What Can Our Children Teach Us About the World

About a week ago, I tried to do something I thought was pretty simple.  There was a meme floating around that suggested people go and give money to their local schools so that students won't have to worry about lunch at least.  I work for an organization that works with schools and helps them build school gardens.  I went to them and said, "I want to put $20 on a kid's past due lunch account."
They said they don't have that problem in that district.  All of the lunches and breakfasts are taken care of.  Yay taxes!

Still not daunted, I called the next district over and said. "I want to put $20 on a kid's past due lunch account."
They asked, "Which child?"
I said, "Is there some sort of master past due account or something?"
They said, "No.  You can pay for a child you know or pay for all of them.  Do you know a child in the district?"
I said, "No.  I just thought it would be a good deed."
They said," Let me get back to you."
That was a week ago and after several phone calls back and forth, mainly, I assume to make sure that I am not some sort of weirdo, I got a call asking me if I wanted to meet with the principal about the matter.

I work in the adjacent school district (kinda) and once they found out who I was they became suspicious, as though I was spying or something.  Nope. I just wanted to help a hungry child.  Then came the debate about whether or not this was some kind of publicity stunt.  Nope. I just wanted to help a hungry child.

I only had about $20 in my wallet and more than likely I was going to spend it at Starbucks so I had thought, "Why not?"  I believe that I am on some sort of watch list somewhere now and though we have no idea what kind of ties Donald Trump has to Russia, somewhere someone knows that I wanted to donate $20 to a local school and is wondering why.

Well if you are reading this, NSA or whoever, it is because we should have an urge to help others, children especially, even if they are not related to us or in our orbit.  As a society, we all benefit from a well educated population and electorate.  Paul Ryan, whose family received public aid notwithstanding, I would hope that a child would grow up and remember that someone unrelated to him or her did something for the them and the good of society.  Karma and all that jazz.
So, as a teacher (kinda), I wanted to see where our children's minds are in reference to society at large.

Last week on Earth Day, I ended a morning covered in dirt and stale beer.  We had collected A LOT

of aluminum cans for our kids' can drive.  We ended up turning in $234.17 worth of aluminum cans. Then this morning came the question of what to do with the money.  The adults sat around Starbucks this morning thinking.  We looked at the little things that we had to pay for and we looked at how we wanted to proceed with our gardening project for next year and beyond.

We decided the best thing that we could do was to leave it up to the kids.  100 3rd graders in Seattle, Augusta, Atlanta, and Greenville SC have until Monday to decide what to do with $234.17.  On Monday, I leave for Haiti to help a small village join our network of schools with gardens.  They were told they could send it along with me to Haiti.  They could use it and the $20 I was throwing in to help pay for school lunches.  They also have until Monday to write a bill for whatever they want to do with it.  As long as 51 of them agree, they can do whatever they want.  They could have a pizza party, save the money, or even have me light it on fire.

I like to believe that we are teaching them a lesson, but I believe it is more the other way around and we are learning from them.  The results of this vote will tell us a lot about who we are and where we are as a nation.  I think this is far more interesting than any recent vote in our history, more important that District 6 in Georgia, more important than the national election because I think it will tell us a great deal more about the state of our nation overall.

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Have We Reached The Pinnacle of Protest?

This weekend was Tax Day and we were supposed to revolt, right?  Well maybe not revolt, but at least get together and shout about how much we want to see Donald Trump's tax returns.  People did, for the most part.  What I am hearing now on Monday is a lot of regret and irritation on both sides.

Trump, of course, is upset because he is likely hiding something and this issue won't go away.  He took to Twitter to acknowledge it as though it were a recurring issue when in fact it is just the same issue that it has always been.  Then he talks about how there are a number of paid protesters incited by the media.  So as he sat at Mar A Lago complaining about how he won fair and square and the election is over and there is nothing to see here, people were out protesting.

Why are WE upset, though?  Is Trump going to release his tax returns?  No time soon.  Is Planned Parenthood any better off than it was the day before he was elected?  No, in fact they are faring worse for federal support but better in private donations.  The Keystone Pipeline is moving forward.  Gorsuch presided over his first day on the Supreme Court today.  We are facing military actions in Syria, Korea, and let's remember that we just dropped the Mother Of All Bombs in Afghanistan.

So what is happening?  What is being done?  Can we say that message is beginning to get watered down?  Who are the Black Bloc and groups like them?

