote!

Dogs' lives are too short. Their only fault, really. - Agnes Sligh Turnbull

2008-11-03T12:45:00.000-08:00

I petted a dalmatian today.

Jewell is the sweetest girl in the world. She loves attention, she loves to play with her toys, and she never EVER uses the bathroom in the house. I would like to take credit for how wonderful she is, but I can't. Technically, she belongs to the person that I live with - also the most incredible dog parent I have ever known.

Pets are an incredible part of our lives. Jewell, and her brothers, are lucky enough to have a home and a dedicated caretaker. But thousands of dogs and cats and other animals don't. The Humane Society of the United States estimates that 6 - 8 million dogs and cats enter animal shelters every year. And every year, 3-4 million are adopted... and about the same amount are euthanized. I suppose that I'm like a lot of people - I understand that overpopulation is a problem. And I understand that overpopulation is harmful to the ENTIRE population. But I support no kill shelters. To combat overpopulation, I also support spaying and neutering - see Bob Barker and I have so much in common! Seriously though - if your pet isn't spayed or neutered, even if they are an inside dog, do it. And if you don't' think that you can afford it - talk to your local shelter... they often have programs that will do the deed for a discounted fee or even for free.

If you are considering adoption or you want to donate to or volunteer at a local shelter, check out http://www.pets911.com/

Awww...look at the face.

Tell me what you eat, I'll tell you who you are - Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

2008-11-02T14:10:00.000-08:00

I ate organic food today. It was easy, I cooked the egg and I put it on my toast. OH...but that's not the important part! The important part is that I bought that organic food. I am very lucky - the local grocery store in this slightly podunk town has an excellent organic food selection. Heck, they even have a store brand/generic line of organics that is affordable! So I buy organic whenever I can. I know you might be thinking - why does it matter if I buy organic? How does that change the world? Well, the answer is two-fold...

1) I think that we all understand that organic food lacks those nasty chemicals and antibiotics that no one would miss. But it is more than that. Producing organic food is expensive. And farmers, just like the rest of us, have to make a living. So they are often persuaded (by the needs of their bank accounts) to grow "cash crops" - soy, corn, etc. - those crops that are heavily subsidised by the government. Those crops that are guaranteed to sell (let's think of all of the products that include corn or soy - bulk food items that contain high fructose corn syrup, ethanol in gasoline, livestock feed...the list goes on and on). On the other hand, those kind of guarantees don't exist with organic produce. Beyond that, organic farming is cost intensive. There is a certification process that a farmer must go through and it involves years and years of work. So by using your purchasing power to buy organic food you are telling your local grocery buying establishment "I want to buy organic food - please keep carrying it and carry more!"

2) Organic farming is good for the environment. Organic farmers don't use chemical pesticides - so less of them are introduced in to the soil. Organic farmers often employ a multi-crop rotation in their fields - therefore, the soil remains healthy and nutrient rich. And organic farmers promote biodiversity by cultivating crops (both animal and vegetable) that have variety!

Make it clear to your grocery store that you like organic products - and buy them whenever you can. And if you want to learn more, read Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle or, if you are brave, Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. And check out www.organic.org.

Most of us go to our graves with our music still inside of us.-unknown

2008-11-01T08:51:00.000-07:00

I supported local music today. I have a friend and she is trying to make a go of it as a professional musician. She is beautiful and wonderful and talented...but I am afraid that not even those characteristics will give her success. At least two times a week she gets up in front of an audience, just her and her banjo, and she plays songs that she has written - yup, she lays all of those feelings out for everyone to see - and she makes (on a good night) $50 in tips. It's a hard life. You always hear stories about starving artists... and many would say that an artist's personal experiences drive her work, but it is still hard. Very very hard. So I design her posters and fliers for her, I send out press releases for her, and I keep my eye out for gigs that she can play.

The way that we support our artists in this country is atrocious. This week, in the Huffington Post, Raymond J. Learsy (former member of The National Council for the Arts) points out that our visual artists, our filmmakers, our writers, and yes, our musicians, are marginalized by our government.

"And yet we have used this enormous potential of defining to others who we are only haltingly and too often with only the most reluctant advocacy. The role of government support for the arts in our society has always been an open question, debated but never fully resolved."

I believe that it is a question of worthiness. We are willing to spend billions on military bombers, but not on our artists. Not on our art. The National Endowment for the Arts budget in 2007 was $144.7 million dollars. The similar national arts organization in France: $3.75 billion. And by the way, France has a LOT less people than the United States.

I don't believe that any of us can say that we have not been affected by art. My sister spends her days teaching music to children. Could she make more money if she made the decision to leave her job and join the corporate world? Certainly. So could my friend the writer, my friends in Arts Administration, and my singer/songwriter/banjo-pickin' pal. But they don't. Instead they have dedicated their lives so that ours might be beautiful and spiritual and...meaningful.

So get out there and support your local arts. And vote in this election. Vote like your soul depends on it.

