For the last 50 years or so, America has veered sharply away from her agrarian roots in favor of convenience.  Generations of wisdom lost, because our supermarkets offer us boundless plenty, regardless of season.  We enjoy culinary delights from every corner of the globe every month of the year.  It was not always thus, and it is highly likely that it will not be for too much longer.  It is not my intention to sermonize about Peak Oil.  I’m offering you a way to combat it.

The event I originally wrote this for, the Eco Go-Go, featured a fashion show highlighting locally-owned businesses, selling eco-friendly goods and services.  Now a bit about fashion – more specifically, about the phenomena of the fashion season:  Way back, when Louis XIV was trying to figure out a way to help his country’s struggling economy, he put a couple of fairly ingenious things in motion: first, his mercantilist administration significantly slowed the importing all textiles and textile supplies from other countries, to bolster the then-stagnant French textile businesses.  Then the brilliant marketing ploy – they encouraged these floundering fashion houses to market their goods based on the season in which they were intended to be worn.  This concept evolved into the two major fashion seasons – Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer. This allowed for clothiers to offer the newly-fashion-conscious public new stuff to buy twice a year, effectively doubling their profits and cementing the industry for centuries to come.

I am sure that many of you are in tune enough with fashion do’s and don’ts to be confident in how you dress year round.  Maybe you take great pride in being fashion-forward.  I managed a few retail clothing establishments in my day, I can tell you that there are plenty of people who are brand-loyal and put great importance on who makes the clothes they wear.  I am starting to see a trend of people who are as devoted to the source of their nourishment.  I challenge you to be as discerning with your food.  Maybe you are an avid label-reader at the supermarket, so I think you should also be as curious about where the food is coming from and when that food is in season.  Fact is, locally produced food, enjoyed in season, is of far greater quality than the alternative.

Our country’s current food production paradigm is based on the assumption that transporting food from a handful of fertile places to the rest of the planet will continue to be very cheap.  If our consumption follows its current trajectory – kiss those cheap Chilean sweet peppers and grapes goodbye.   Perhaps the current economic downturn, coupled with the need to seriously back off of our fossil fuel usage and the gaining popularity of the local foods movement will help us find a better balance.  Washington is working to help small-scale, startup urban farmers – to combat “food deserts.” Every day new articles appear about people turning abandoned lots into verdant food-producing oases.  Could this trend be part of the solution for the rampant joblessness in our country??  True, farming is not for everyone.   I have been selling produce from my own modest urban farm at Findlay Market for a little over a month now. Each market day, my sales improve.  Sometimes a person will comment on how my wares are a little “expensive.”  I remind them the food that I’ve grown did not have to be trucked across the continent, nor has it been sprayed with chemicals to hasten ripening or irradiated to retard spoilage.  They still buy my tomatoes.

Cheers -

Dark Martha

www.consciousurbanliving.com

White Fox Farm

Loki contacted us here at CincyVoices not too long ago, beseeching us to write about the horror that is the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf.  I went back and forth about writing about Peak Oil, or pleading with all of you to stop driving your cars, or writing some blistering tirade aimed at BP and all of the other giants of the Oil Industry.  I’ve watched the story unfold in abject disbelief.  How is it that we got to this point?  How is it that Big Oil hasn’t spent any time or money on research or technology used to clean up spills for decades?  They’ve spent plenty on how to drill for it, and plenty on marketing their products.  We’ve bought plenty of those products… with nary a thought about the process those products take to get to us.

1st Procession of the Krewe of Dead Pelicans, New Orleans. Reaction to the BP Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil gusher disaster. Stop in front of Gallier Hall for a minute of silence for each of the 11 workers killed in the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig, the first casualties of the disaster.

We get a little angry when pump prices increase.  Not angry enough to stop driving.  Not angry enough to stop and think about the items we consume and how much fossil fuel it took to get them to us.  Have any of you changed your buying habits in the last month or so, since the disaster started?  Have you joined that “Boycott BP” group on Facebook?  Do you cry when you see the pictures of oiled pelicans? Do you get furious when you hear that BP has bought key words on the search engines to re-direct queries, and they are doing their damnedest to keep journalists away from fouled beaches?  Are you ready to do something about it?  I am.  I am also terrified at how woefully unprepared I am to take real meaningful steps towards changing my consumer presence, and I am ashamed.

Fact is that we are all addicted to oil, and we aren’t ready to go cold turkey.  Unfortunately, disasters like the Gulf, and those that continue in countries like Nigeria (and countless other third-world countries being raped for their fossil fuel wealth) aren’t really going to force the oil industry to change ANYTHING about how they do business.  Why not?  Because there is still overwhelming demand for their products.  As long as they are making money hand-over-fist, why would they dream of changing how they operate?

