The Teacher Who Teaches Gardening

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/01/cultivating-failure/7819/

Atlantic Monthly article, “Cultivating Failure,” disses school gardens

The January/February issue of the Atlantic Monthly has an article entitled “Cultivating Failure,” criticizing Alice Waters’ gardening class in a California school. It uses as its opening example a fictional immigrant farm worker whose child is “forced” to work the garden rather than study useful things like “Emerson and Euclid.” As if the migrant worker’s “farm” experience has anything to do with actual farming!

I completely disagree. In my opinion, Alice Waters could be viewed as a hero, maybe even a superhero. By teaching her students a dying art form on how to grow food. I believe it is logical to think those children are excited to get out of those chairs and be able to move around. I think they are glad to breathe some fresh air. I can imagine how excited they were to see the seeds spouting out of the ground. I think they children could get competiteve in a positive way with who will have the largest vegetable. And who will have the most vegetables to harvest. They may have starting doing kartwheels of joy when the plants are ready for harvest. Every caring parent would serve those vegtables up with praise and pride at the dinner table. Not to mention, all the dinner conversations the family could share during the growing process. Which is a perfect opportunity for the parents to teach healthy eating choices. America does have a childhood obesity problem. Alice Waters is enriching those school children’s lives by gardening with them. She is building a work ethnic and a solid sense of accomplishment with her lesson plans. And she very well may be easing the mental discomfort of her students who have had food security issues. It is very possible,those children would start to feel capable of solving their hunger problem. I commend Alice Waters for being a caring, creative teacher.

What you won’t read in the National Media… by Coastal Warriors on Saturday, September 11, 2010 at 6:03pm

What you won’t read in the National Media… by Coastal Warriors on Saturday, September 11, 2010 at 6:03pm

by Lisa Anthony on Saturday, September 11, 2010 at 6:33pm

You will not learn this from the National News Media..So I have come to share this with you…Be informed people of America, of what is going on in your back yard…

For ALL my friends who think things are just fine and back to normal along …the coast…Think again..We are still fighting the big oil company as your life goes on…I am here to tell ya if someone doesn’t listen, then you can expect things to start getting nasty…

They have stopped almost all the news coverage so others in the country will believe your government is doing their job…All your government has done is being told what to do by big Corp America..I am dead serious! Our Environmental PROTECTION Agency , CDC, Dept of Interior, MMS AND your President have jumped when BP said to jump…EPA told them to stop the Corexit (Dispersant) use and they told them NO…”If you want to tell us how to handle this then YOU clean it up.” There is MUCH to be cleaned up and BP is not doing it… They are saying, we see no more oil, the scientist from USF and FSU and the Marine Biologist are finding plenty of it on the bottom of the ocean and its still washing up on shore and some still floating on the surface.. It is a foot under our beautiful quarts sand beaches. Every time the water washes over it it is turning our sugar white sand an ugly brown color. This will never be clean again..

Many have lost their homes because they no longer have a job or a lively hood that they grew up doing.. The oil is in our Intercoastal waterway canal , Bays, Bayou’s, and Creeks. We are still finding mass fish kills that are under the water and some also floating. You can go to our beach and on the surface things may appear normal from one day to the next but our labs are showing high readings of Volital Organic Compounds (look those up) in the sand. These compounds are in the air we are breathing although EPA tells us the air is fine. Our own private labs are telling us different. We have been lied to many times and folks are getting sick. They are having lab work done and finding these compounds in their blood stream. The sickness you can get from these mimic everyday illnesses. These compounds can attack your nerve endings and also cause neurological issues and cancer. It can cause High BP, nausea, sore throat, rashes etc…The VOC’s have even been detected in a swimming pool that was tested in south Florida. Where they came from has not been verified to this date. There is a possibility that it could also be in many other pools but the testing for that is not being done.. Our State or Government has not initiated any standard testing to investigate just how huge this problem is. We are left with the impression that they do not want anyone to really know how big the problem is for our health..

They are dumping the thick oil that has been scooped up off the surface of our beaches into our landfills. The normal process for oil spill waste, as in Valdez, is to incinerate this matter with a special incinerator process. We have begged them to do this to no avail. Now we wait to see how long it will take this waste to pollute out aquifer (drinking water). The residents in Mississippi had an attorney backing them so there waste is being handled properly but they had to fight for that..We, in Florida, don’t seem to have any attorneys that care enough to work pro Bono to save their own water supply.

The problem is that the citizens have been fighting to make the government and BP do what is right from the beginning. This is taking it’s tole on many of us… We should not have to fight to keep our families healthy and to keep our jobs or to be compensated. The people that have lost everything are not being compensated like you may think. I would say for some that may have been making a thousand dollars a week MAY receive $200.00 if they are very lucky.. Many have still not received anything. BP has spent millions on their ads on TV to convince a nation that they are doing the right thing…Their campaigns are full of lies.. This money could have been given to the people along the coast whos lives they have destroyed.

