Sunday Morning with Cats

If you like a spiritual fix on Sunday, from whencever it might come, read this entry from the blog of my friend, Michael Hasty.  He has a little fun trying to explain his Yoga master's spiritual views to his cats, but they have opinions of their own.  Mike promises to provide a "gospel hour" every Sunday morning.  FYI (for your inspiration), of course.

http://hampshireindependent.blogspot.com/2011/01/spiritual-politics.html 

Gramma Windy

Gasland Review

Gasland Review according to Windy

“I had tried to keep anger and sorrow at bay.”  So said Josh Fox as he broke down while kneeling beside the now polluted Divide Creek in Colorado, the creek which reminded him so much of his own creek at his home in Pennsylvania.  Josh had spent weeks touring natural gas drilling sites in many states, beginning in Dimock, PA, near his own home, where he had been offered $100,000 for a lease on his property of 19 acres.   Josh traveled through much of the West—Colorado, Utah, Wyoming—to follow up on reports of adverse consequences to environment and people.  He interviewed whistle blowers and town mayors, and tried to interview, by phone and in person, industry officials.  He listened to people relate their experiences, from large scale ranchers to back-to-landers in remote areas.  He collected water samples for testing, watched tap water and creek water being set afire.  Josh attended legislative hearings where members dismissed any evidence save that from industry officials; environmental agency meetings where no representative of the agency was in attendance; press conferences where no press showed up.  The product of his experience is the documentary, “Gasland.”

This film both opened and closed with scenes from an energy committee hearing in the U. S. House of Representatives.  With industry leaders seeking to prove that reports of environmental damage and personal injury were not true, that hydraulic fracturing was safe; while opposing witnesses presented reports on damage and illness.  Rep Boren (D-OK) claims that one witness is “…searching for a problem that does not exist.  Because looking at all these other incidents, in other states, there has not been a problem with hydraulic fracturing.  And I’m proud that I’m supported by the oil and gas industry because they employ a lot of people in my state, and I’m gonna stick up for the, I’m tired of people trying to shut down an industry when they’re not educated on the facts.  If you’re not able to do this hydraulic fracturing, how much more will we be dependent upon foreign oil---and---and terrorism.”  Hearing closed soon after.

This film was shown at a public meeting, sponsored by Hampshire County Independent Network, at the Romney Public Library on Monday, January 17^th, or, that is, part of the film was shown, as it runs for nearly two hours and it was not possible to show it in its entirety and still allow time for Q & A.   I want to urge you to watch the film in its entirety—library has a copy, you can buy it, or rent it, or borrow it.   Or you can download it and watch it free at http://documentaryheaven.com/gasland/

Timely Reflections on Scrooge

During Christmas week I watched, as I had many Christmases before, “Scrooge,” or “A Christmas Carol,” the 1951 one with Alistair Sim, based on Dickens’s  “A Christmas Carol.”  I awoke the next morning remembering an old incident, back in 1951, with the thought, probably not for the first time, that the old man I encountered in that incident was the epitome of Scrooge. 

Back in September of that year, my husband  and I, with his teen-age-brother and our two-year-old child,  were returning to our home in Prince George’s County, Maryland,  from a trip to Iowa.  It was already nightfall when we arrived in Frederick, MD, and realized we had not enough gas to get home, and not another penny among us.  Just a dollar’s worth would get us home, gas being then about 20 cents a gallon.   Surely some kindly gas station attendant would  loan us a dollar for gas.  But the elderly gent at the corner gas station declined to help us.    What?  A nice, clean-cut family like ourselves couldn’t be trusted?  And the dollar was so much money that the old man couldn’t take a chance on losing it?  What was he thinking?  That we would not return the dollar and it would be his undoing?  He would go bankrupt?  No doubt he would have gone to his grave grieving for that lost dollar.

Eventually we met a young police officer who himself took a dollar out of his pocket and gave it to us.  We took our dollar back to the little corner station and gave it to the old man, and got our gas.   Next day we put two dollar bills in an envelope and addressed it to Officer Denver J Shook with a little heartfelt note of thanks for his help.  Back came a letter from his captain, expressing his appreciation for our prompt return of the money while at the same time assuring us that we would not have had to do so, they were glad to help. 

But the Scrooges, or their spiritual descendants, still walk among us.  We witnessed them in the Halls of Congress during the last few weeks.  Saying no to extension of unemployment benefits, no to extension of tax cuts just for the middle class, no to the rights of gays and lesbians to be a part of the military, no to the rights of children of immigrants to gain citizenship by attending college or joining the military, no to medical care for 9/11 workers, no to food safety, no to expanding child nutrition, no to allowing anyone to pick up the crumbs from the table.  As Scrooge said, “What?  Are there no prisons?  Are there no workhouses?”  And today he might add, “Are there no homeless shelters?  Are there no soup kitchens?  Are there no grates on the sidewalk?”  But then when these statesmen were able to get what they really wanted, tax cuts extended for the very rich, they allowed other legislation to proceed, although most still voted their nay’s.  When the ghost of Jacob Marley was warning Scrooge of what was to come if he did not mend his ways, Scrooge protested:  “But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,” and Marley shrieked: “Business!  Mankind was my business.  The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business.  The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business….Why did I walk through the crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down….”

May you have a Happy and Progressive New Year,

Gramma Windy