“Consumer spending” the buzz word for economists is a two headed monster without end or respect for anyone. The times are tough and people are not spending money. This is a tragedy to business owners and economists. The virtue in the trend is that many people are coming to the terms with conserving their means. Wealthy people have been making these economic decisions for generations.

Everyone has been leading by what is owned instead of having enough and getting rid of what is not useful or necessary. This includes fancy vehicles, or new anything, because one can acquire whatever one desires in a thrift store. There is also a shift in the frenzy to grow, have large families, live on credit and beyond one’s means. This is a sign of healthy living that when we use our imagination and have less than what we have becomes more precious. It is akin to eating a fresh tomato from the garden. The sense of the taste of the juice and that you taste the fruit of your labor makes the experience last longer than the normal time it takes to savor the quality of the food. By applying that to everything we do, making love, going for a walk, talking to someone, we are creating a place of sanctuary, of meaning, of hope and stewardship.

Nothing could be better for America. The idea that we live within means changes our habits of consumption and forces the economists to reframe business expectations. We are also using less resources of the earth and preserving the world for the seventh generation. This is not our world to destroy or use up the resources.

Whether we imagine that there is a way to sustain the consumption through technological innovation is irrelevant. We have no other way than to live simply and to take care of this world. If the youth in our society see that simplicity is a choice the way we live could reduce the stress on the world spinning out of control. This choice may be our only way to avoid extinction. Any being that squanders the fruits of the earth and decimates the climate must have no interest in surviving.

No spirit is worth less than one that is devoid of sense for the laws of conservation. If we decided to continue the recklessness of those with hungry attitudes all of the rest of humanity would suffer. This is exactly what we must correct by limiting our consumption of food, beverages, substances, poisons, using frivolous luxuries, traveling as thought here is no tomorrow, squandering the limited resources and then not bothering to restore what has been taken.

Thankfully, many people are doing less but is this enough?

The answer will occur in thirty-five years, when many who read this are elders. Over half the population then will be over sixty-five years old. This will be the first time in the history of civilization that this is the case. When this occurs will the earth be livable and what will the quality of life be for most people? Already the lives of most people is precarious. Will there be a time when people are assigned to be killed more blatantly than what we already do with the poor?

Looking at the willowing tops of the fern like saplings that are merged in the flowers and bushes around the grounds one must think of primeval forests at their birth. Some of the trees are three feet high near the lilies and others in the flowers are five feet or more in height. One lives near the street that has grown out over three years as a bush with six main trunks. The most massive is by a dying maple tree and is six feet slender, like a willow tree. These trees have propagated because for years the grounds have been tended with mulches that hold in the moisture, thus geminating the seeds, and because the main tree, a towering 120 foot high locust has been babied and nursed into having a massive trunk and prolific numbers of pods inundating the earth below all winter long.

There are many reasons for these saplings, the least of which is that the locust is a bean and belongs to the legume family, thus putting nodes of nitrogen in the earth to fertilize and restore the fertility of the soil. The main reason to propagate these trees is they are part of a family that is part of low maintenance and that is particularly true when the leaf structure is small and compact and for that reason they are lovely to look at hanging with their boughs full of pods and gracefully lifting out of the earth skyward.

The vast number of locust trees leaves one with a sense of wonder about what the seminal forest must have been like 100 million years ago when the dinosaurs were dying. The life of the forest is distinct from the tree lined highways and lanes of our urban world. The trees create a canopy that continually nourishes the leaf litter and the layers of mulch on the ground are home for many beneficial insects and fungi.

There are literally layers upon layers of organisms that feed off the rich matter and in the soil the capillary roots make passageways for a fertile diet for the nutrients. Growing anything like a grove is a work of art. One looks with accomplishment at the changes in the lay of the land as the creative urges of the plants merge with the steward of the earth. For every tree that dies in the urban forest new ones must emerge to create this canopy for health and vitality. No better example of these trees is the black locust bounty of this landscape.

Let us rise and realize that we are all alike.

We are bound as caretakers of our brothers and sisters.

We are stewards of a sacred trust as neighbors providing for the safety and welfare of all of the inhabitants of our community.

We are bound by this sacred trust to ensure that all of our citizens are safe and sound when they awake from deep slumber and go about their daily lives.