It is getting safe to say that the messages may be getting lost in all of the wannabe messengers.  We are getting reports of events starting off pretty focused but then falling apart as speakers take the mic to talk about taxes at a Planned Parenthood rally or Black Live Matter at a environmental protest.

Then you have the Black Bloc vs. Black Lives Matter.   The problem is that you have two different groups with decidedly different goals but they are welded together in the minds of outsiders watching because their structure is similar and tying them together can be convenient for those wanting to smear someone.

The Black Bloc is a group of anti fascists who wear all black and go to protests to, for lack of a better term, start trouble.  They wear helmets and masks and show up prepared for "battle".  As we saw in Berkeley this weekend, when the fighting starts, it is hard to tell which side is which.  The Black Bloc is an open movement though.  They do not have real uniforms or any kind of leadership structure; just a bunch of people doing stuff.

When we look at Black Lives Matter, we see they face the same problems.  There are people who can say that they started it and claim an origin, but are unwilling to own any kind of structure for it.  In fact, they openly eschew ownership.  Without that ownership, any one person can do any thing in their name causing the entire group to take responsibility; just a bunch of people doing stuff.

For a protester, this is and should be a disturbing trend.  The Occupy movement had noble beginnings but without any cohesive body or a spokesperson, it was quickly diluted and became a bunch of people sleeping on the street.

The other side is learning and the methodology has been very effective.  Let's look at the #NODAPL movement.  The Dakota Pipeline was something that was in the works for quite some time before the protests began and the Native Americans began to dig in.  There were lawyers and engineers working on the best way to route this pipeline through that land long before the first temporary tents were set up.  Time and consistency were their best weapons and they worked.

They saw a harsh winter coming and set a deadline.  While people were marching in circles in the cold and snow, they had lawyers hard at work and engineers creating multiple designs.  The uproar many were seeing on line was real but that is all it was...online.  As we approached the deadline, people showed up to show support.  Keystone knew it would not last though and at just the right time (the time when it would have been too cold for even their own people) they agreed to try to work it out.  People left, those who wanted to stay were forced out.  Days later, it was back on track for the build with protections being endorsed by President Trump.

So it seems we have reached an interesting space in the world.  The waters are so muddy that we cannot see the bottom, or the top.  The one thing that we can take from all of this is that everyone wants to speak.  Many say that the reason that Donald Trump is our president is because so many people out there felt that their voice was not being heard.  With his election comes  a flood and all of those people who were not being heard, now won't shut up.

Have we reached the pinnacle of protest; the point at which running out into the streets with a sign does no good or worse, does more harm than good?  I think that now we have to start thinking about what we are going to do with that voice.  We are heading towards something but what do we do when we get there?  The general idea seems to be to keep going; to always be campaigning and never solving the problem but making damn sure everyone knows there is a problem and whose fault it is.

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How do you resist? Being a Resistance Early Adopter (explicit)

How does it start and where does it end?  Well, I can tell you it was not necessarily November 8th 2017.  For some people it started a long time before that and will go on a long time after.

On November 8th, I was coming back from Haiti, a place still devastated after an earthquake and worse still Hurricane Matthew.  I am going back in about two weeks, but I am not going back empty handed.

Weeks before we had started a compost pile.  Weeks before that we had started working on gardens in schools and how to get kids more involved in where their food comes from.  We started working on lowering food waste and discussing the environment.  We talked to 3rd grade teachers in Seattle and Atlanta and got them talking to each other and got the kids talking to each other.  We got them talking about what they can do in Haiti and what they can start doing about climate change and more.

As the compost pile started  break down, we talked about food and growing food for people in Haiti and how the people
in Haiti could grow their own food and food that can be exported.  It turns out the people in Haiti grow a lot of peanuts which is good in the short term but horrible for the land and caused a lot of erosion during the earthquake and worse still after the hurricane.  How do they manage waste?  How do they get electricity?  We talked about all that.

We had to catch our plane out of Port Au Prince early in the morning on November 9th.  Where we were staying, a little town in the mountains called Inviter, there was no cell phone reception and the monastery had wi-fi but not very powerful. We had to hike out because the roads were washed away.  So for several heart wrenching hours, we trekked through the dark in a strange land, thinking about how hard what we had planned would be, blissfully unaware that Donald Trump was winning the election.  Soon, as the sun began to break and we got closer to Port au Prince, cell phones began to buzz with the pick up of signal and moments of elation (many in our small group were certain Hillary was going to win) turned to screams of OH Fuck!  We had stayed with a really nice family there in the mountains, and a few in our small group considered staying.

