Saturday 15 September 2012

Re: {PBJFlorida} Digest for pbjflorida@googlegroups.com - 8 Messages in 4 Topics

AA brothers and sisters, Abhinav, why does that info not surprise me in the least?  When I was a child in Bradenton, we were friends with a man and family who owned a think tank who had developed a motor with no moving parts that could have revolutionized the auto industry and removed the need for foreign oil for autos, period.  It also was economical, especially over the life of the car. (This was in the 70's).  GM, Ford both tried everything including sending thugs and threatening his and his families' lives, bombing and burning part of their lab, you name it. The government refused to intervene, in fact, treated them like terrorists to the US economy.  They finally had to go underground and vanish to protect their children.  Big business is ugly and of very little good as far as I am concerned.

Jim, so right about the community and the students' outward emotive face...I see it every day in my employees.  Even the groups that previously had a sense of community, particularly some of the Latin ones, are loosing their glue. We are several generations away from core family, the support system that comes in community of that type and extended family, socio-economic family, and they are so hungry for the safety, comfort, support, knowingness, that comes from that type of group. And, as I think we all know, groups that do represent that are maligned, hated, feared, labeled, in this country on a much more vicious basis than ever before, as we are a threat to their holy dollar and all-mighty power scheme to control the masses with crap sold to them and told them as "facts". I do not fear government, I fear who controls government - banks, big business, pharmaceutical companies, agribusiness, etc. as well as those who holler the loudest and control them the mostest.

Some day all of us are going to be forced to do community to survive if we do not go voluntarily.

Penny, thanks for the kind words. I am very against agribusiness, and that, too, is getting very dangerous to utter out loud in this country.

Salam
Amira
-----Original Message-----
From: pbjflorida@googlegroups.com
Sent: Sep 15, 2012 3:26 AM
To: Digest Recipients
Subject: {PBJFlorida} Digest for pbjflorida@googlegroups.com - 8 Messages in 4 Topics

Group: http://groups.google.com/group/pbjflorida/topics

    Abhinav Dwivedi <abhinavd45@hotmail.com> Sep 14 08:27AM -0400  

    See the movie "Who killed the electric car?". The people did lease them,
    they were not allowed to purchase the cars at the end of their leases. Once
    the companies got the legistation crushed they got all the cars back and
    destroyed them.
     
    As for those who debate the oil/auto connection. All you have to do is look
    at the cross over on the board of directors and share holders. Much of the
    blame for ending the electric car mandate on the west coast can be pinned on
    the Bush administration, who worked with the oil and auto companies to get
    California to change its laws.
     
    But let's face it - the big auto companies do not want to make these things,
    because electric vehicles are much less profitable products than gas
    vehicles. This is why the cars were only leased, not sold - so that the auto
    companies could seize them as soon as the law changed.
     

     
    See the attachment.

     

    Abdurrahman Sykes <imamsykes@gmail.com> Sep 14 09:26AM -0400  

    Great powerpoint.
     

     

    Penny Villegas <pennyvillegas31@gmail.com> Sep 14 04:25PM -0400  

    One more example of greed over public good. Very sad.
    Penny
     
     
    --
     
    *Penny*

     

    jim belcher <jimbelcher350@me.com> Sep 14 07:59AM -0400  

    Sr. Amira,
    What you share below is similar to stories I hear from my students, especially Latin American students and even a couple of Orlando natives. The loss of community is distressing to them and it contributes to the loss of meaning that many college and university teachers see in their students, yet few educational institutions address this loss of community or meaning. There is a palpable longing for the kinds of belonging and connectedness common in these communities (mostly) of the past.
     
    Michael Nagler, Gandhian scholar at Berkley, sees that this loss of community and the loss of meaning are directly connected to the violence toward nature we are witnessing on an ever increasing level. For more on michael's work, google him and METTA Center.
     
    jim
     
     

     

    Penny Villegas <pennyvillegas31@gmail.com> Sep 14 09:41AM -0400  

    I'm always glad to read Sister Amira's ideas. She expresses my thoughts
    exactly.
    I lived on farms both in midwest Illinois and in the Andes in Colombia. Of
    course in small farms, there are no hours on or off. We always had a
    certain control over our actions. But in agribusiness it's all business,
    confusing and cynical.
    I am a vegetarian and I don't want animals to be slaughtered for me. But I
    know that animals breed-- what to do with the many many new chickens and
    pigs and cows? I try to fit my understanding of the natural world into this
    shrinking planet and my desire not to add to the torturous lives (and
    deaths) of the creatures.
    What do you think?
    Pace e bene, Penny
     
    On Thu, Sep 13, 2012 at 11:44 PM, Marilyn J. Amira Taylor <
     
    --
     
    *Penny*

     

    jim belcher <jimbelcher350@me.com> Sep 14 12:52PM -0400  

    Penny, I love the thoughtful example you set for us and for your students. You walk the talk and then some!
     
    We had a conversation in class yesterday about the student consensus that individual actions are not enough and collective action --collaboration, collective creativity, innovation and change -- are not happening and probably not possible in this culture. My students vary from discouraged, terrified, angry to glazed over, checked out, and totally disconnected.
     
    Brené Brown says, in her latest book, that the loss of meaning, the disconnection, the epidemic of depression are all connected to our cultural conditioning of separateness and isolation and scarcity. These in turn are related to our current environmental, social and econimic crises.
     
    What my students see as necessary is for communities to commit to really working together. This is what's missing and they are not optimistic that it is even possible in this culture. There are not models to follow and no willingness to display the vulnerability it takes to transform our ways.
     
     
     

     

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