Woe on us for living in la-la land for so long, for lying to ourselves that Peak Oil would never happen… to us.  What would you do, if you couldn’t get gas, if plastics were no longer manufactured, if supermarkets weren’t chock-full of goods trucked or flown in from all over the world, etc., etc.?

For me, I’m doing my best to buy local goods, drive as little as I can (although I spank myself over the fact that I drive AT ALL), I’m consuming less wherever I find the opportunity.  It is not enough.  I’m farming now, to help get more quality food into my community. It is still not enough.  We Americans will soon be faced with a concept that no person in power has ever had the balls to tell us to our faces – WE HAVE TO USE LESS. Right there is the most UN-AMERICAN thing I can think of. I may be labeled a socialist. This isn’t some wartime concept of saving it for the troops, this is us owning up to the fact that there isn’t enough to go around.

Don’t think for a moment that the magical petroleum fairy is going to appear and bless America with a never-ending supply of oil, or that some amazing inland supply is just waiting to be discovered.  Don’t be fooled by Big Oil’s PR machine, and think that this tragedy in the Gulf is just a fluke.  This is real, it is happening, and it is ultimately up to us, the American Consumers, to speak with our actions and our pocketbooks, to make sure that those responsible for this travesty are held accountable and are not ever allowed into a position to do this again.

Dark Martha

http://www.consciousurbanliving.com | White Fox Farm

Image Credit: Infrogmation on Flickr | CC 2.0

So with political discussion ramping up on the site (see the comments on the previous post) I thought it was about time to touch on the issue once more. This time I am pleased to offer up a guest post from Amy in OHio. It originally appeared on her blog and I think it needs a wider audience. Check it out and chime in with your thoughts. All of you, regardless of political affiliation. Progress grows from dialogue so lets keep the conversation going! -Loki

“Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away, and that in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all the scintillating beauty.” – Martin Lurther King, Jr.

Some of my best friends in the world are Republicans.  I work for a few Republicans.  I married into a Republican family.  I know my fair share of Republicans.  They in turn know all too well my stance on most issues and I doubt you’d fine anyone in my circle that doesn’t know I’m a Democrat.  Political issues are usually kept at arms length in our interactions…keeping the peace.  Plus with most of them, they are as solid in their leanings as I am in mine, so it isn’t like I’m going to convert anyone.  Believe me, I’ve  tried.

I respect these people.  I don’t agree with them, but I know the foundation of their opinion on issues like health care, taxes, the military, abortion, etc…all come from an educated and thought out position based on facts.  I can only assume that these folks are the rule in the GOP, not the exception.

But man, the GOP really needs to look at their “exceptions” because those asshats really seem to be getting a lot of airtime these days.

I can see the other side’s points on the health care debate.  I might even go so far as to say I agree with one or two of them.  But every legitimate point the GOP might make is redacted when I see footage on CNN of their self-proclaimed “soldiers” using homosexual and racial epithets while spitting on members of Congress.  Throwing money in the face of man suffering from Parkinson’s.  I always knew I would have to explain bigotry and ignorance to my daughter someday, I just didn’t think I’d have audio and video aids from Capital Hill to use when describing the n-word.

When the hell did this become acceptable debate practice?  Did we learn nothing in the years since Martin Lurther King, Jr.?  Peaceful, respectful protest ring a bell?  Learned people using passionate, yet civil, debate as their sword?  More to the point, what in the world does the color of man’s skin or who he sleeps with have to do with HEALTH CARE REFORM?  What does it say about people willing to beat up on a dying man to make their point?

So I say this to all my friends and family in the GOP – you need to shut those people up – or at minimum keep them away from the recording devices.  Because far more than losing this health care vote:  you are losing credibility.  You are losing members.  You are losing your party’s integrity.  Someone in the Republican party needs to stand up and stand up today and shout from the roof tops: WE ARE NOT A PARTY OF BIGOTS!  AND IF YOU ARE ONE, WE DON’T WANT YOU!  Till then, all I can hear is static.

Maybe when you are finished with this Kill the Bill business, you should get a hoe and clear out the garden a bit.  These weeds are choking whatever life  your party has left.

Yes this country needs healthy debate – I would no sooner want to see a Democratic monopoly than a Republican one.  The foundation of America is that we come together from all walks of life.  We discuss the issues we face.  We rally in support of one side or another or another.  We vote.  And that majority speaks for all of us.  The vote doesn’t always go your way.  But in a representative democracy, this is how it works.

We can disagree, we need to disagree.  But we must do so in a fashion that doesn’t bring shame to our country, our parties, ourselves.  In a fashion we aren’t afraid to let our children see…now and decades from now.

