Another Green Monday
We've been writing and talking a lot lately about the tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico. We try to strike a balance on this blog with local issues and important national and global issues, but since we're all connected on this planet it's easy to blur the lines.
What happened in the Gulf has happened and will happen again on some level and in some form from now until the end of time. People in our region needn't look far to see this. The Silver Valley has been cleaning up the mining mess left over from corporations doing what they've done to the Earth for the better part of 40 years. Our own Spokane River was once treated like a landfill (and still is) and we're still working to clean that up and fighting corporations who legally have the right to do what they will with the river. Because, nature and natural resources are simply calculated losses in the eyes of corporations. And that's the way it's been for hundreds of years under the constitution which grants due process to corporations. They have a right to drill in the Gulf, they have a right to dump waste in the Spokane River, they have a right to blow the tops off of mountains. Until we have rights to nature, we can't infringe on the rights of corporations. They know this and we don't. So we spend our time fighting a fight that we're set up to lose. We waste our time fighting by their rules - our fight then becomes predictable and they already know how to counter.
For seven weeks now we, as people, have rallied against BP and spent countless hours organizing against offshore drilling in the coast. All the while, the BP's of the world have moved on to the next untapped oil source - to the next coast line they will eventually destroy. It's time we set the score back to zero. It's time we look at establishing rights to nature as the only weapon worth bringing to this fight.
And as a side note, we've been asked a lot lately what we're reading and where we're getting our information on the oil spill. Contratry to what it sometimes might look like, we're not just spending our time on MSNBC and the Huffington Post. As hard as it may be to believe, we sometimes read stuff just for our own good and don't write about it. So below are a few places we've been visiting that we recommend you check out.
-Climate Central put together a great page of resources for oil spill coverage and information.
-Our very own Dispatches from a Disaster is by far the most real and unfiltered report we have read from the Gulf.
-Counterpunch hasn't held anything back on critique of the administration in regards to the oilspill, and we're glad we started reading this site over the last month.
-Same can be said of McClatchy, just a great resource for the truth. No, really, the actual truth.
When picking a home, is bikeability a criteria? If you rode to the tour of your potential home you'd know a lot about if you'd like the area or not and that's just what some real estate agents are instililng into the same-old same-old process of buying a home. Yep, you guessed it, in Oregon. "Buying a house is such a huge purchase, and you need to know what the neighborhood feels like, and see what goes on in it," said Megan Power, a Bend, Oregon real estate agent. "In a car, you zip by, run in to see a house and then zip away, where on a bike, it's a little slower and you get to soak it in." Read more HERE.
How the World Cup, British Petroleum and President Obama are connected. It's there and Spokane native Timothy Egan presents his case in his recent opinion piece in The New York Times. No sense for us to summarize this piece as the title itself ought to have your interest level peaked. Read it HERE.
Stay classy northern Idaho. The Couer d’Alene river range is one of the most beautiful spots nearby but have you ever heard the crack-crack-crack that doesn’t quite sound like a firecracker near Hayden Lake? Definitely gunshots. Firing is allowed but these are the targets: Vacuum cleaners, air conditioners, car parts, etc. An old gravel pit has become a dumping ground which is illegal. According to the S-R, “Every year, the Forest Service hauls truckloads of trash out of the site and hires a tow truck to get rid of at least one abandoned vehicle. Last week, volunteers from Camp MiVoden, a Seventh-day Adventist retreat on Hayden Lake, filled the back of a Forest Service pickup with 4,000 pounds of litter from the shooting range.” Full story HERE.
Portland Mayor Sam Adams keeps upping his cool cred. First, by unveiling a portrait of DTE hero Isaac Brock in City Hall and now he wants to build more “20-minute neighborhoods” which will emphasize connectivity and encourage neighborhoods where basic amenities are within biking and walking distance. Quote from an interview with Fast Company: "We're also working to make every section of Portland a complete 20-minute neighborhood to strengthen our local economy. Two-thirds of all trips in Portland and in most American cities are not about getting to and from work. So if I can offer quality, affordable goods and services, eliminate food deserts, have neighborhoods with schools and parks and amenities--if I can create these 20-minute complete neighborhoods all over Portland--it strengthens our local economy. We drive 20% less than cities of comparable size, and because we don't manufacture cars, produce oil, or have car insurance companies, every dollar that we don't spend elsewhere, will stay in Portland's economy. There's about $850 million that stays in Portlanders's pockets because we drive less. With a 20-minute neighborhood, also reduce congestion and meet our climate action plan goals." Read more HERE.