What makes this canon of our moral history such a dim memory?

We regard these truths to be self-evident: that all people on earth are created equally, with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Without regard for the sacred and profound grace of all life the haunting words of Dr. King that he made concerning economic justice cannot supplant the greed and devisiveness of our present era.

Nearly a half century has elapsed since the fateful day that the Reverend Martin Luther King addressed more than 200,000 people on the parkway of the national monuments. In that time I was a school child going to Washington, D.C. to observe the spectacle of the landscape of the Potomac. Little did I realize the significance of these long lost memories.

Many people who attended the teeming rally of the leadership of the day were seasoned veterans of campaigns for justice for all citizens and recognized the rights of workers to earn living wages. The quality of life of many of those who attended the rally was precarious. People clung to their belief that through their hard work in the democratic conversation that America could become what it was meant to be, a land of principles and justice for all, a land of opportunity and courage that all people could be proud of this land.

In that time there was a junior senator who witnessed the unfolding of this legacy from a vantage point that few have ever assumed. He was a young and hungry person who lived his life with broad shoulders for the rights of poor people. Many of the congressional representatives were able to work on legislation in those days together despite their political affiliations. There was largely a regard for the values and integrity that the office of government held. And yet, there were signs of the breaking of the code of ethics even in this time and place among the highest leaders of the land and unwillingness to hold to standards that were once embedded in the Declaration of Independence on which this nation and world view of America as a bastion of freedom stood.

What was created in those years was the foment and distaste for caring for the nation as equals among both men and women; right and left perspectives of policy; economic equality coupled with economic justice; and a philosophy that has not existed once since that era, of peaceful relations with our foes. All of this was buried in the Cuban missile crisis and the ensuing efforts of the Central Intelligence Agency to run rough shod over the rights of sovereign nations throughout the world; the efforts to fight clandestine wars of espionage and subterfuge, which would be the calling card of both presidents following Kennedy. What strikes one as a little boy as awe struck became outrage that America should be so blind and self absorbed to believe that we had a right to defoliate Vietnam and destroy the lives of countless generations of people throughout the world under the guise of fighting to protect freedom.

In this era in the shadow of the Washington Monument we ripped up the Constitution and threw it down the Potomac River as though we wished to restore the swamp. While we gained economic freedom for some people we created the greatest rift between wealth and suffocating poverty that has ever existed in the world since we first crawled out of the depths of Africa. How ironic that the champion of the modern day struggle was testing the strength of the campaign for economic justice and the democratic conversation on the eve of this destruction of our legacy as a free people.

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

Lofty Ideals are Meaningless Without the Backbone to Defend Them

Is it just me, or is anyone else curious about how the Republicans managed to suspend the United States Constitution, thrust us headlong into a costly and unjustified war, and ravage our national treasury under George Bush, while the Democrats, even after being given the White House and a huge majority in both houses of congress, can’t even manage to pass a healthcare bill that would benefit every family in America?

If indeed you have been curious about this issue, scratch your head no more. The answer is actually right before our eyes, but like the angry medicare recipient boisterously demonstrating against socialism, we refused to believe our lying eyes.

The fact is, the Democratic party desperately needs to get its act together, but two issues need to be addressed immediately. First, there are too many Republicans in drag on the Democratic side of the isle. These people have been playing both ends against the middle for years, and they’re destroying the party. They keep a constant tog-of-war going on that makes Democrats seem indecisive, and cause the American people to doubt the resolve of the Democratic party for its own initiatives.

But the debate on universal healthcare could be a blessing in disguise in that regard. It’s a debate that so clearly separates what’s in the best interest of America from the greed of private interests that it’s forcing the hypocrisy of self-interested politicians to the forefront.

Healthcare is one of those seminal issues like civil rights, social security, and the G.I. Bill. Thus, it can, and should be used to separate the wheat from the chaff, and flush out those so-called Democrats who pay lip service to progressive principles while working subtly in the background to maintain and protect the status quo. So it provides the Democratic party with an excellent opportunity to reveal, and then openly rid itself of its dead weight.

And it is essential that the Democratic party do just that - just as the party had to weed out the Dixiecrats during the civil rights movement. These Bluedog and conservative Democrats are diluting the Democratic agenda. They’re disillusioning the Democratic base, and thereby, weakening the party as a whole. So the DNC needs to take a page from the Republican playbook and use the primary system to replace these neo-crats with Democratic candidates who are loyal to the party and Democratic principles.