As we prepare to go back, we wonder what a Trump presidency is going to mean.  It is going to mean working harder on this project, we thought, but also many other projects that we could only partially see coming.  How do you get support for a climate change push from an administration that does not believe it exists?  How do you reach out to a government coming from a country that is now more isolationist?  You can't edge the word Haiti in sideways when all we can talk about is Syria and Russia and China and Korea.  Once again, they are shoved to the back of the line.  They do not have oil.  They are not of strategic importance.  They are merely an island where people are suffering.

We can do something though.  We can resist.  We can realize that we are in somewhat the same boat as they as soon as we land.  When we land we start to talk about people who think that global climate change is a real and bad thing.  When we land we start to talk with people who think Black Lives Matter.  When we land we hear about children in the schools where we are building gardens who cannot afford food.  When we land we start talking about how to prepare these kids for a world where coal mining is promoted over tech, science, and innovation.

When we look back, we have been resisting since before it was called resistance.  Every Thursday, at ten a.m. we work in a garden behind a local elementary school.  25 students come over with their teacher to work with us, learn how to grow their own food and work on ways to get involved in their community.  Then they get to talk to 25 students in Seattle and 25 students in Augusta, GA and 25 students in Greenville, SC and talk about what they learned.

In that same garden, one of my students found three bullets and brought them to me.  In that same
garden, one of my Hispanic students told me that she was scared that her parents were going to be deported.

So we resist by doing what we have always done only amping it up a lot.  We have to understand the problems have not changed, they have only gotten help in becoming more problematic.  This week, next week and for as long as we can, we are going to be giving away plants grown by our kids so that people can grow food.  We resist by gardening and writing and teaching.  How do you resist?

Let us know how you resist at thelifecooperative@gmail.com

Letter to an Angry Liberal: Cynicism and Crying BS in the Face of War

 Dear Angry Liberals,
One of the things that I have been hearing a lot about this weekend is that Trump bombed Syria to distract from the Russia investigation.  This could be true, but several things are also happening.  My last post about Ann Coulter sparked a lot of debate and that is a good thing.  A lot of people spoke about what a vile person she is and that too, is a good thing.  The core of what I was saying is that despite the content of what she is saying, she has the will to say it.  That is the key to why they are winning; the will to speak, knowing nothing while we don't.

Sometimes, speaking what may be true feels icky, for lack of a better term, because of the timing.  The people who get the message out do not have such compunction and that may be why the bad guys win.  These are the people who are in the trenches, the Deplorables and the trolls whose first thought when seeing a Hillary Clinton stumble at the 9/11 Memorial was not, "Oh my goodness, I hope she is ok." but immediately begin working on screen captures of the moment and memes that only they think are funny.  These are the people who think up things like Comet Pizza has a basement where children are being molested by the Secretary of State who somehow slips her Secret Service detail along with many other higher ups to go and do some nefarious thing in a crowded pizza place.  These are the people with the disgusting will after children were killed at Sandy Hook to start spreading the rumor within hours that it was completely fake.

Trump bombed Syria on Friday.  Why?  A number of articles came out immediately as we began to get battle damage assessment (BDA) of the ordeal.  First, we see that not too much damage was inflicted on the airfield as they were up and running again the next day.  He told the Russians that he was going to do it so they could move their equipment and personnel.  No doubt Assad's troops knew as well and were able to think about a three day weekend they were likely to get.

What was the intent?  Were we meant to stare in awe as missiles flew into the night and be dumbfounded by the might of the U.S. military to the point that we would forget the myriad things going on?

Logic like that is predicated on the notion that the American people do not have the bandwidth to think about more than one thing at a time.  I am still peeved about the Yemen debacle which Trump seemed to only engage in because President Obama would not authorize it when he was in office.

Let me state that I do not think that Trump is a thoughtful man.  By that I mean that I was unmoved by his moment in the White House Rose Garden talking about the "little babies" that were harmed or killed in Assad's gas attack.  More people in Syria die from regular ole bombs than from gas attacks, so why the change now?  In fact, earlier in the week, both Secretary of State Tillerson and Ambassador Haley said that the administration's position would basically to leave the Assad regime be.  Also, keep in mind that Trump screamed that intervention in Syria would be a big mistake in 2013.  The Republicans were ready to sue Pres. Obama over intervening without congressional approval. What changed?  "Gas Attack" was trending.  That is all.  Trump is running the administration based on what is most popular.  End of story.

