via my latest follower Fat, Happy and Caffeinated. Actually, a fantastic blogger from what i can see… Cheers!
This is such a useful guide! I used greywater in my organic garden last year and never looked back. For any of you homeowners out there, i suggest you seriously consider this website, and for you gypsies out there, i hope you’ll realize (if you haven’t already) that even when you’re not actively saving the water, you are actively impacting your local water table, and thus your local flora and fauna. Even when you’re showering in a different stall every night, you can use insights from greywater systems to lessen or eliminate the damage done. (Consider soaps without sulfites (salts), soaps without sulfates (sulfurs). soaps from vegetable bases, soaps that are completely biodegradable, or ones that are all of the above, for example.) I’m excited that there’s still so much more for me to learn, and really happy to have stumbled upon a complete resource on like this. (It could be i just love any site that has an article about water justice. I can’t wait to be learning more about sustainable irrigation on a farm!)
Yei! I love it when i can take grassroots activism literally. ;)
Become a citizen endorser of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition’s (NSAC’s) REALLY EXCELLENT Farm Bill 2012 platform, aka “Farming for the Future!” (The title here is the link, but in case you can’t get to it: click here.) Now, it’s just a petition, nothing too involved. Simply add your name, and, wootwoot!, participate in earth justice: An environmental, economic and social (and maybe personal, hmmm?) do-good. With this petition you’ll be saying, “Protect our natural resources; train (inspire+invest in), empower, and protect farmers; get GOOD (if not clean and slow) food on everyone’s table; and GIVE A DAMN!” Our communities need programs like SNAP (hey, people with food stamps deserve health, too!), the Casey Farm-to-School Ammendment, the Brown Employment and Training Ammendment, et al.
Want a Food & Farm Bill 101? Check out Food & Water Watch’s “Who Will Be the Biggest Farm Loser?” video.
Then say, “We don’t want nothin’ to do with nasty agro-pharma b.s.”
Say, “I support my LOCAL farmers, and thus the country’s food system infrastructure.”
Be informed, stay active, and sign, sign, sign! This platform is in Congress right now! Let’s make change happen!!
(And heart, heart, heart to NSAC for continuing to do such great work. I’m still sad i missed the opportunity to lobby with them earlier in the year…)
P.S. If you’re in the NYC area and you want to stay updated on the Bill’s progress and local action alerts, check out the F&FB Working Group page (link courtesy of Just Food newsletter). And, Slow Food NYC is hosting a “Why the Farm Bill Matters to All of Us” event THIS AFTERNOON (Friday, 4 May, 2012), at the Union Sq. Market, to boot. (For more information, read here.)
Ten Key Values of the Green Party [USA]
This is the first of my Case for Green series here on Fikira. The Ten Key Values of the Green Party values speak volumes. Any case for any party should start with the foundations and active workings of that party, but these i find particularly trust-worthy and motivating. And it’s not just scribble, either: This is what Green voters hold our party accountable to, and are what all of our platforms and programs are based on. I am extremely proud to be a Green voter because of these values. Thus here we have an appropriate introduction, an impressive set of progressive politics, and a very personal list. “What the Ten Key Values Mean to Me” is soon coming.
“There is no definitive list of the ten key values. They were first adopted as a discussion paper in 1984 and have been modified several times. Many state and local parties have adopted their own versions*. Perhaps the most widely used version is the one ratified at the Green Party Convention in Denver, Colorado, June 2000, which is reprinted below…”
[Excerpted from: (2006). Hawkins, H. Independent Politics: The Green Party Strategy Debate. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books. (pp. 9-11).]
Why I’m Voting Green (A Case for Green)
Hey y’all! Long time no write! I am going to be publishing a brief series of resources for those of you interested in independent politics and voting Green. I am an absolute Jill Stein supporter and registered Green Party New York State voter. I will be a first-time voter this fall and so i have a special interest in young voters. I believe we can start a surge of anti-corporate, pro-social justice ballots in 2012. I believe we can make a statement about what we actually want as liberal voters. I want to speak up about my Green vote and give it an even more far-reaching impact.
I am not claiming now, nor will i claim later, that i am offering all sides to the Green debate. I am always open to debate, but i will be dedicating my ‘blog space to arguments for an independent and Green vote. There’s enough out there to convince us not to vote with our conscious: I want to help give the Green Party USA, and Jill, a real chance at affecting change. I want young people to have a convincing stance, complete with resources, for participating in Green liberal politics. I am unabashedly critical of the DMC, and have a smaller goal for this series to convert Democratic voters with both example and reason. My Fikira of the moment is to make A Case for Green.
In an effort to minimize how much i reblog on [IDEA] i am now starting a new blog. It’ll seem like most every other blog on this site, and there’s not much i can do about that. There are SO MANY things that i come accross and really want to collect in one place, not just ‘heart’—especially when i talk about half of it with people i love and can’t find the sources later on. My darling and i meet minds just as much as hearts, so there’ll be political and mushy gushy stuff; in the end, i want the blog to read like one long letter to per. I’ll probably add a few quotes and songs of my own along the way, but i’m going to try to keep the original posts here, at yours truly, and funnel most of my reblogging to the new Darling Dear. ((Peace))
A Call for Better Liberal Action
As a preface, a sample two email headlines from my inbox, with related, central quotes:
Breaking: We won on Keystone XL “Please thank President Obama for rejecting the pipeline.” (Friends of the Earth, 4:55 p.m. 18 January 2012)
VICTORY: President Obama protects birth control access “Planned Parenthood health centers around the country are writing thank-you cards to President Obama—will you add your name?” (Planned Parenthood, 12:21 p.m. 20 January 2012)
Dear President Obama,
Can you make your liberal campaign surge anymore obvious? Sure, the above is good news. Sure, I’m glad you’re doing your job to protect human rights… In these small cases. But I’m countering the hype. I am saying, “No, this campaign strategy is not enough. Last-minute bandages aren’t going to work this time. And, no, I am not going to thank you for doing your job.”
