To sign or not to sign

Our neighborhood is right in the middle of the Urban Gas Drilling controversy. We've received one letter asking us to sign a 5-year lease. Then, another letter explaining that the drilling that will be taking place in the Tandy Hills nature area will be moving forward with the utmost regard for the environmental concerns that the residents are all voicing. Our neighborhood association President has thrown himself into this debate (as he throws himself into every issue in our neighborhood), and is on a Task Force to get all of our questions answered. Jav added me to his email list after deciding that I would be very interested in everything that's going on.

He was right! After reading the three email he sent out today regarding the matter, I am now leaning towards fighting any drilling at all, especially in an area that is one of the last pure Texas prairie grasslands. I love the beauty of this state more and more as the years go by, and appreciate the uniqueness of that beauty.

Here is the article that our President forwarded that really sums up what I think about the whole thing.

On a soapbox, and with a mission

I am passionate about food, cooking and healthy eating. My passion is slowly turning to anger, however, since we decided to be a single-income family.

I think the idea of Whole Foods Market, with organically grown, safe food throughout, is a great idea. I also love the idea of the new small neighborhood markets popping up around the country which stock locally produced organic items (see Amy Culbertson's article in yesterday's Star Telegram). But to shop at these places on a regular basis is completely out of our budget.

Even at Wal-Mart, where I grudgingly shop due to their low prices, I have a hard time staying in our budget. I have determined that it costs less to purchase frozen dinners or the processed boxed kit-type meals than it does to buy each item to make the meal from scratch. It's also cheaper to run by a fast-food restaurant than it is to try to cook. No wonder we have a problem with obesity, high cholesterol and heart disease in this country!

My mission is to start exploring why this is so, and to somehow involve myself in a change. Healthy eating should not be a luxury item for the wealthy, but should be available to everybody as a choice.

When the circus comes to town...

I will never take Gabriel. At least if the circus uses live animals. I have been a contributor to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee for about 5 years now, and I think that the work they do is truly amazing. It is a huge parcel of land where retired and ailing show elephants can go to rest, play, and remember what it was like to live outside of captivity. Once the elephants make it there, they never have to perform for an audience again. They do allow volunteers, but only to work around the property or in the office - not to see the elephants. They have grown from having just a few Asian elephants to having a large Asian community, an African barn that's growing and a Quarantine barn for newcomers.

Show elephants are picked up in many different ways(straight from the wild, from private owners or from overcrowded zoos), and their lives are pretty terrible from then on. The young are usually separated from their mothers too early. They are made to stand for unbearable amounts of time, and rarely have chances to lay down to sleep, which is the position elephants are naturally inclined to. Because of this they develop severe problems in their feet and legs, and sometimes their entire bone structure. Sometimes they are beaten to rehearse and/or perform, and have multiple injuries along with psychological stress disorders. Also, their health is not looked after well, and they develop tuberculosis or other life threatening diseases. So to be able to finally get to a place where they are loved and cared for, allowed to roam around outside, splash around in mud puddles, and generally have a good time is a reward all of them have earned in their lifetimes.

The way I found about the Sanctuary was through a daughter of a good friend of our family. When Linda was young, she worked with a young elephant at Six Flags names Sissy (or maybe it was at Seven Seas - a precursor to Sea World that used to be located near Six Flags). Years later, Linda developed ovarian cancer, and was given only a short time to live. Somehow, she found out about the Elephant Sanctuary and discovered that Sissy was one of the retired elephants living there. She would watch the web cam day and night in her last months, and when she passed away, her request was for people to consider donating to the Sanctuary in lieu of sending flowers.

I now receive a quarterly newsletter, and love reading about what these dedicated people and volunteers are accomplishing. These majestic creatures do some wondrous things, whether it be playing, showing affection for each other and their caregivers, or gathering around one of their "sisters" when the end is near to sing her on her way. It's so hard to get through those articles when one of them dies, but worth it to learn how much elephants are actually like us.

I know it will be hard to explain all of this to Gabriel when the time comes and all of his friends are going to the circus, but I will let him pick an elephant to feed and turn him on to the web cam. And this post is to persuade anyone with kids to think about doing the same thing. If enough people catch on, maybe the day will come when no one wants to attend circuses using animals, and they are forced to stop the practice altogether.

Recycling rant

I am getting really irritated with the people in my neighborhood. I don't see many recycle bins on the curb when I walk the dogs, just the trash bins. I guess it does take a little extra effort to take the labels off of cans and rinse out bottles and cans, but there's no exuse on the newspaper. I really don't think there's an exuse for not doing any of it, actually. I think I went a couple of weeks where I only recycled the really easy stuff when we brought Gabriel home. But since he's the reason I try to recycle, I gradually worked back up to what I was doing before. Our bin is almost full every week, which I am pretty proud of.

