Saturday, February 27, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
quote I saw online yesterday..
"Democrats object to their taxes being spent to take lives on foreign soil.
Republicans object to their money being used to save lives here at home."
Five freedoms for all
How the 2048 movement is helping “me” and “we” to work together.
2048 is a plan to prevent future wars, eliminate poverty and create the conditions necessary for a sustainable existence on our planet. These ends can be achieved through a written agreement to live together that is enforceable in the courts of all countries.
This movement began with the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a set of fundamental human rights for all people, which was adopted unanimously in 1948 by all countries in the UN. This movement can be completed by the year 2048, the 100th anniversary of the Universal Declaration. The way to accomplish this is first, by educating all people, including students, in all countries about the human rights they all share; and second, by drafting a document, an international bill of rights, that embodies humanity’s agreement to live together and that is enforceable in the courts of all countries. This document is called an International Convention on Human Rights because a convention is a treaty that can be agreed to by all countries.
These two steps, to educate people in all countries while working together to draft an international convention, are complementary and interrelated. They are good news. The worn-out story that war and poverty are just the way things are so we should keep spending trillions of dollars perpetuating them is giving way to a new story, a new narrative that says peace and prosperity are attainable if we have a plan and we are willing to challenge those who keep propagating the same old myths.
2048 dispels myths. One of the most pernicious myths is that peace and prosperity are hopelessly complicated and unattainable. This is untrue. Peace and prosperity can be attained through the realization of five basic fundamental freedoms, for all people, everywhere in the world. They are: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, freedom for the environment and freedom from fear. Of course, other rights are needed too, but these five fundamental freedoms establish a framework within which other rights can flourish. If our international community remembers these Five Freedoms, and if they become a regular part of our daily lives, then collectively we will carry the core of 2048 in our minds and it will become our way of life.
Please look at your hand for a moment. Hold it up, palm facing you. We all have five fingers, but the first we call a thumb. It looks different. It stands out. And it is strong. It represents freedom of speech, the idea that stands out, that stands up to dishonesty and corruption. Next, look at your index finger. We point with this one. It gives us direction. It represents freedom of religion. Each of us is free to choose our own direction, with or without God, and for those who decide that God is their guide, then they are free to have their own relationship with God without the state telling them what that relationship must be. Interference by the state pollutes the relationship with God.
Third is the middle finger, the longest of all. It represents freedom from want, the long road of existence and the certainty that there will be food, water, education and health care for every one of us no matter where we may be on that road. Next, for many of us, is the marriage ring finger, either the right or the left hand, and for all of us, a finger with a direct link to our nervous system. It represents freedom for the environment. Life. We all have a direct link to the Earth and the ecosystem of which we are a part. When the life of the Earth is spoiled, our lives are spoiled. Finally, there is our “little finger,” shorter and smaller than the rest. It represents freedom from fear. It’s the “finale” of our hand, our reward. All the others lead to this one.
As you take a look at your hand and recount the Five Freedoms, remember that you didn’t ask for that hand, you were born with it. So, too, you do not have to ask for the Five Freedoms, you were born with them. They are five freedoms for all!
Four of these Five Freedoms originated with U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. He stated the following, in his State of the Union address to the U.S. Congress in January 1941: “We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms: The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want—everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear—everywhere in the world.”
The beauty of these Four Freedoms is that they are an outline of an agreement for humanity. They are a social formula. When we, the people of our international community, have created a social order whereby all people enjoy the first three freedoms—freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom from want—then we will have created a society that allows us to share in the fourth freedom, freedom from fear. This formula was not just born out of a desire to end World War II, but, as President Roosevelt said, “to end the beginning of all wars.” This quote and the Four Freedoms are a guiding light for 2048.
Roosevelt saw the Four Freedoms as achievable within a generation. Commenting on his speech, he said, “It is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation.” Perhaps he was overly optimistic about the speed at which the Four Freedoms could be achieved everywhere in the world, but steady, immediate action is the message; we can’t put these rights off forever.