KXL is only the tip of the fight against Big Oil, though it did seem insurmountable. As long as you keep United States troops in Libya, as long as the Artic is threatened with deep oil drilling, as long as our water supplies are threatened by hydrolic fracturing, as long as mountaintop removal is your answer to coal mining, I am going to call you out and say: You, President Barack Obama, are not doing enough to be an energy leader. You are not doing enough to prove your consciousness is in the interests of the health, economy, or future of our people. You are not going to take us all the way, especially when you have only less than a year to address these issues—and when you’ve had time and opportunity to stop most of these crises in the first place.
I know that your concession to birth control access is also cosmetics for your campaign, because, again, you have had plenty of time to take on the War against Wom(y)n. You want our vote, so you now make a very, very small gesture in our favor. Limiting birth control does not take away the desperate need for it; women have always planned their parenthood, no matter the laws in place. Thus, by protecting our rights to healthcare, you are taking a good, righteous measure to prevent the harm of many women, but you are doing nothing to actually better our condition. Anti-choice measures have doubled across the nation in the course of one year. Planned Parenthood stays open, but with a hardly humane budget. Women still make less than 70¢ to every man’s dollar—an economic disparity that only creates more pressure for family planning. Is this really the country you want your daughters to grow up in?
In any case, Congress and Senate are doing FANTASTICALLY at mobilizing citizens with SOPA & PIPA. Maybe I don’t need to say much to highlight the rights violated during your term, since a simple (though very important) anti-piracy act is doing most of the grunt work. We don’t even need to talk about the 2012 NDAA and indefinite detention without trial, apparently.
Thanks for solidifying my allegiance to my party,
A Liberal INDEPENDENT Voter, U.S.A. (Brooklyn Green)
—-
A special thanks to the Working Families Party, Color of Change, CREDO Action Network and 350.org for messages that encourage and demand more leadership from our current President and this country’s liberals. It balanced out my inbox/psyche so much; thank you, thank you. (Links here lead to affiliated campaign pages.)
I write this to encourage dialogue. If you want to reblog it, horray! But maybe add your own addendum. I am a staunch supporter of the Green Party, but being an independent voter opens a lot of opportunity for political discourse with other liberals (and other voters in general). What do you disagree with here? What do you want more support for? How can we better the pursuit and accomplishment of liberal causes?
HOLY CRAP! Do you see this??? DO YOU SEE JOSEPHINE HAVING AN AMUSING CONVERSATION WITH FRIDA‽‽‽‽ Wonderful. Beautiful! Herstory.
(via: vintageblackglamour)
Food democracy is your right to eat whatever food you want to eat, and it is under threat. Legal action against small farmers like Dan Brown affects the justice system forever, making…
Since MARCH Maine has been passing local Food Sovereignty laws, from district to district—THE FIRST AND ONLY STATE TO DO SO. It’s not only an embarrassment to this progress that Governor LePage is allowing this suit, it is an outrage to everyone everywhere who EATS. Follow the link to the main article, and sign, if you please.
I rarely re-blog quotes, but this… this is supreme. This makes me think of all the times I wanted to morph out of my body and couldn’t—but I really was—and of all the times I swore there was a fiber of my being missing in the mess that is growth, when all along it was really being replaced with a newer sinew of thought. But growth is not so obvious, is it not. What cells birth other cells pass on DNA and collective memories and shapes and functions. It is the receivers in us that change the game, and all the little switches that turn the big ON/OFF switch off or on. Matter is not created, nor is it destroyed, it merely interacts differently in each cycle
Based on the Amazon book description of Before I Die, I can safely say that this book would have made it to my to-read list approximately five months ago, had I known about it. If any of you have read it, want to convince me that Now is the Five Months Ago of Today and that it’s something I should read anyway?
(via the beautiful blog teachingliteracy)
(Source: aseaofquotes)
Staceyann Chin is going in to labor
I feel as though this is on “breaking news” status
Blessings to her! I hope the carriage goes safely and that she and her baby finally find healthy peace. May this great poetess’ next adventure bring her all the joy and fulfillment she’s been hoping for. I’m so excited to (hear) read what comes next!!
Here I go, looking for a photo to blog relating to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (in honor of my re-reading the novel), and what do I come across? A recipe for BLACK FOREST RAVEN CAKE, inspired by the book!!! WAAAH! Booklish: A Bibliophile’s Kitchen is such a genius ideaaaa! I hope you guys check it out; I know I’m definitely going to take this idea and run with it, for every book I finish this year! Fiction or otherwise, I feel so inspired now! :D
And, um, hey, can someone bake me this cake for my birthday? Really, it’d be the most perfect thing. P;
Six-Word Short Story #55
“Whose wounds are you kissing tonight?”
Told you, girl knows how to write one-line stories!! Go visit her blog and answer the question (because I feel like being nosey and am the only one who has so far…). ;)
Sitting by the Oven
is the same thing as sitting by the fireplace, especially when you don’t have heat in your home. -.-