This was the first Christmas where I felt really wasteful for buying wrapping paper. You can't put it in the recycle bin. The bags are reusable, but expensive. I would really like to do something more creative and less throw-awayish next year. The same for gifts. It's amazing how hard it can be to try to get away from the advertising-driven BUY BUY BUY attitude. I know Santa can't really skimp on the kids' gifts, but I hope to have the time to really give thoughtful and environmentally-friendly gifts to the adults next year. We're headed in that direction - we decided to exchange names in our family, with every adult just purchasing and receiving one present. Except that my parents surprised both Jav and I and my brother and his wife with gift cards to purchase trees for our yards, and a promise from my Dad to help us plant them, which I thought was just the BEST gift. I read in one of my Yoga magazine articles about a woman who was only giving gifts in three catagories: 1)charitable gifts in her family members' honor, 2) seeds, bulbs and plants, or 3) family-oriented gifts like board games. I like this idea, and really want to expand on it next Christmas.

Religious rant

I am upset with the Catholic Church. This is pretty much a continual thing, although it complicated matters when I decided to convert to Catholicism when I married Jav.

There are facets of the religion that I absolutely love. I love that the Catholic church emphasizes nature and caring for the earth - go St.Francis! The music is always good. I love the actual service itself, especially on days where you have the Latin chanting and the incense. The feeling that you are participating in something that for centuries has led people to feel closer to God is very comforting to me. I like the ancientness (is that a word?) of it all.

But what I don't like is the ancientness of the Catholic ideals. I won't go into why I disagree with the stance on birth control, stem cell research and gay marriage. My rant today falls on a more personal level - regarding picking out future husbands/wives, and raising children.

My annulment was an awful thing for anyone to have to go through. I do not see how the details of my former marriage have anything to do with the current one. I also did not appreciate the feeling of being judged by a group of people who do not even know me, did not know my ex-husband, and do not know my current husband. It was very difficult to dredge up the past, and made worse by the fact that my family and friends, and my ex-husband and his family, had to be dragged into the whole process. But at least the annulment was approved after almost TWO YEARS of waiting. Luckily we didn't wait for this process, and were married by a Lutheran Bishop. I find it slightly amusing but mostly incredible that this did not qualify as a Holy Union in the Catholic Church's eyes.

The latest thing that has me baffled and upset is the rule about Godparents. They have to be Catholic. If you have people you want involved but that aren't Catholic they may only be called a "Christian Witness".

Now, doesn't the whole Christian idea revolve around "Love Thy Neighbor"? I don't think the early Christians meant to convey, "Love Thy Neighbor, unless they aren't Catholic, then you must only like them because they really aren't as good as we are." The nerve!

But I guess that's the problem with most religions. I remember when my grandmother pointed out to me the similarities between most major religions - Christianity, Muslim, Hindu. I was still in college, and it really opened my eyes. Since then it really rubs me the wrong way when any one sect tries to stick out their chest and prove that their way is the only way to true salvation. Especially when it's the one I belong to. And I have no idea how to fix the problem.

I told Jav I'm going to start lobbying for a Papal Suggestion Box in the foyer, right next to the Holy Water.

Entitlement vs. obligation of responsibility

Something I'm noticing more and more these days is the fact that we as Americans feel entitled to certain rights and priviledges, which I don't have a problem with. The problem occurs when you don't mix any sense of responsilibity into that entitlement. For example, we are entitled to have a safe place to live. But does this mean we should build the biggest house on the block, which will not only waste land space and building materials, but also energy to heat and cool? Also, we feel we are entitled to cars that get us safely back and forth to wherever we need to go. Do we not also have a responsibility to buy vehicles that use less gas, and to maintain that vehicle so that it releases the least amount of exhaust into the air? And what about recycling, and water conservation - small things requiring little effort, but that could make a big difference?

Which leads me to the money issue. I know that income makes a difference. I will even come clean at this point. With a child on the way and two big dogs, we needed something bigger than our Honda Civic. I will admit that we ended up buying a small SUV after realizing that station wagon prices had exploded to a range higher than our budget. But I feel really guilty driving my car on ozone-level warning days. And if a person is working two jobs just to make sure his or her family has food on the table, pollution or urban sprawl probably does not rate very high on your list of priorities. I'm not talking about those people. I'm talking about people who are making a pretty good living and SHOULD be thinking about these things. Why don't more people think less of "me, myself and I", and more about their communities and the greater good of everyone? I understand that America was built on individualism and the "pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps" mentality. But I wish I could talk to the founding fathers and ask if the "pursuit of inalienable rights" meant that you could forego any sense of community and step on anybody and everybody just to reach this goal. Somehow I doubt it. And I also don't think they meant for us to make sure we had the biggest and best compared to all of our neighbors. But how do you change this mindset? How do you make people see the bigger picture? I just don't have an answer for that one.