“It demands a great spiritual resilience not to hate the hater whose foot is on your neck, and an even greater miracle of perception and charity not to teach your child to hate.”                                               – James Arthur Baldwin

Amen.

-Amy In Ohio

I do solemnly swear to uphold the principles of a socialism-free society and heretofore pledge my word that I shall strictly adhere to the following:

I will complain about the destruction of 1st Amendment Rights in this country, while I am duly being allowed to exercise my 1st Amendment Rights

I will complain about the destruction of my 2nd Amendment Rights in this country, while I am duly being allowed to exercise my 2nd Amendment rights by legally but brazenly brandishing unconcealed firearms in public.

I will foreswear the time-honored principles of fairness, decency, and respect by screaming unintelligible platitudes regarding tyranny, Nazi-ism, and socialism at public town halls. Also, I pledge to eliminate all government intervention in my life.

I will abstain from the use of and participation in any socialist goods and services including but not limited to the following:

• Social Security
• Medicare/Medicaid
• State Children’s Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP)
• Police, Fire, and Emergency Services
• US Postal Service
• Roads and Highways
• Air Travel (regulated by the socialist FAA)
• The US Railway System
• Public Subways and Metro Systems
• Public Bus and Lightrail Systems
• Rest Areas on Highways
• Sidewalks
• All Government-Funded Local/State Projects
• Public Water and Sewer Services (goodbye socialist toilet, shower, dishwasher, kitchen sink, outdoor hose!)
• Public and State Universities and Colleges
• Public Primary and Secondary Schools
• Sesame Street
• Publicly Funded Anti-Drug Use Education for Children
• Public Museums
• Libraries
• Public Parks and Beaches
• State and National Parks
• Public Zoos
• Unemployment Insurance
• Municipal Garbage and Recycling Services
• Treatment at Any Hospital or Clinic That Ever Received Funding From Local, State or Federal Government (pretty much all of them)
• Medical Services and Medications That Were Created or Derived From Any Government Grant or Research Funding (again, pretty much all of them)
• Socialist Byproducts of Government Investment Such as Duct Tape and Velcro (Nazi-NASA Inventions)
• Use of the Internets, email, and networked computers, as the DoD’s ARPANET was the basis for subsequent computer networking
• Foodstuffs, Meats, Produce and Crops That Were Grown With, Fed With, Raised With or That Contain Inputs From Crops Grown With Government Subsidies
• Clothing Made from Crops (e.g. cotton) That Were Grown With or That Contain Inputs From Government Subsidies

If a veteran of the government-run socialist US military, I will forego my VA benefits and insist on paying for my own medical care

I will not tour socialist government buildings like the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

I pledge to never take myself, my family, or my children on a tour of the following types of socialist locations, including but not limited to:

• Smithsonian Museums such as the Air and Space Museum or Museum of American History
• The socialist Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson Monuments
• The government-operated Statue of Liberty
• The Grand Canyon
• The socialist World War II and Vietnam Veterans Memorials
• The government-run socialist-propaganda location known as Arlington National Cemetery
• All other public-funded socialist sites, whether it be in my state or in Washington, DC

I will urge my Member of Congress and Senators to forego their government salary and government-provided healthcare.

I will oppose and condemn the government-funded and therefore socialist military of the United States of America.

I will boycott the products of socialist defense contractors such as GE, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Humana, FedEx, General Motors, Honeywell, and hundreds of others that are paid by our socialist government to produce goods for our socialist army.

I will protest socialist security departments such as the Pentagon, FBI, CIA, Department of Homeland Security, TSA, Department of Justice and their socialist employees.

Upon reaching eligible retirement age, I will tear up my socialist Social Security checks.

Upon reaching age 65, I will forego Medicare and pay for my own private health insurance until I die.

SWORN ON A BIBLE AND SIGNED THIS DAY OF __________ IN THE YEAR ___.
_____________ _________________________
Signed Printed Name/Town and State

(Received in an email fwd, Xposted on HumidCity)

I debated heavily with myself before posting this; we have enough negative press in Cincinnati and I don’t like to add to it.  But this hit home; literally.

The Cincinnati Enquirer released a series of articles last week detailing information about the new cast for MTV’s ‘Taking the Stage’.  The article ‘Taking the Stage:’ SCPA students need not apply asked the question why six new students from outside the Cincinnati school district were chosen for the new cast as opposed to any of the existing students already attending School for the Creative and Performing Arts. 

Good question.

I read through the series of articles (listed at the bottom of this post) and here is what I learned.