I can remember when the air was clean and sex was dirty - George Burns

2008-10-31T13:13:00.000-07:00

I drank water out of my reusable, stainless steel water bottle today. I bought it several months ago at the Common Market Food Coop in Frederick, Maryland. Do you remember a world without individual water bottles? I do. And then, sometime in the 90s, the world went crazy for water. And don't get me wrong... that is a GOOD thing. Purified water is the best thing that you can drink. It has no high fructose corn syrup, it has no caffeine, it has no (hopefully, or at least limited amounts of) chemicals. But the plastic bottles water comes in - bad...BAD. Here are the facts:

In 2006, Americans drank about 167 bottles of water each but only recycled an average of 23 percent. That leaves 38 billion water bottles in landfills.

Bottled water costs between $1 and $4 per gallon, and 90 percent of the cost is in the bottle, lid and label.

According to the Beverage Marketing Corp, the average American consumed 1.6 gallons of bottled water in 1976. In 2006 that number jumped to 28.3 gallons.

It takes over 1.5 million barrels of oil to manufacture a year’s supply of bottled water. That’s enough oil to fuel 100,000 cars.

Eight out of 10 plastic water bottles become landfill waste.

In 2007 we spent $16 billion on bottled water. That’s more than we spent on iPods or movie tickets.

Plastic bottles take 700 years before they begin to decompose in a landfill.

If everyone in NYC gave up water bottles for one week, they would save 24 million bottles from being landfilled. One month on the same plan would save 112 million bottles, and one year would save 1.328 billion bottles from going into the landfill. (www.earth911.com)

$16 billion!!!! On WATER!! Something, that, for lucky Americans like us comes out of the tap for pennies a month! If you don't like the taste of your water (I know I don't) get a Britta...it's easy.

My bottle is a Klean Kanteen and I bought it for $12. Before I got it, I would usually buy 4 bottles of water a week (usually more). So it has saved me around $100 so far. And that is 64 less bottles that end up in landfill. Yay Earth!

Service to others is the payment you make for your space here on earth. - Mohammed Ali

2008-10-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

I volunteered today. I met with two women that founded and operate a 501(c)(3) organization in Frederick County, Maryland. The organization rescues abused, neglected or abandoned horses and employs them as therapy horses for people with psychological and physical needs. Right now they are working on creating a program for soldiers with PTSD. So I've volunteered to work with them to write some grants so that they might get some funding. I'm not telling you this because I want applause (my motives aren't entirely unselfish) - I'm telling you this because non-profit organizations are EXTREMELY, or sometimes ENTIRELY, dependent on volunteers to remain durable and active.

According to the US Census, there are approximately 250 million people in the United States over the age of 19. If everyone in the United States over the age of 19 volunteered for 5 hours a month for one year, that would equal around 15 billion hours of service. That's 15 billion hours of service to our communities, to our country...to the causes that we believe in [imagine if we all also donated $5 a month to charity!!].

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that, between September 2006 and 2007, 60.8 million people volunteered for an organization at least once (that's about 26% of the population). Sadly, that number was a decrease from the year before and the year before that. I realize that people are busier than ever. But now that we are in the midst of an economic meltdown, people will likely be holding on to their pocketbooks even tighter. So how can the non-profit sector recover from the financial loss? It begins and ends with in-kind donations.

Think about giving of your time to an organization or cause that you care about. Idealist.org is a great place to find out more.

I heart small business

2008-10-28T13:18:00.000-07:00

I'm a huge fan of small business. I come from a long line of small business owners. Sometimes I think their legacy explains my entrepreneurial spirit and social-mindedness. The small business people in my family worked hard, lost sleep, and provided well for their employees. Not because the law demanded it, but because they understood the value of a loyal employee. Here's what the Small Business Administration has to say about the impact of small businesses in the United States.

Small businesses:
• Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.
• Employ about half of all private sector employees.
• Pay nearly 45 percent of total U.S. private payroll.
• Have generated 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually
over the last decade.
• Create more than half of nonfarm private gross domestic
product (GDP).
• Hire 40 percent of high tech workers (such as scientists,
engineers, and computer workers).
• Are 52 percent home-based and 2 percent franchises.
• Made up 97.3 percent of all identified exporters and produced
28.9 percent of the known export value in FY 2006.
• Produce 13 times more patents per employee than large
patenting firms; these patents are twice as likely as large
firm patents to be among the one percent most cited.

Wow, right?

This morning I am having coffee (and some free wifi) at an individually owned coffee shop in Front Royal, VA. The coffee shop, The Daily Grind, is a regional franchise... this particular shop is owned by Herb and Judy Melrath. There names are on a plaque on the wall, surrounded by photographs of customers and employee of the month notifications. It is quaint. It's cozy. And the workers are...wait for it...NICE! The owner serves up coffee alongside her employees. It's a great place. But...

Small businesses, like this shop, are in danger and the threats are not only coming from large corporate firms (I'm not trying to beat up on Starbucks here, but they are a great example), but also from local, state, and national government. On average small businesses that employ less than 20 people must spend $7,647 per worker to comply with federal regulations. Large businesses that employ more than 500 people only spend $5,282. So it's hard.

Recently, a Starbucks opened in Front Royal.

So! What can you do about it? Shop, eat, and consume locally whenever you can. Just remember that the $2 you pay for a cup of coffee at The Daily Grind (or the locally owned coffee shop in your area) is directly impacting people's lives for the better.