While the GOP is atrocious when it comes to governing, there are none better when it comes to keeping their troops in line. That’s why even though the Republican base has shrank to it lowest numbers in years, the current political environment clearly demonstrates that they’re still effective. The reason they’re still effective is because they stick together - and they stick together because they all know that any member who falls out of line will be targeted for removal in the very next election.

As progressives, most Democrats are wedded to independent thought, so they tend not to want to adopt the Republican tactic of lockstep action. But the GOP is using the Democratic party’s idealism against them, so if the Democratic Party wants to survive in this cut-throat political environment, they need to start to adding pragmatic political tactics to their lofty political ideals.

It’s time to start playing hardball. If the DNC fails to take immediate action against these thinly veiled Republicans, and start running loyal Democrats against them, it’s not only going to perpetuate the neo-crats’ rebellious behavior, but these so-called "Bluedogs" and conservative Democrats are going to bring the entire Democratic party to its knees. After all, there’s a lot of money in being a rebellious Democrat in a Democratically control congress.

That brings me to the second issue - backbone.

President Obama was elected for the most part, based on his rousing oratory, his ability to lift the American spirit, and his inspirational ideals. But if you look back through history you’ll find that while the American people will eagerly embrace these characteristics initially, in the final analysis, lofty ideals are meaningless in America if you don’t demonstrate the backbone to back them up.

We don’t have to go far to see this principle at work. One day history will look back upon Jimmy Carter as a president who was ahead of his time. He came very close to establishing piece in the Middle East, and the issues that brought him down had no more to do with him than the fall of the Soviet Union had to do with Ronald Reagan. Yet, while Ronald Reagan was clearly incompetent, and should have been both impeached and jailed on several issues, many remembered him as a great president. On the other hand, Jimmy Carter served with competence, honor and distinction, yet he’s remembered by many as weak.

The reason for that is image. Ronald Reagan isn’t honored as a great president based on anything he did in office. The only reason Reagan is remembered fondly is because he reminded the American people of John Wayne. That was his function, and that was all he needed to do - to remind America of a silver screen fantasy that bore no relation to reality. On the other hand, President Carter isn’t remembered as weak due to anything he failed to do. President Carter is remembered as weak because he represented reality - something that America is determined to escape at any cost.

The American people don’t want reality, they want to live in a fantasy. They don’t want to hear about the bestial brutality of what it took to wipe out the Native American population on this continent. They want to hear about their Manifest Destiny. They don’t want to talk about the gross immorality of slavery. They want to talk about America as that shining light on the hill.

So if I could relay just one message to President Obama it would be the following:

Ok, you’ve shown me that you can be a nice guy. Now let me see you grab the Republican party by the scruff of the neck and throw ‘em out the saloon. That’s what the American people want to see. Sucking up to the Republican party is not helping your image at all. Have you ever seen Randolph Scott sucking up to the bad guys? America wants a gunslinger.

I know your ears would look funny in a Stetson, but at least get the dialogue right.

We’re sending out an S.O.S.

SAVE OUR STATE: Colorado is losing ground and withering
NO MORE CUTS

Colorado can’t cut its way back to prosperity, we need fair budgeting.
Join fiscal reformers to fight the cuts!
Be there!

12:00 noon
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
Colorado Statehouse
West Steps

The state of the economy is dire and there are more and more people living on the edge of being in economic crisis. We are losing the fabric, worth and dignity of the people. There is no where left for them to go. Every night people are turned away from places of refuge. Around the region people are living in huddled masses outside in their cars in parking lots. The tragedy is that we do not have to accept these situations and that we can restore our rights by neighbors to neigbhors caring more and reaching out to those who have no where to turn.

"You want to talk about returns? At 1,000:1 in four months, a tomato seed makes even the highest fliers seem paltry." - Eliot Coleman

Since late 2008, thousands of Americans in dozens of cities and towns have participated in the launch of the
slow money movement.
Is it the beginning of the nurture capital industry?
A new vision of seed capital?

Join thought leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, donors, farmers and activists for Slow Money's inaugural national gathering, bringing together people from across the country, and also featuring a focus on New Mexico's regional food system.