• SCPA has many transfer students each year who either pay out of district tuition or move into the city
• SCPA auditions students in late summer (August) to fill remaining seats at the school for the coming school year.  Only 35% are admitted from those tryouts
• SCPA auditioned 60 potential students last August; 12 were admitted
• 6 of these 12 are now on the new cast for MTV
• MTV followed 6 of the new cast members through their auditions before they enrolled
• CPS (Cincinnati Public Schools) receives 10K per episode; 12 total episodes will air

The Enquirer articles listed some of the new cast members and students:

Anna Lisa Flinchbaugh appeared in a Cincinnati Bell commercial with Nick Lachey.  She auditioned 1 week before school started last August.

Emily Sones said this in an Enquirer article:  “MTV was like, ‘You can try out for the school, and if you get in, we get to film you.”  SCPA likes its MTV. She auditioned 1 week before school started last August.

Ian Watts auditioned 1 week before school started last August after Tyler Nelson, a returning cast member, gave his CD to MTV.  “Tyler slipped it to some of the MTV show runners, and he told me that the school was having open auditions in August, and it might be a good look for me to try out for this school…” SCPA likes its MTV .  The Enquirer states in the ‘Meet the cast’ article that Watts was “Encouraged by Nelson to audition for SCPA after MTV producers liked his CD’s.”

Adam Calvert has released two albums, opened for Martina McBride, and performed at Pigeon Forge Theatre.  He auditioned 1 week before school started last August.  He relocated 180 miles from New Concord with his mother to Norwood. 

The students are certainly not the issue.  Nick Lachey is simply trying to shine a spotlight on his city and school; he is not the issue.  MTV exists for turning a profit and they are not the issue.  I don’t know if these students were handpicked by MTV, encouraged to apply to the school, and then auditioned and admitted. 

What is the issue?  Even the APPEARANCE of SCPA and CPS circumventing their auditioning process for $120,000 flies in the face of 37 years of excellence.

Two questions: 

Is any PR good PR?

Would the CPS levy have passed had these articles published before November 2009?

Classicgrrl

‘Taking the Stage:’ SCPA students need not apply by John Kiesewetter

Season two of ‘Taking the Stage’ takes on new vibe by John Kiesewetter

SCPA likes its MTV by John Kiesewetter

Meet the cast of ‘Taking the Stage’ no author listed

The Cincinnati City Council did not renew the 22 year-old Cincinnati Arts Grant Program funding individual artists and art organizations.  The proposed monies for saving the program were a very modest $142,000.00.

http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/council/pages/-3654-/ item #200900421.

As written by Tom Callinan of the Enquirer, “it is estimated that the neighborhood [Over-the-Rhine] is only two buildings away from losing more than 50 percent of its historic building stock.”

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100114/EDIT03/1170303

There is a common denominator:        US.

How much of Cincinnati must be lost before we hit bottom?  One hears much ‘hood’ bashing: Price Hill blames gentrification of OTR for an influx of crime, Northside will not visit downtown, OTR states the ‘burbs are full of sheeple’ and many believe Indian Hill is the first plowed on snow days.  These are actual comments heard in various places from various people and the year or season does not seem to matter…and I am a pot calling all the kettles black because I have done it myself.

…and we are still losing Cincinnati.

Brick by brick and vote by vote; every professional that migrates to Chicago, every musician that marches off to Austin, every new family that moves to West Chester equates a loss for our city.  In combination, this is scary.  Agenda 360 http://www.cincinnati360.com/ and Vision 2015 http://www.vision2015.org/ have addressed the loss and come up with some recommendations for stemming the tide.  Cincinnatians for Progress did a great job of educating the public on the real teeth of Issue 9.  http://www.cincinnatiansforprogress.com/Home.asp

Since Richard Florida’s first book in 2003, The Rise of the Creative Class, these are just some of the initiatives taken up by numerous nonprofits, civic organizations and political groups around the city.  All of this is good and applauded.

…but we are still losing Cincinnati!

It appears we lack a TRUE grass-root, citywide effort.  One not motivated by pet projects, politics, place, socioeconomic background, race, or ego where ordinary folks who are willing to donate their time and talent come together to form and work on a common, focused agenda.

Cincy Voices is a start to this grass-root effort in reaching across boundaries that have so long divided and are conquering our city.

OTR is the canary.  If OTR is not saved, then what hope is there for the rest of the neighborhoods?  We know what needs done thanks to the OTR Foundation (and the recommendations will help other neighborhoods); we must find a how.

http://www.otrfoundation.org/historic_preservation.php

http://www.otrfoundation.org/Part3PDF.pdf

This is a personal call to arms for me.  Ordinary citizenry may not have money, but we have numbers.  Let us find common ground and figure out how to use our numbers.

Classicgrrl