Tag Archives: human needs

Walking the Talk – Sustainability

Tom and I have been growing a HUGE garden each year. We grow organically and enough for ourselves, our friends, and for giving away to people that need food such as indigenous communities. We also water via irrigation.

I keep a page of updates on our garden at: Tom and Dee’s Garden.

It’s hard work for two people given the size of our property(of our .67 acres, about .33 of it is worked in garden projects.

We grow the largest plot (out of 2) in the “three sisters” arrangement – corn, beans and squash interspersed throughout each row so that the beans grow up on the corn stalks. We also have planted about 10 rows of sunflowers (various varieties).

The icon photo I’ve used with this post is a milkweed that grows in our field (prolifically!).

Independence Day – Being an American

As I see the increasing incidences of flag displays and fireworks sales as Independence Day approaches, I cannot help but wonder of people acutally really know what the significance of July 4 is.

Ruben Navarrette has had a piece published in today’s Salt Lake Tribune from SignOn San Diego, entitled Being an American by a technicality.
Navarrette is a hispanic american. He lists the reasons why he is an American.
Here is his list – go to the article (linked above) to read his explanations:

  • I’m an American because I love and appreciate freedom, and I want people around the world to have the chance to experience it firsthand.
  • I’m an American because I don’t believe in isolationism or disengaging from the rest of the world.
  • I’m an American because my sympathies lie with the little guy (especially when he is being pushed around by the big guy) and because I won’t stomach bullies, foreign or domestic.
  • I’m an American because I reject protectionism.
  • I’m an American because I’m convinced that U.S. law exists to protect the rights of minorities — racial, religious, those with a particular sexual preference, etc. — because the majority can protect itself.
  • ‘m an American because I believe the U.S. government can’t run roughshod over civil liberties and simply lock up people and throw away the key.
  • I’m an American because I believe in the power of public education to change the lives and destinies of individuals and entire families.
  • I’m an American because I believe that, with personal rights come personal responsibilities.
  • I’m an American because I believe that the future belongs to the bold, the optimistic and the hardworking.
  • I’m an American because I believe that immigrants are our most valuable import and that we should welcome as many as possible.

    Navarrette’s ending intrigued me the most:
    an immigration restrictionist – recently took issue with something I’d written and informed me that the fact I was an American citizen was just a “technicality.”
    If that’s the case, it’s a technicality for which I’m immensely grateful.

    My comment: We are all, by default, then, American citizens by technicality because America was founded by immigrants to a land already inhabited.

  • Re: Money supercedes human needs -AGAIN

    Earlier last month I posted about Senior Citizens being evicted from their long established homes.

    Today’s Salt Lake Tribune has a follow up story on this issue.

    This appears to be a growing trend in the real estate world. With Utah’s land values increasing, developers eye up mobile home parks for the building of luxury homes for the rich.

    It’s the seventh mobile-home-park displacement Virginia Marrufo Martinez, community organizer for Salt Lake Community Action Partnership, has assisted with since September 2001.

    I am wondering if people who purchase homes in these new developments are ever made aware of the cost of human needs to provide them the “home of their dreams”.

    South Central Farm in Los Angeles – bulldozed for a Wal Mart

    A farm which has been feeding 350 families on a daily basis for the past 15 years has been bulldozed to make way for commercial development.  The land had been transformed from a desolate vacant lot to a thriving garden of edibles that benefitted the hungry in the area.

    From Infoshop News:

    On Tuesday, June 13, 2006, a combined force of sheriffs, LAPD, fire department and bulldozers raided and destroyed the South Central Farm, a community garden and farm located in southern Los Angeles. The violent eviction was met with resistance and protest, both inside and outside of the gardens. Around 45 people were arrested, including actor Darryl Hannah. Protests inside the farm had included a tree sit and a lckdown by farmers and activists. The garden was bulldozed by late in the afternoon, but protests and actions continue.
    Photo: by Marcus, L.A. Indymedia

    South Central Farmers Website

    Photos (2): South Central Farm Police Raid
    *Antidevelopment Protesters Are Arrested at Farm Site in Los Angeles
    *Hollywood stars removed from urban farm
    *Farmers Kicked Out of Community Farm in South-Central Los Angeles

     