This is also very telling about his personality and temperament as well as ours.  In light of Thursday and Friday's events, what is our policy on Syria?  Who knows?  We will apparently find out the next time something happens.  If it gets enough "likes" America will do something.  If not, well...

This whole administration is being run moment to moment and the best many of us can do is hang on for the ride.

It seemed the biggest goal of the attacks on Syria were pretty simple.  To get Americans to snap-to, salute the flag, and forget about everything else that has ever been said or done by Trump.  He didn't "become Presidential" as Fareed Zakaria put it.  He muddied the waters.

We need to be able to say so in the moment.  Sometimes it feels bad.  Sometimes it feels wrong to talk about the motives of a president in the moment, as bullets are flying.  The interesting thing is that never stopped anyone on the right from taking the opposite position and that may be part of the reason we are in the mess we are in now.  That may be part of the reason that mess will get worse.  We need to be able to speak out about things as they happen. We need someone to be the a-hole, in short and call BS ...and keep calling BS...When these things happen.

Having been called a "liberal snowflake" and many other things in the past year, we see that the core of the right-wing is to condemn those who are nice and good.  So, Angry Liberal, if I can say something, don't feel bad especially if you are speaking the truth.  Do it quickly and forcefully, because the bullies and the liars will not wait.

Be faster than the lies and spin,
Writ Large

The Angry Liberal... #Itoldyouso and the troll battle continues.

I tend to pick on the right quite a bit and I am considering upping my game.  I have been caught up in the idea of the angry liberal lately.  It is becoming more difficult to be the
soft and kind, touchy feely, hippie type.  Ann Coulter is the best model for what the left needs.  She is a person who makes little to no sense, yet says things anyway.  Without the anchor of a network, she can go on any show and say whatever she wants and sell books to those who want to read and listen to her.  Nice work if you can get it, right?

The reality is that without an anchor, she can play into the standard view of the conservative white person and enjoy being what people expect.  The problem with the left and the liberal snowflakes is that we are supposed to represent the softer side and the positive world view.  Donald Trump has turned that on its head.

In terms of debate, the liberal line is tough to hold.  How do you stand up for yourself while still being the caring loving individual you are?  The answer is simple, in my humble opinion.  We need the liberal equivalent of Ann Coulter.

Case in point: Helen Baristain is married to an undocumented immigrant.  She is a Trump supporter.  Her husband was just deported, despite having no criminal record and being an upstanding citizen (or rather being an upstanding person living in the U.S.).  What is there to say?  The soft, snowflake wants to say that I am sorry that happened.  I want to say that she  and we should do everything in our power to get him back into the arms of his loving family.  The angry liberal in me wants to tell her tough and launch a new hashtag, (#Itoldyouso).

We are seeing more and more of it; people falling victim to their support of Donald Trump and the Republican regime.  The interesting thing is that if something good happens, Trump takes credit.  If something bad happens, he places blame everywhere but himself.  I think we need someone to take him and others to task without trying to be politically correct.  For the record, that person is not Bill Maher.

I am not saying that everyone should be mean to trolls.  I am saying that someone should be mean.  Someone needs to listen to some of the things these people are saying and say, "That is stupid."  The inevitable reply to that will be, "Oh, I thought you liberals were supposed be all sweetness and light." Do we care and is that the line that lets people off the hook for the silly things they say?  The idea that people should allow others to say what they want without consequence or rebuttal because it is the nice thing to do.

The problem is a simple one and easily solved.  One of the reasons why we lose these debates and the commentary is because we have cede the lower ground.  We all rise above when someone needs to get muddy.  Also we assume that people are open to convincing or simply the viewing of relevant facts.  I do not want to believe we are past the point of serious debate, but...

In my opinion and my wildest dream, we need a liberal goon.  In hockey, often teams have a goon or an enforcer whose sole job is to punish players on the other team who foul them.  The right has many such goons who come out of the woodwork when it is time to bash a liberal.  We don't really have anyone.  I would like to see someone sink to their level.  Let's have a reporter with a White House press pass who just screams, "BULLSHIT!" when Sean Spicer said something that was untrue.

Fundamentally, the left has been on its back foot since November 7th or so.  We have been in a defense posture where we are replying to the things that have happened as opposed to launching our own initiatives and building our base.  We have been called on to work with Trump and those in the know are unwilling to do so, despite how many people it would help, because he would likely take credit for any progress made on the left and if anything fails, put them in a place to take the fall.

So I ask, where is the angry liberal out there yelling and screaming about the alt-right and telling people to STFU?