Let's fix America's economy 'from the ground up'...
starting with local food.

Paolo di Croce, executive director, Slow Food International
Anthony Flaccavento, executive director,
Appalachian Sustainable Development
Joan Gussow, author, This Organic Life
Fred Kirschenmann, director, Leopold Center
David Orr, professor, Oberlin College
Simran Sethi, associate professor of journalism,
University of Kansas
George Siemon, ceo, Organic Valley
Greg Steltenpohl, founder, Odwalla
Judy Wicks, founder, White Dog Cafe
Ann Wright, Deputy Under Secretary, USDA
Woody Tasch, chairman and president, Slow Money

Register Now
SCREENINGS OF
"Food Fight" with director Chris Taylor
"Dirt The Movie"with producer Bill Benenson & director Gene Rossow

Music by Red House Records recording artist
Eliza Gilkyson

Musical Invocation by Robert Mirabal
award-winning artist, musician & story-teller

Friday Night Farm Table Feast
KEYNOTES & PANELS include:
Investing as if Food, Farms and Fertility Mattered

Shelf Life - Dead Economic Ideas and the Future of Living Systems

Northern New Mexico Food System

FOOD - Is local the next organic? MONEY - Can we make investing in
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SOIL - We mean "from the ground up" literally.

ENTREPRENEUR SHOWCASE - 20 small food entrepreneurs from
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LAUNCHING the SLOW MONEY ALLIANCE - Building the national network
Read & Download Full Program

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From The Ground Up

September 9-11, 2009
at the
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Day light grows darker earlier and later as the sun is further and further away from the summer solstice. How droll that the light fades and the plants wither. What a macabre balance between life and death. Ordinary light changes the heat and warming of the soil and air. The life force diminishes as it is perceived by the heart and we are left to gasp and take a deep breath as we approach the ending of the sun light. We light a fire within and a Yule log is burned from the offerings of the previous darkest and longest night. We have not yet passed within the six months of the deepest darkest night. Somehow the thought that school and this time of the year, like a Laura Ingalls Wilder story of the pioneer life would satisfy a craving for a safe and stable place near the hearth. We could not wait for the day light, shivering in our flannel pajamas. We could not wait until the covers were snuggly tucked beneath our shoulders and we stretched out our toes and felt that warmth of our body infiltrate the dark and cold recesses of the sheets.

We could not wit to dream and deeply remember what it was like to play underneath the protection of the vaulted Norway maple tree in the yard, whose branches wrapped around the exterior of the house and let breezes waft in and envelop us in sweet dreams of safe and silent springs.
Noticing the light one has to remember what it was like to rake the leaves and build leaf piles to tumble in and the aroma of the earth as it gave way to the subtle transformation of the day. It is fortunate that we live in the latitudes that are more temperate and less forbidding as the source of Antarctica, where everything that grew froze over and was covered with ice for nine long, dark months. What it must have been like for a bug to go into a state of hyper cold and stop altogether all of its metabolism for nine months?

In such a hostile world life thrived and dominated a sub tropical paradise. If we look at the ordinary things that make the finite difference between death and life the spectacular Aura Borealis is but a passing image of the canopy that covers us and makes this a sanctuary.

To examine this light in the context of the extreme envelope of this precarious nature is to know how infinitely we are interwoven. When we breathe in we breathe a restless fire that coats the cilia and transports the air through turnstiles to the inner reaches of the organs. We are as connected in the breath as the rivers that freeze and thaw on the edges of the orb we stand on. Our feet are rooted just as much as trees in the flowing breathe of life from plants to us and back again. When thought of in this way the space in between all things is interwoven so brightly and radiantly that we cannot tell the difference in the passion of the life force and inside out. This is why breathing and being are inside out and what we notice of the light and shining dawn is a perspective of the elemental being of the earth connected to the stars and all consciousness.
In a great metaphysical story we are the same whether we are alive or not, and what has passed is always here, in this mundane envelope of doubt and circumspect belief.

Praise the dawn; the robin singing; the sound of the morning and the light of your eyes and ears; your nasal passages and the great corridors of sense that stream out in all the sinews of the epithelial layers of your heart. Your measure of this life is tenuous and alarming, yet bullying and beneficent all at once.