Lightbulb over my head for the day

Way to partially solve the energy crisis: Take a small portion of every dollar of profit the oil/gas companies are making and put it into public transportation development. I'm talking trains, train tracks and secure depots in every suburb, stops along Farm to Market roads. I know everyone is always saying that Europe's system won't work in the US because we are too big and sprawling, but isn't it at least possible as long as the money is available? And think of the jobs all of that construction would create! The only hitch is how to make the oil and gas companies do it. Maybe a portion of the tax we already pay when we buy gas could be funneled into this project. Because the whole point would be to start weening us Americans off of our attachment to our cars (and speaking from experience - even certain people who read this blog who have chances to take the train to work don't want to give up his or her vehicle.) How to change THAT mindset, speaking in my best West Texas lingo, is a whole 'nother problem.

Super-sized lessons

I've been watching a new TLC show, Honey, We're Killing the Kids. The show has a nutrition and diet expert coming into homes to help the entire family eat healthier and excerise more - with the motivation for the parents of knowing their kids will live longer. She spends three weeks coming up with new goals for everyone to reach. Several things about the show fascinate me.

One is watching the kids, used to pretty much nothing but fast food and junk food, almost get sick eating healthy food. I can sort of see this, because I got addicted to fast food in college. It has taken me years to lose the desire to run by a fast food restaurant for lunch every day. I think it really does alter your taste buds, because I never really enjoyed eating fruit until now, but now I'm starting to crave nectarines and pears instead of Big Macs.

Another thing that just floors me is that the Moms on the show (not to be sexist, but they are always the ones doing the grocery shopping), have no clue what some of the fruits and vegetables on their healthy buying list even look like. They have to get the stockers at the grocery stores to help them find the asparagus.

And the Dads do so little to help. Not only with meal preparing and cleaning up, but with disciplining the kids. All the families on the shows I've watched seem to have that in common.

It's normally a pretty interesting outcome, although I wonder how long the transformation will keep up after the three weeks is over. Just doesn't seem like a long enough time to change years of bad eating and exercise habits. But I guess credit should be given to TLC for at least bringing the issue into the limelight a little more.

Sports psychology

Why do "elite" athletes get treated so differently from us regular folks? Julie and I wondered last night at the Ranger game how our (so-called) closer, Coco Cordero, was treated by his teammates after the scrape-by win last night. Did they yell at him? Did they ignore him? Or did they pat him on the back and say "there's always next time."

Apparently if you have an actual "closer" in the big leagues, it is imperative that they continually be pumped up and have their egos stroked, or they could have some kind of mental breakdown. Well, isn't that what's already happening? If it's not a physical reason, and the Rangers say he's healthy there, then doesn't some kind of mental block exist to make him keep blowing saves?

And why does he get free pass after free pass? If I were to screw up at work continually and was not doing the job I was getting paid to do, I don't think anyone would try to keep pumping me up. I think they would fire me after three, maybe four times tops.

I think that along with the market dictating that teams overpay players these days, they also seem to be creating weak, mentally affected whiny babies. I say either make this guy earn his keep, or replace him!

These are role models?

The behavior of two American speed skaters over the past week really has me angry. Chad Hedrick of Houston was hoping to tie Eric Heiden's record of 5 gold medals. Shani Davis was at his first Olympics, and figuring heavy in the human drama story since he is from an inner-city background where basketball is king and speed skating is unheard of.

To hear them talk about one another is despicable. I guess the whole thing started when Hedrick asked Davis to help out his teammates in a new group event, and Davis pretty much ignored his request. Hedrick apparently blames Davis for the US team's loss. Maybe Davis was wrong in refusing to help out his teammates in the group effort, but he claims he was afraid it would take his attention away from his best race, and that speed skating has always been an individual event up to this point.

So instead of blowing off any hard feelings in the true nature of Olympic sportsmanship, these two have been taking potshots at each other ever since. Davis barely speaks when the NBC sideline reporter tries to talk to him after races. Hedrick managed to say that Davis "skated really fast" when he won a gold medal. Come on, guys. This is the Olympics. Not a Little League game coached by Walter Matthau. Take the high road! Wish each other good luck before and congratulate each other on a great race afterwards. Think of how many inner-city kids could look up to Davis as a true role model, if only he would act like one. And even if Hedrick hasn't won the number of gold medals he came into these Olympics wanting, his attitude has already proved he is no Eric Heiden.

My vote for a true Olympian is Joey Cheek, a teammate of these two who has donated all the prize money from his silver and bronze medals to charity. Win or lose, that's my idea of a role model.

