Michelle on Sesame Street

Look look! perfect!, and this on the day that I put my letter in the mail.

an today's Democracy Now hit particularly hard : a film about poverty hailed as was "an inconvenient truth",

and then the author of "confessions of an economic hitman" John Perkins on the structure that deepens that poverty

my letter to the president

I moved almost all the rest of the horse shit today, fueled by wild rice cooked in orange juice, acorn squash from my mechanic, and yogurt on top. um, yea, and a little spiked truffle.. ..mmmm

about this activated charcoal business: all very new to me. but my friend is all nuts about its potential, and I'm paying attention - there are these material technologies that seem particularly applicable to a sustainable lifestyle economy- activated charcoal seems to be one of them, particularly for carbon sequestration. check out Richard's blog post about it. and here's the wikipedia on biochar. he had made some as artpieces, Japan-o-phile that he is, and I got to crush it up and add it into the soil as I was moving it to the bed. about a square foot of charcoal went into this bed, which is probably way too little.

and I was annoyed this morning, Clinton sidling up to Israel again and condemning the goldstone report, Obama discouraging me from expecting meaningful negotiations in Copenhagen. Bullshit. If not now, when? the time is now! NOW!! now for single payer, now for climate action, now for the end of war profiteering, NOW, NOW, NOW, FUCKING NOW!!! because if not, there will be no tomorrow.... I feel abandoned.

Dear Sir-

I write to you from the cold attic of my carriage house, two candles over there, dirt under painted nails here, as I have been out in the garden all day. You have a slow and steady way, and I do yet believe that you will manage to wash some sins of past administrations. I struggle with many of your decisions, aware that you balance daily a multitude of pressures and global needs. I do not agree with many of the positions you steadfastly hold, so sometimes I despair. Until I remember your wife. I look forward to the day when the news coverage of your organic garden extends beyond her fashion sense and gives greater weight to her statements about the sensible economics of your little victory garden. Could she speak a bit more about the way a body feels after a day in the garden? Tired but satisfied, with oxygen in the blood and the brain. Cheap health insurance. Perhaps I should write to her...

But I write you because you have the voice. May I introduce myself? I am a “maker of things”, a potter; I glowed to the praise of your inauguration speech. I am a young woman with a mind made keen by travel and high-quality education, a body made hard by labor. I have strong ethics about my consumption of energy, so when it came time to establish my own studio, I designed and built an innovative kiln that fires with wood and waste vegetable oil. I fire functional porcelaineous service-ware to 2300 degrees F in a kiln that is completely carbon-neutral. I am part of the scattered army of green entrepreneurs just dying to break into this supposed new paradigm of ethical consumption, and I clarified my position in an interview with the radio broadcast Speaking of Faith.

I have been trying to dance on the grave of bloated big business but it just won't die! Here's what I'm thinking- I'm not against capitalism, I'm against exploitation. Fair business practice without abuse of power is a must in ethical society. America has lost its moral standing? Well, we should quit being complicit in the abuse of other nations' people and resources (not to mention our own). The more effectively we can keep our sights on the acquisition of the materials, their construction and sale, the more accountable the business in question can be to the community it creates. In other words, make local, buy local. Or at least national. But it's a big nation, these United States. The wheels of change turn so excruciatingly slowly. Perhaps it is this that you encountered more forcefully upon ascending to the high office in which you are now find yourself. Congress is mostly in the pocket of lobbyists, seems to me. It is so painful to watch.

What can you do? You can risk it all. Everything it took to get you to where you are now. Mary Oliver says “Tell me, what is it you plan to do? / With your one wild and precious life?” (the summer day). I feel a great pressure in the world, but not nearly enough. We are teetering on the edge of calamitous climate change. Everyone is looking at America. You know it- they are looking at you. Well, you and India and China. But, You. And Me. Little me, with no voice, no press, no gilt-edged fingernails. I have nothing to lose by giving the finger to big oil. You, well, I'm not sure what you have to lose either, quite honestly. We all die someday- you could go down in history as the president who, in a time of great crisis, gave dirty money the finger and told the truth: we are running out of oil and there is no such thing as clean coal. Harness the tides, implement bio-char, rip up the lawn. Oh, it would be marvelous! Of course, the press would roast you. Ah, but the people would hear you again!- you could just say it over and over- fair, ambitious, and binding. Explain why it is crucial, you know the facts. Fair, Ambitious and Binding. All the way to one of my favorite countries where the sun shines at midnight and the bike lanes are ten feet wide. Will you? Will you help clear the rubble and let us build a sane, ethical and accountable future? What will you do with your one wild and gifted life?

With love almost always-

(and give Michelle a hug from me)

Careen Stoll

I'm feeling kind of iffy about telling the president to tell energy conglomerates to fuck off. I can pick softer language, or I can say "throw off the puppet strings", but what do you think? there's a big difference between expressin rage and acting autonomously, and I'm not trying to come down in favor of rage.