The Four Freedoms are the essence of a good life for all. They ensure the following: We can think freely, say and write what we want and peacefully organize to protest; we can have a relationship with a god of our choosing, without interference by the state; we can live in security, knowing that education and health care will always be available regardless of circumstance; and finally we can live in peace, without fear of rampant crime and continuing war. In short, the Four Freedoms are the core of our social contract—our agreement about how we will live together.
President Roosevelt’s recitation of the phrase “everywhere in the world” at the end of each freedom is key. In effect, the Four Freedoms were a New Deal for the world. Roosevelt had long been a champion of the common man in America. Through the New Deal, Roosevelt took the hard edges off capitalism. He made sure that working people were not left destitute while wealth and power were consolidated into the hands of a few. With the Four Freedoms, he was expanding his gaze to all men and women, in all nations, to ensure that destitution did not befall anyone, for in destitution he saw the seeds of war.
While the Four Freedoms ensure dignity and cover most of our social contract among ourselves and our government, we need a fifth freedom to preserve our planet, including the ecosystem that provides joy and beauty, and also sustains us: freedom for the environment. Just as our human DNA is 98.5 percent the same for all people in all countries, so too our well-being is intertwined with our physical environment.
Equally important, as we have learned from global warming, the health of our environment affects us all, everywhere, and therefore, as with the first Four Freedoms, freedom for the environment must also apply “everywhere in the world.” The demise of our planet’s ecosystem teaches us the folly of only working on local environmental issues while dramatic degradation takes place worldwide.
Furthermore, it’s time to discard the myth that we must be willing to sacrifice the environment for the sake of economic competition.
What is needed is uniform, international regulation of the type that an international convention would provide. Without an international approach, there will always be pressures for some countries to sacrifice the environment to gain market advantage. Capitalism works well, but it tends to create a race to the bottom when it comes to environmental protection.
Creating a fifth freedom for the environment is harmonious with the other four freedoms. Often, destruction of the environment results from the actions of impoverished people who are struggling to survive, whether by cutting down their local forest to an extent that it does not grow back, for example, or overfishing until fish stocks do not come back. The lack of the first three freedoms, particularly freedom from want, can thus lead to the destruction of the environment. As we reach an agreement regarding the first four freedoms, we provide well-being for all; the result, then, is that the need to sacrifice the environment to survive is reduced. In this way, the Five Freedoms are intertwined and the success of each bolsters the others.
Given the strength and well-being each of us will gain from five universal freedoms, it is time to dispel another myth—that there is not enough to go around. We pay dearly for the myth that we can’t afford to have health care and education for all, and the myth that environmental protection is too costly. These myths are untrue. For example, studies have conclusively shown that not only will global warming cause serious suffering and diminishment of our daily lives, but it will cost us more to pick up the pieces after hurricanes, droughts and flooding than it will cost to avoid these calamities. Similarly, while education may cost more initially, it creates good jobs to construct schools and results in highly productive workers. So in addition to generating fulfilling lives, implementing 2048 would deliver financial savings.
Americans, on the whole, like people in all other countries, are fundamentally good and generous souls with whom you can sit and talk at the kitchen table. Many do not know that their government gives less than one-fifth of one percent to foreign aid and is at the bottom for giving among developed countries. They probably also don’t know that the U.S. spends more on its military than all other countries combined. Part of the role of 2048 is to help spread awareness. When people know the truth, they support reallocation of resources as part of the agreement to live together, in keeping with their self-interest and morals.
Awareness can be created with a small percentage of people. Just as it will only take 1 percent of the GNP for the realization of education and health care for all, so too it will only take 1 percent of humanity to share the news of 2048. Word of mouth, spurred by our innate desire to live in peace and security instead of war and want, will spread the word. This 1 percent of humanity already exists within the arts and media, our non-profit and for-profit businesses, our places of worship, our universities and even our governments; now the Internet and 2048 are bringing all these communities together.
Knowledge of the Five Freedoms is essential to achieve this 1 percent “tipping point” for the success of 2048. Students and the public generally need to be able to recall the Five Freedoms just as easily as they can count the five fingers on their hands. As they learn their rights, they come to expect them, both from one another and from their governments. What they expect today, they will demand tomorrow. The Five Freedoms are deeply held cultural values that lead to lasting results.