The process is messed up

The Senate Confirmation hearings for Judge Samuel Alito are progressing nicely. Problem is, the democrats use the forum to make lengthy political diatribes instead of asking really good questions, the republicans fawn over the nominee and tell him to ignore those mean democrats, the nominee doesn't really answer any of the supposedly important questions, and the taxpayers' money gets wasted with each moment that goes by. The process seems to have become ridiculous and circus-like. Shouldn't the American public have more of a say-so in this decision? After all, if confirmed, the man will be making decisions that affect the freedoms of (or lack of freedoms of) all Americans, not just our representatives in Congress. (Come to think of it, are these people supposed to really represent me? - Yikes!)

I want to know more about how this man stands. He's young and has the possibility of being on the court for a really long time. Shouldn't these proceedings be more serious and meaningful?

Amen

This proves to me that Jimmy Carter could have been one of our greatest presidents, if he had gotten the job in a different time. What a brilliant mind.

Pets are family too

I am horrified at so many tragic things that have happened because of the hurricanes and subsequent evacuations. But the thing that gets me the most is that people are expected to leave their homes without their pets. I know not all people think like me. But in this house, our pets are part of our lives, and members of our family, and I can't even fathom leaving them behind. Why can't some of the pet rescue organizations get together with the evacuation centers and have kennels set up? I think I've heard a couple of stories about this type of legislation getting started, and that people should write to their Congress person in support of it. After all, these people are losing everything. Shouldn't they be allowed to keep this happy part of their lives?

I was also moved in a positive way to see so many volunteers trying to help out with pet rescue efforts after Katrina. And to hear how much money was raised by organizations like http://www.noahswish.com/. It turns out there are alot more people who think like me out there than I thought. Maybe with time and luck, all of us can change things for the better.

More confused

OK-now that I've been thinking about my last post, I'm even more jumbled. I guess my whole freedom of religion argument is really for the parents of those kids, not the kids themselves. They aren't old enough to make any bigtime decisions about what they believe or don't believe - they're just going by what their parents tell them to do or not to do. Just like the girl I remember from first grade. So does that make it ok for them to say, "one nation under God" during the Pledge? I have no idea now. It just still makes me mad that the pundits arguing for keeping the phrase in don't think before they speak sometimes.

My husband just pointed out that it seems like the Founding Fathers were all deeply religious, and when they mapped out the Bill of Rights, probably were thinking of freedoms of all to worship God any way they chose. So maybe they were not planning for Agnostics or Atheists. Maybe it just never occurred to them. So he's confused the issue even more in my head now.

I Pledge Allegiance To .....

I been listening to the news surrounding the California judge who found the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional earlier this week. Now, I remember saying this with my hand over my heart, all through elementary school. I think I get why smaller children are expected to learn this and repeat it every day. I am a firm believer in patriotism and encouraging a sense of citizenship. We are pliable at that age, and want to please grownups very badly, and what better time to start fanning the flames of patriotism?

I'm not so sure how I feel about that "under God" phrase, though. I remember that there was one girl in my first grade class who was allowed to stay seated at her desk while the rest of us recited the pledge. She was picked on from time to time because of this, and questioned by all of us as to why, but being 7, she didn't have a good answer other than, "My Mommy and Daddy don't want me to."

The thing that really confuses me about this issue is the quotes from politicians and lobby groups supporting the daily reciting, who want this phrase kept intact. They keep referring to, "our founding fathers" and telling us to remember the "values that made this country what it is today." Well, didn't the first Americans decide to go to America in the first place because their religion was being persecuted? They couldn't worship as they pleased, so they braved the hellish trip to this country, disease, starvation, and too many other hardships to mention so that they could start a new country. And in this new country those founding fathers made sure that they named Freedom of Religion as part of our Constitution. Shouldn't this ideal be respected today, even if a person decides to have no religion? I think so, and I think I agree with this judge's decision.

Besides, at public schools, school should be school. Not church.

My Fourth of July Wish

I wish that other Americans would try to understand that even though I am against war, I pray for our troops to make it home safely, and am grateful of all veterans, past and present, for the freedoms they have made possible.

I wish that other Americans who have complaints about what is going on in our goverment would stop the finger-pointing and name-calling and instead start to write letters to local councils, state legislators, or the US Congress, or get involved somehow. This seems a much more positive way to bring about change for the better.

I wish that every eligible citizen would vote.

I wish that our representatives in Congress could stop tyring to prove that their party is better, or that the other party is worse, and find common ground more often in order to get things accomplished.

I wish that local governments could rally against developers who clear cut trees, especially old growth trees.

I wish that the Federal Government would get really serious about research of alternative energy sources.

I wish that the traditional American spirit of conquering every single inch of wilderness to use for human consumption would fade, and a new appreciation for what made this country beautiful centuries ago would flourish.

I wish that all Americans could find respect for the environment.

Have a happy and safe Fourth!