The oil spill took 11 lives and several others who could no longer could face the fact that they could not provide for their families…BP paid for their funerals and that is it… The families left without a Daddy or husband are trying to cope without the provider and loved one at the same time.. Does BP care about them??? NO! They are cold and heartless!The one man that I knew personally that took his own life had a marina and several charter boats. The only way he had left to provide for his family was to work for BP and join their Vessel Of Opportunity program. He became part of the clean up team. They made everyday a hell for this man… The paperwork they make these business owners have is so much so that they hope they will quit even trying to be reimbursed for what they have lost. A marina is useless if one has no use for their boat… You cannot sale a boat if the fish are poison and the waters are undiveable. You cannot run a Seafood restaurant if you do not have any seafood that is not poisoned. You cannot sale your home if the air you are breathing is poisoned…Do you see the domino effect here?? Our home values have plummeted. I am now paying for a home that is no longer valued at what my purchase price was. I am 5 miles from the Gulf and live in Florida. BP will only compensate those that are in Alabama , Mississippi and Louisiana and only if you are two blocks from the Gulf.. As if we had absolutely no oil here in Florida.. I have many photos to prove differently and many businesses who have shut their doors that prove differently.Did we ask for our property values to drop to almost nothing??? Hell NO!! It is BP’s fault and there is no one that cares enough to make them DO WHAT IS RIGHT!!!!

We have found that our government is truly run by Big Corporate Dollars… They donate mega bucks to campaigns and then are in control of all the puppet strings.. This has to change folks.. Our country is not what it use to be, not anything like what our founding fathers wanted it to be…It is not FOR the people BY the people.. This is not just a ranting by one individual… Ask any of us along the coast that have been fighting for what is right…This is a stark cold hard fact folks..

My message to you is to see your Government for what it REALLY is..See BP for what they really are… Pass this on to all you know so they will know what we are going through. There will quickly come a day, fellow citizens, that this will be the only way we will be able to gather and share what is going on in parts of our country. Our media is run by Big Corp as well as our Government. We have to look for a way to stop this process…

A concerned fellow citizen for democracy in this country… I want my Country back!!

Post from Plug the Oil Leak email from John Munnerlyn

I witnessed something yesterday I wanted to share with my friends. It was disappointing, to say the least, but not at … See Moreall surprising. I was in Grand Isle yesterday when we were visited by our president. Our street has about a dozen camps, one permanent resident on it; and yesterday we had a fair… See More crowd of people. The first incident that was brought to my attention was four bus loads of, I guess you could call them workers, was spotted at the Bridge Side marina and looked as if they had come from New Orleans. For you who do not know, Bridge Side is the first marina coming onto Grand Isle and this is where the buses stopped and the WORKERS got off. I later witnessed not four but five buses pass our street on Hwy 1 going to the end of the island where our president was to visit. I made a statement to my neighbors that they were probably going to stage a scenerio where a large amount of people were working on our oil spill problem and guess what, I was right. Liz and I witnessed this on one of the specials when I got home
and a large number of men had rakes and were dressed in white hazardous suits working on the beach. But where did they go; No one had seen these guys before yesterday and no one can find them now. I was told WWL is getting question after question about this today, go figure our leader not being truthful and staging something like this.

The next thing I really found unusual was that no one cared if he was on the island. I later saw 38 cops on motorcycles, yes I did count them, and many other police vehicles escort what I am sure was the president in his motorcade of black suburbans. I was told he landed in Fouchon, about 10 miles from Grand Isle, then was brought to Grand Isle in the motorcade. I did see his helicopter and the escorts fly north of us to meet him at the Coast Guard facility were he spoke. My point is when he went down Hwy 1, not one person made an attempt to see him. There wasn’t any one taking pictures, no one even looking in his direction, no one lining the streets and waving flags, no one cared. I really think if it had been any of our prior presidents, even Clinton, an attempt would have been made to be along the side of the road and cheer or wave. It is really sad that this country is being run by a man that no one likes or has any respect for. God help us get through the change.

John Munnerlyn, a friend of Grand Isles.

Bill Ballard Facebook Status 6-19-2010

Can it rain oil? From personal experience, YES! Today was like something out of a Sci-Fi Movie! Rains chemically burned my skin as it poured. Vehicles left bubble trails which lasted for many minutes as they drove their ways. Oil covered Biloxi Bay but did not enter on the Ocean currents, but by the rains! Here is what… happened! Be Cool, Be Cool, as all is in a state of Divine Perfection!

I was working on the ref system on my families business today. It was a very hot day and I could smell the fires burning, some 90 miles away, but faintly as compared to other days. It was tolerable. Each day in the summer we have convection rains from the Gulf of Mexico, usually in the afternoons. Today it was just after noon. I was on the roof, … See Morewith other repairing a freezer unit that has shut down the night before. Thunder was growing to the north where many of the convection rains form. You could feel the breeze as it was sucked into the storm, and the smell of the oil burning went away.

About an hour after the thunder was booming, it started to sprinkle. We were finishing our work and I had a hose to rinse the debris off the roof. Before I had finished the rains came in strong, but not super heavy… My skin began burning, like a chemical burn. I had been burned and was in ICU years before and my skin felt like when I had used a strong laundry detergent instead of a baby laundry detergent after my burn… Heavy laundry detergents caused rashes and other skin iritations that could last for hours. This rain felt the same.

