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Show THE ZEPHYR/OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2006 whether, to bear children, a care that is lavish with government funds (taxpayer money) for that express public purpose. Health proposals put out by politicians are nothing but get-elected blah-blah bowing to the “needs” of insurance corporations, health care cor- From porations, conservative executives of all sorts and, most of all, fear: funders of election campaigns have the politicos securely in their bite, carnassial teeth showing. They can’t be serious, let alone heartfelt. MARTIN MURIE When we gripe about the lowdown stupidity of the masses we are playing the game, the game rulers play. We are taking precisely the posture power elites love. They pretend to honor us as true blue God Bless Americans when we are complacent and contented, while meanwhile stirring up desires we didn’t know we had, the better to bring us to the malls. Inside the game the dice -- are they loaded? -- keep landing us on Boardwalk or Park Place; we go broke, lose heart, snarl at each other. But that’s just a piece of the Big Picture. There is another world where we live demanding lives. That penetrates, that really does penetrate. Experience counts. We play along, much more than is good for us, but we are not, by and large, a bunch of dummies. Am I spouting extremist blather? No. A cool look around shows clearly where the extremism lies. It lies in that overarching creature President Dwight Eisenhower warned us about, “The Military-Industrial Complex.” That’s how the web shakes, for me. I chose that link leading to oppression of women because it: centers ona huge part of the solution: Liberate women, lift the oppressions, create true equality. Those triumphs have to come about, here and elsewhere in whatever sane ways we can help elsewhere, whether or not there are too many people. Are there too many? I’ll touch another link and claim that population size looks very different, depending on where you stand and what you see. From where I stand, I see mindless exploitation of the earth. What if we treated the earth differently, for human health and happiness rather than for profits Uber Alles? Shrink urban sprawl, bring cities back to life, reduce automobile insanity, create more habitats for us and the others. skerihog@ westelcom.com LOSING SOLITUDE Wouldn’t the count look a little different, less horrific, if we made that turn? It’s time now, to be outrageous about this. It’s time to take a hard look at the rules of the game. It’s time to “raise less corn and more hell.” (Mother Jones said this).With that Was it something the women once glimpsed?-- not courage, not standing behind their men ... firmly in mind, here are some outrageousnesses. ... Whatever it is that sends back deep for supplies more precious than food, before winter? William Stafford Ihave heard, more than once, the off-hand comment that an epidemic (AIDS was once in fashion, maybe still is) would be the best solution to human overpopulation. Offhand comments are not meant to be complete analyses, so I’ll just offhandedly note that the Black Death in Europe took huge bites, but after it died away the numbers of humans slowly and then more rapidly accelerated and here we are again, in the billions. An ecological approach, which means complications, i is not very popular. Strange, because the word “ecology” dosn’t mean “environment,” it means the whole shebang, our earth, our place of many homelands. The word, refers to the way things work, here where we live. It sheds light on a particular problem we might be looking at, human populations for example, while at the same time sending diminishing rays of light that touch links to other problems, opportunities, dangers, questions. Instead of “What goes around comes around,” the ecological slogan is “Touch one part of the web, the whole thing quivers.” In plain English: when something comes around again it is not quite the same. This is, as = as science can now penetrate, the way of the world. I'll touch WAR. Let’s see what Happens. “THE WAR WORKS | even the leader, are in the belly of this beast and it is that beast that “paints a smile on the leader’s face.” : In this radiance of war I choose a link leading directly to the rulers of our nation who oppress women.That oppression stems from a particularly vicious brand of religiosity wound tightly around plain ol’ male chauvinism that refuses equality among us citizens, among people of all colors and origins, among men and women. Men are oppressed too, by an equally vicious brand of maleness that War loves: You know what I mean. Where is the meaningful universal health) care? By meaningful I mean heartfelt and serious. I mean a care that makes doubly sure that all women can choose when, and NOW AVAILABLE BREAKOUT A NOVEL BY MARTIN MURIE A cross continent struggle to save people and other endangered species. $15 = From a United Farm Workers Alert, August a 2006. “Five —— ago, the EPA found that two highly t azinphos methyl] and phosmet--pose “ “unacceptable” poisoning risks to workers who are exposed to them. “Now the EPA has announced it is planning to allow further use of one of the pesticides, phosmet, without sufficient restrictions to prevent worker poisonings. The EPA is 3) Raise minimum wage one month from today, to well above poverty level, for every : : That’s from the title poem of a book of poems by Dunya Mikhail, an Iraqi woman who had to flee from the Iraqi regime, even before Bush the First launched “his” war. (2) The poem has the immense advantage of treating war as a “thing.” No blame is cast. All, Order direct from Martin Murie l). Use city spaces and structures for affordable housing, free community centers, dance floors, things like that. Rehabing encouraged, but it must be realistically affordable for low income citizens. If that reduces profits, so be it. 2) Instruct all CEOs to reduce aa ee pesticide use by 100 per cent, next month. All is not a typo. They're all complici proposing to phase out the other pesticide, azinphos methyl, over the next four years. “This is unacceptable. It’s already been five years since the EPA admitted both pesticides pose “unacceptable” risks. It’s time to stop putting workers in danger.” HARD How magnificent the war is! How eager and efficient ...” What if we treated the earth differently, for human health and happiness rather than for profits Uber Alles? Shrink urban sprawl, bring cities back to life, reduce automobile insanity, create more habitats for us and the others. Wouldn’t the count look _a little different, less horrific, if we made that turn? human being in our nation, including women, young people, old people, middle aged people, immigrants with or without documentation. Money for this can come from aborting endless wars and other waste sinks. 4) Pass the Equal Rights amendment. 5) Instruct auto makers to create high-mileage vehicles across the board, all 2008 models. No exceptions, no deals. Just do it. Ihave a long list of these. You might want to write down here, now, your own number one favorite outrageous desire. Fill this little space. Too many people? Too many in relation to what? In relation to sustainable use of earth’s resources, a standard answer. Let’s accept that. First thing comes to mind is the fantastic waste involved in living the way we do. From chem lawns, analyzed by Ned Mudd in the last Zephyr, to private jet jaunts, waste and more waste. Packaging alone, in affluent countries, fills landfills and faulty recycling centers, puts huge demands on fiber sources and plastics, which come from forests and petroleum. A huge part of packaging ORDER SIGNED COPIES DIRECT FROM MARTIN MURIE: | LOSING SOLITUDE: cowtown....$14.95 A contemporary Western. Developers invade a _ WINDSWEPT: Birdwatchers & a biker from Montana tangle with corporation extremists in Medicine Bow. Wyoming....$14.95| BURT’ S WAY: Environmentalists labeled ‘terrorists, keepa’ _ chuggin’ on the Quebec/New Y ork border...$12 | RED TREE MOUSE CHRONICLES: Forest animals on assignment; What is the future of the forests? They turn activist.....$6.00 SERIOUSLY INSISTENT: 80 pages of activist critique...$7.00 Plus Postage--$2.20 for the first book, $1.00 for the second. sapchen@westelcom.com |