The 2048 Project is an affiliation of educational institutions, human rights centers, non-governmental organizations, businesses and foundations collaborating to educate students and the public about the evolution of human rights and to provide a process to draft an international framework for enforceable human rights that can be in place by the year 2048, the 100th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
This is an edited excerpt from 2048: Humanity’s Agreement to Live Together by Kirk Boyd, published by Berrett-Koehler.
garden update
Tomato White Queen
Striped Roman
Tomato Al Kuffa
Squash Zucchino Rampicante
Long Snake melon
My tomatosMy tomatoes and peppers are growing quite well. The spinach is looking good too. My celery seeds I planted a few weeks ago are finally coming up too! I have heard that celery is hard to grow, so we will see how well it does when I transplant it to the garden. I also noticed yesterday that my cilantro is making an appearance too. Several days ago I ordered some heirloom seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom seed company out of Missouri. I was excited yesterday to get them in the mail along with a free seed packet! Here is a list of the heirloom seeds I got:
1. Long Snake Melon seeds: This is a neat looking fruit that comes from Thailand
2. Squash Zucchino Rampicante This is a Italian heirloom vining zucchini/pumpkin (very unique looking plant!
3.Lettuce Gentilina (Italian lettuce)
4. Striped Roman tomato-
5. Tomato White Queen- The favorite white variety of many tomato collectors, this heirloom is said to have been introduced in 1882 by A.W. Livingston, though many people question the exact date of introduction. 4-8 oz. fruit have one of the best flavors of all tomatoes, being fragrant, fruity and intensely sweet. It's creamy white in color and very attractive. A productive variety that has become very rare. I can't wait to try this one. Should be interesting to taste a white tomato!!
6. Tomato Al Kuffa-This little tomato is early, and produces 3-4 ounce fruit on compact, dwarf vines that yielded till frost. We received this mild-tasting Iraqi variety from our friend Aziz Nail, who said, "Delicious one, useful for any purpose, strong bush plant cultivated in the south of Iraq in cool greenhouses for late spring or early summer markets. Also it is [grown] in the middle and north Iraq without greenhouse."
I got the above tomato seeds because of a letter that was printed in the seed catalog from an Iraqi friend of the owner of the seed company. I was sad to read what he wrote and felt like I wanted to help preserve one of Iraq's heirloom seeds since I in some way feel responsible for how our country has been responsible for the destruction and occupation of their country. sigh...
Here is the letter:
"I hope you remember me once upon the time in the 1990's we were exchanging seeds. Anyhow I have stopped my activity of gardening years ago, but a friend of mine Iraqi national living in Syria because of the war in Iraq, has sent me the last seeds of typically Iraqi heirloom tomatoes.
In Iraq the globalization and US occupation hvae finished the whole heirloom way of life in Iraq. Then what I am sending are the last tomato seeds coming from this country. The 1st tomato according to my Iraqi friend who sent me it, it is coming from Mosul (Nineveh) in the north of Iraq.
The 2nd heirloom Al Kuffa tomato delicious one, useful for any purpose, strong bush plant cultivated in the south Iraq in cool greenhouses for late spring or earlier summer poplular markets. Both tomatoes were cultivated by familial farmers groups for small popular markets or for personal kitchen needs.
Thank you for all you were sending me, it was very nice time. I've moved in UK living with my family. Sorry for my bad English." Warm Regards, Aziz Nael
They also sent me a free packet of seeds called Henderson's Pink Ponderrosa. I have a feeeling I am going to be overrun with tomatoes. I will share. But I will also can and dehydrate a lot of them!! Can't wait to get started!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Science time!
Here are the girls making a model of their lungs. In this experiment they were able to see how our diaphragm controls breathing.
FIAR- The Very Last First Time
We did a lot of fun activities with this book. Along with those we also watched youtube videos on tide pools, hunting mussels and building igloos. Little me thought those were neat and kept saying "this is cool".
The Inuit people of Canada use stencils in their art, so little me tried his hand at stenciling.
Here is our sad attempt at using packing peanuts to make an igloo! 
We also talked about what clothes we need for certain kinds of weather. 