I left working to go home and get changed. As I was driving the rains got heavier and I noticed bubbles behind cars as they passed. It looked a commercial where the cars were leaving “scrubbing bubbles” behind as they went there way. These bubbles lasted for a long time, many minutes and sometimes longer than 5 minutes. It reminded me of raining soap or Dawn dish detergent…. I watched as this went on for a long time and it seemed rather strange. I drove back to work and noticed it was behind every vehicle that passed. I got to work and as I left my truck, got wet again, and again felt the same chemical burning sensation.

I told my family while I was there, to come look… of course no one believed me as this is VERY Sci-Fi’ish… I would have a hard time believing it too if I did not experience it first hand! Throughout the day I could smell the oil in the rains. Later at the end of the day I took my brother, mother and others out to a puddle that remained from the rains. I took a stick and stirred the waters, and again, it looked like I was stirring a sink full of dish water that had too much soap in it… an oil sheen was easily seen in the waters.

After work, I walked the Biloxi Bay Bridge as I usually do in the evenings. As I crossed I saw sheens where the water surface tension was different in places. We have had no oil in 59 days of the spill being 90 miles from here in the Gulf. We have had the Oil burning smells which is sickening, but that was light today. As I walked the bridge, 2.1 miles to the others side and then the same back, I saw that their was a lot of difference in the water surface tension, as when oil is on the water. I reached the top on my way over and found that rainbow sheen a hundred feet under me. The oil had arrived.

I looked to the south, towards Deer Island, where the booms were lined between it and Davis Bayou a mile across… Oil had not entered from that way and the sheens were only in Biloxi Back Bay! That was really really strange. I could see west to the Isle of Capri Casino and Hard Rock Casino where the other oil booms were set to keep oil out of Biloxi Bay… There was NO oil entering from that side.. But there was heavy sheens of irridescent oils in the Biloxi Back Bay… It was about 1/3 of the Bay was covered! THAT was amazing… As I walked the bridge, there were puddles of water on the sides of the walk that had not evaporated… Oil was in the puddles, at that level, some 50 feet off the water. I found a plastic bag and stirred the water… again it was like a dish water with too much soap in it.. many bubble were formed and lasted a long time, longer than I watched. The whole Bay was that way too… lots of bubbles

In some places there was thicker oil than others. It seemed like it was all gathering, and was going out with the tides.. but it did not come in that way, and that is FOR CERTAIN! You could see where the sheens ended, and much into the back bay from where the booms were. Oh shit, was what I thought… I could see the mullet jumping in the middle of the deepest parts of the channel and the bay, where the oil was… Mullet dont usually jump in the deeper waters but do so next to the beaches or sand bars… but now they were jumping in the oil filled waters… Deprived from Oxygen I guess… I dont know, and dont pretend to know… I am only telling what I experienced.

Too, as I was crossing the bridge, a yellow green brown cloud was both to the north and south of me. It was a hundred feet thick and from one end was out in the Gulf, where the boats are burning the oil… It is these same clouds of smoke that has made me sick now some 3 different days… and that is only burning from the boats… not the Gulf it self… God help us if a whole puddle catches fire! That is when I leave everything behind and dont look back, Like Lot leavining Soddom. I am NOT kidding! But, for now, what an adventure… and I am still joking and laughing about all happening. Of course, I would be NO WHERE ELSE, as I will always be in the middle of whatever is coming at me, until it is not survivable.

Ok guys… The Oil rains are for real… This is beyond shadow of doubt now… It is proven… and as I was coming off the bridge, I saw many more water puddles with oil in them. It is the Corexit dispersant being used doing this… 2ppm is toxic to life forms, and has a half life of 28 days, before it begins to break down… I posted the Russion studies where they said that it kills the microbes in the soil, then worms, enzymes, and plants, then animals… I am not saying this is what is happening, but I am stating clearly my personal experience today… What a wild Heaven of a Ride we are going on… Fun Fun Fun for Everyone! Here we go!

Guys… The 40 Days of No Negative thoughts begins in 3 days… I am NOT negative about this I experienced today… I do not let it get to my emotions, as It is something that will have to happen… We must all be able to look at these things we used to call trageties and see them with HOPE for our changing world… These things were ALL foretold… and I dont wish to manifest more of what I know is foretold so I will leave that story here… But funny as I had Keith Olberman on in the background last evening and he stated this Oil Spill was a Biblical Disaster… but did not go so far as to say Revelations 9… but the message that “HE” knew… was quite clear! Fun Fun Fun!

Keep your Spirits in the highest frequencies and laugh as it is all happening! Of course, pray that these days shall be shortened, and our Galactic Federations brothers shall come soon, along with the Ascended Masters… Time is short and we get to watch the movie script from so long ago play out, as we are the actors! HA HA HA! Oh, Dont you love it! I DO!

Peace Light and Love Love Love
Bill

Only in America

Only in America would the goverment offer to pay Energy Giants  CEO’s  really big bonus’s. While allowing Labor Law’s to become so weak there is barely a concept of job security.