May 6
1916
Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman started the No Conscription League in the U.S. This was prior to American troops’ being sent to Europe in what is known as World War I.
Read the No-Conscription League Manifesto
Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman
Carmen called me today and said she was off work early and she’d like to come visit. So she did! We had a great talk.
Here is Carmen with me today in front of my house:
Here are some recent articles on the nuclear waste issue in Utah:
May 5
I got a call that Carmen was in the E.R. today with horrible abdominal pain. Of course I thought the worse about the baby.
The baby is fine, though. It appears the Carmen has a cyst on her ovary (this is the week for ovarian cysts in my family!) that is causing her pain. It’s really tiny and she’s been told she will just have to put up with it until after the baby is born. Poor thing!
The good news is that it has been determined through an ultrasound at the E.R. that Carmen is 6 weeks 4 days along and while the heartbeat couldn’t yet be detected, it could be seen – amazing! The aniticipated due date is December 24! What a holiday it will be!
….The Deseret News has an article this morning about the American Lung Association’s report on Salt Lake Metro Area being the 5th highest in the nation in terms of a particular kind of air pollution.
The lung association’s “State of the Air: 2006” report gives Utah failing marks concerning the finest particle pollutants, for short periods of high pollution levels.
The article quotes the director of the Utah Division of Air Quality as disputing that report but admitting that Utahns do have health problems associated with the pollution here. He stated that the report card’s implementation is “uniformly despised” by air quality directors across the country “because of its unscientific criteria it uses.”
The EPA is proposing new rules for standards that would expose even higher levels of pollution, according to the article. The article does not address what measures should or will be put into place to address this issue.
Residents in Utah without health insurance increased by 40,000 in one year.
The ranks of Utah’s uninsured grew by 1 percent between 2004 and 2005, according to a recently released report from the Utah Department of Health.
There are about 300,000 Utahns without health insurance and 46 million Americans. The latter figure includes about 8 million children. According to the Deseret News article quoted above, Gov. Jon Huntsman has created a working group to study this issue and address the root cause of the alarming fact that so many of us are without health insurance.
I have been without health insurance for most of the last decade, so I can speak from personal experience to this issue.
The “root” cause is the profit-making corporate nature of health insurance companies and health care providers, including hospitals and nursing homes.
Health care is a basic human right. It is addressed and provided for in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document which the U.S. became a signatory in 1948. To wit:
Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
There is no humane reason why so many Americans, and worldwide citizens for that matter, should suffer as a result of not being able to afford health care. It’s a basic human right.
The Earth Day Network is the offical earth day organization that promotes Earth Day each year and provides tons of resources to advocate for a healtheir environment.
EDN is participating in “Charity Buzz” through May 9 in the Third Annual Chevy Chase Earth Day Auction for Healthy Kids, Smart Kids. It’s an online auction where you bid for special rendevous’ with celebrities in whatever it is they are offering. For example, auctioneers can bid on:
There are 65 auctions. Charity Buzz is an organize that helps nonprofits prosper by using innovative branding and fund raising strategies.
You can read more about their principles at:CharityBuzz About us.
Here is a “snippet” from that page:
Founded by Coppy Holzman, a recognized pioneer in e-commerce trends, online cause marketing and a senior retail executive with the best brands in the business for over 25 years, the charitybuzz brand embraces the following core principles:
(only one ishighlighted here)
We have a social conscience. We strive to present relevant observations and encourage political and social discourse. We will attempt to be non partisan but know that we can never stand on the sidelines regarding the critical social issues of the day. Well placed passion is a virtue and engaged dialogue is a catalyst for positive social and political change.
It looks like you probably have to be willing to spend some significant bucks for this, but if one has that, it looks like a good thing to do for an organization that helps so many of us around the world plan and implement earth day events and educational activities.
Wasatch Front and Ogden Schools have decided to keep “non-diet” sodas out of public schools in vending machines. Vendors will be supplying “healthier” drinks with lower caloric content instead.
Under the agreement, diet soda that contains less than 10 calories per serving would still be sold in public high schools but only unsweetened juice, low-fat milk and water would be sold in elementary and middle schools.
This is a good start, but diet sodas contain aspartame and caffeine – two drugs that can potentially have serious side effects…..especially on developing children.
See information from the Aspartame Toxicity Info Center and FAQ’s on caffeine.
May 4
1886
At Haymarket Square in Chicago, a labor demonstration for an eight-hour workday turned into a riot when a bomb exploded. A mass meeting had been called for that night when a large force of 176 police officers arrived with a demand that the meeting disperse. Someone, unknown to this day, then threw a bomb at the police. In their confusion, the police began firing their weapons in the dark, killing at least four in the crowd and wounding many more. Several police died (only one by the bomb), the rest probably by police fire.
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 