    Caravan to Cuba

    The Deseret News has published an article today on the Caravan to Cuba: Cuban aid caravan will defy blockade. I received a call last week from a D-News reporter gathering information for the article. I spoke to the Caravan folks yesterday who are appearing tonight in Salt Lake. They are headed here from Boise.
    ——————————————————-
    A “friendshipment” caravan headed for Cuba will stop in Salt Lake City today, as part of a Pastors for Peace challenge to the U.S. blockade on aid.
    The caravan, which will take medicine, textbooks and other supplies to Cuba, is traveling to more than 120 American and Canadian cities before crossing the U.S. border into Mexico on July 2 in an effort to challenge U.S. restrictions on travel and aid to Cuba.
    At its Utah stop, People for Peace and Justice of Utah will host a free public event at Free Speech Zone, 2144 S. Highland Drive at 7 p.m. Keynote speaker will be Gloria La Riva, coordinator of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five. La Riva has organized medical aid shipments to Cuba and Iraq.
    Continue reading

    Gardening and hiking 2006

    Gardening season is in full swing. This week I harvested herbs and vegetables and have been busy freezing and drying. We grow a huge quantity of food, a little we save for ourselves and the rest we give to folks in need and for activist events where people need to be fed. All of our crops are grown without the use of pesticides or other chemicals. We water via irrigation from existing water sources.

    View ourGarden Photos.

    Last weekend we took a Father’s Day Hike. We plan to go backpacking next week.

    Image

    Go Back to Where?

    Immigration Laws Affect Local Family

    Today’s Salt Lake Tribune has published an article on a local Ogden family whose father was deported and is not permitted to return for 20 years.

    Humberto “Bert” Fernandez-Vargas came to the U.S. in 1969, ultimately started a trucking business, married and raised a son, and paid his taxes. He was deported in 2004 due to a the retroactive (April 1, 1997) Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, a provision which “drastically reduced the possibility for undocumented immigrants to stop their deportation if they had re-entered the country illegally after having been previously deported.”

    Fernandez-Vargas applied to become a permanent legal resident and got authorization to work while the application was pending. Then came his arrest at the immigration interview.

    Fernandez-Vargas can apply for a waiver from the U.S. government, but that could take years.

    No regard has been considered of Fernandez-Vargas’ longstanding residence in the U.S., his community and family commitments, and the responsibilities he displayed as a business-owner and tax-payer.

    This is another example of dividing and conquering on the part of the U.S. which continues to build walls and barriers along the cultural and community divides.

    Dividing and Conquering….Lessons in Community Building?

    This week I have posted on “Life on the Divide” and The Caravan to Cuba.
    Both posts have to do with building barriers – literally and figuratively.

    In my career, I spend a fair amount of time working with young people to bridge the gap in places where there are obvious divides – culturally, religiously, socio-economically, generationally, intellecutally. It is so rewarding to see students come together from a variety of backgrounds and work on common things. Most of all, it is sheer joy to witness these students be accepting of each other regardless of who they are, how they dress and talk, what they look like, and what is their background.

    In the adult world, I cannot say the same. What happens between youth and adult-hood? What happens when our elected officials get into office and get “power”? Look around. We are illegally occupying a country, talking of invading other countries, training terrorists to go back to their home countries and terrorize their citizens, building walls, and forbidding our own citizens to provide aid to citizens of other countries who are in need.

    Is this “building community”?
    Continue reading

    Caravan to Cuba

    The Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba will be in Salt Lake this Saturday. The Desert Greens Green Party Candidates have endorsed the event. I have a quote in the press release that was issued today. The Green Party of the United States published our press release on its home page under “local news”.

    Yesterday I was interviewed by the Deseret News as participant with People for Peace and Justice of Utah. There will be an article in Saturday’s religion section of the D-News about Saturday’s event. HOpefully the press will come to the press conference at 5pm on Saturday to interview the caravanistas.

    I am a strong advocate of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I do not believe that our government, or any government for that matter, has the right to forbid its citizens from contributing aid to those in need in other countries, let alone forbid its citizens from free travel across borders.

    Pastors for Peace and hundreds of volunteers from the US and 7 other countries are slated to cross the US border into Mexico on July 2nd challenging US restrictions on travel and aid to Cuba. This is the 17th annual Caravan. The Caravan will be stopping in Salt Lake City on Saturday, July 24th. People for Peace and Justice of Utah has organized a free public event at Free Speech Zone (2144 South Highland Drive) beginning at 5pm for the Press and 7pm for the public.