In the book the little girl goes walking on the bottom of the ocean under the ice while the tide was out hunting for mussels. Since we had a little sandbox with water in it out on our deck, I used some blankets to represent the ice and little m went 'walking on the seabed looking for mussels. We gathered our tools and cut us a hole in the ice and he was lowered down to the bottom and collected his own mussels. He thought that was pretty fun and had to do it again.
Going through the hole in the ice to look for mussels
collecting mussels. When I showed him what a real mussel looks like he thought it was pretty gross and didn't think he wanted to eat anything like that.
We also made some igloos out of our kapla blocks
This past week little m and I "rowed" the book, "The Very Last First Time". Here is a little information about the book:
Eva Padlyat had often walked on the bottom of the sea with her mother. This extraordinary-sounding feat is routine for the Inuits of Northern Canada, who lower themselves through the thick winter ice at low tide to search for mussels on the ocean floor. It is now time for Eva's first trip under the ice alone. She and her mother pull their sleds across the snow until they find a place to chisel a hole; then Eva carefully lowers herself into the darkness. Lighting a candle, she begins to look for mussels; she then goes exploring. When she hears the tide coming in and drops her candle, she feels panicky, but she soon finds her matches and another candle to light her way back to the ice hole. On the surface of the ice once again, Eva sums up her adventure as her "very last first time" for walking alone on the ocean floor. This look at Eskimo life today combines the ancient custom of collecting mussels with modern features such as airplanes and snowmobiles. The story is well-developed, with just the right amount of suspense. The watercolor illustrations are somewhat uneven in quality; the colors in the land scenes are rather garish, and some figures are awkwardly proportioned. The eerie shades of the ocean floor are quite effective, however, and the strange seascapes lend an air of unreality. Very Last First Time is an intriguing view of a little-known way of life. Lucy Young Clem, Evansville-Vanderburgh County Public Lib . , Ind.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --
Unit 2 History Celebration
We were several weeks late celebrating the girls completing Unit 2 of this year's history, Renaissance and Reformation, but we finally got it done. I made some food from that time period and the girls played a musical piece from the Reformation. KBug played a Martin Luther's song, "We All Believe in One True God" and Saturn played a song by Martin Luther called, " A mighty Fortress is Our God". Then we each did a reading from Shakespeare. After that we watched the movie the girl's made using their Star War characters. They acted out Shakespeare's Hamlet using the characters. It was interesting to say the least, but a fun way to learn.
FIAR- Another Celebrated Dancing Bear
We had fun with this book and of course we had to cook some food from the country we studied. I made some beef stroganoff and Russian tea cakes.
Here is little m acting out some of the actions from the book. 
Since the story took place in Russia, we also learned about matryoshka dolls. Luckily we had dolls from Russia to look at. 
Making a 'stain glass' craft
Since tea was served several times in the book and good manners were shown, we had our own tea party and practiced using our manners. We even got big sisters to come and join us. : ) 
Saturn looking so excited to come to our tea party. 
Kbug having some tea.
Time for science fun: Little testing water tension using pepper and dish soup. He thought it was cool to watch the pepper move about when we added soap to the water.
This week little m and I 'rowed' the book, "Another Celebrated Dancing Bear".
Here is a little about the book:
Set in Czarist Russia, Another Celebrated Dancing Bear is the story of a friendship between elegant Max, a famous dancer with the Moscow Circus, and simple Boris, who works at a local animal hospital. When Max learns of Boris's unhappiness with his job and envy of Max's fame, he resolves to teach his friend to dance. After many weeks of lessons and practice, Boris is able to join the Moscow Circus. Garrison's warm etchings printed in burnt-umber ink and highlighted with watercolor washes capture the setting and period, giving a flavor of antiquity. They help transport children to another place and time to experience some of the caring and sharing in the relationship of two rather special bears.
- Barbara B. Murphy, Shaler Area School District Libraries, Pittsburgh, PA
Thinking Day 2010
The girls participated in Thinking Day with there troop last weekend. Their troop did Norway for their display. Since I had a meeting at church that morning, Keith got to take the girls. I was surprised to hear that there was only 6 other country displays along with a few others on other topics. I can remember when we first started doing Thinking Day years ago there over 20 or more displays. It is sad to see interest in this activity go down.
