Poverty Is Not an Accident

Poverty Is Not an Accident
Nelson Mandela

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Dear YahooMail

You are reading http://livinginthehood.blogspot.com

Ok, you want me to download some sort of tool bar. I'm not going to do it. You know too much about me, already; that's why I have to look at ads that insult older women and tell us how ugly we are, every time I open Yahoo Mail.

But, since you've begun your campaign to entice me to use your tool bar, my email account with you barely functions. Things won't delete. I can't open folders. I get page load errors constantly.

Look, I've been using yahoo mail for what? Ten years now? I know you're trying to earn a living.

But so am I. And if my email won't work, I'll have to export everything to some place else and leave you.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Car Donation PSA


You are reading http://livinginthehood.blogspot.com


"Maybe I can get my neighbor to donate that eyesore in her driveway, too."

Well, THAT's alienating! Are we paying attention to the economic reports on KUNM? Maybe your neighbor just feels lucky she's still GOT a car! Women earn just over half what men earn, per capita, and let's remember the "glass ceiliing." Does your neighbor still havve a JOB, even? Is she a single mom?

Should we be pointing fingers at our neighbors, or could we be looking at the changes WE can make, without policing what other people are doing?

Do we motivate people by trying to SHAME them, or encouraging empowerment and self-reliance?

There's a LOT of stuff about the self-righteous judmentalism of Fort Sumner that I detest.

But I remember Albuquerque.

EXAMPLE: I went to the Montanita Co-Op's street fair once. Booth after booth was about demading OTHER PEOPLE change: smoking laws, GMOs, NOISE levels, too much light...... Jees, if you hate your neighbors' behaviors so much, just move to Fort Sumner! You won't even have to LOOK at neighbors! Every ONE of those people at those booths drove CARS to that fair; none took the bus, rode a bike, drove a scooter. I was thinking the street fair would be about networking, education and support for ALL of us to empower ourselves out of a toxic culture. Mostly, I just found finger-pointing. I never went to another fair. I need discussions of SOLUTIONS, not nit-picking analyses of problems!

Yes, encourage people to donate cars. But remember: not all of us are affluent. That illusion of affluence is SO '80s. Young adult listeners don't even remember the days of Perrier.

Your neighbor's car is your neighbor's; worry about your OWN life. To quote Obama, who stole it from Gandhi, "We are the change we've been waiting for."

What's your neighbor's name? Is she OK? Can you help her? Would she like to car pool?

Could you both abandon addictions to internal combustion vehicles and ride electric bikes? I do, in rural New Mexico. It's not that I'm superior; I'm low income and forced to be resourceful. People out here think I'm a crazy radical, but every TIME I pick up my mail at the post office, someone admires my bike and tells me how smart it is to ride it.

Whoever wrote that, I'm sorry; I'm not picking on you, honst. And thank you for your efforts to generate funding for KUNM in these hard times. I'm just hoping we can be more gentle, less judgmental of our neighbors.

===================================reply from Mary, Development Director==========


Re: [KUNMIDEAS-L] car donation pitch
Thursday, March 5, 2009 12:16 PM
From:
"Rogi Riverstone

Mary,

We're all in this together.

A lot of what I find alienating about economic issues and the priviliged who operate community organizations is just a matter of consciousness raising. I get a chip on my shoulder, because it really isn't fair that the least privileged and most pressured of us are also required to educate others on the real issues and how to heal them.

Give you an example: I LOVE the work of performance artist/poet, Alix Olson. A lot of her work relates to the economically disadvantaged: homeless, Katrina victims, single moms, etc. She's a "red diaper baby:" one parent teaches women's studies & the other is a self-professed Socialist.

So, I go to her website to see about getting some of her work, to help inspire and encourage me as I go through my life here (cuz Heaven knows I ain't gettin none in Fort Sumner, where I'm NOW being blamed for moving into this house -- as though I knew what a hell hole it'd be -- and being threatened with having my H20 shut off cuz of a leak the drunken landlord didn't fix -- and he's in Oklahoma and refuses to do anything about it).

So, I'm at the website, and I see ONE CD would cost me a week's groceries! There's no sliding scale, no scholarship program by which sales to more affluent people might subsidize my purchase, nothing. Then, I see the product manager has a cushy life in The Hamptons, where Lesbian Nation seems to mean golf carts and cracked crab! SHOOT!

This stuff happens all the time. A lot of poor people internalize the social blame heaped on them constantly by some very reactionary forces in their lives, and don't speak out. Many aren't articulate and those who are feel defeated, frustrated and powerless to change anything.

We don't, as a rule, GIVE feedback; the potential consequences are too dangerous.

All I'm trying to do is remind the station I've supported to support me, too.

I love KUNM and truly see it a s a vehicle by which a LOT of social injustice can be transformed. But people are people; we get into habits of speaking because we get into habits of thinking. I don't think anybody's "bad" or "politically incorrect" or something because these things happen. I'm just trying to find a viable way to continue a dialogue about informed and participatory democracy, in which all of us are made welcome, beyond our limitations, so that we can find ways to overcome those limitations.

I'll probably get tarred and feathered, eventually, for speaking like this. I used to be shrill and strident about it, uppity and huffy. I still have my moments, believe me.I have good reason to feel angry and frustrated. But it's not effective to blind side someone of good intentions by dumping 53 years of struggle on them.

Thanks for hearing me. Thanks for understanding my points. Your positive feedback to my comments gives me courage and hope that I'm not being a crank or a malcontent, splitting hairs and further disempowering my community. It affirms to me that my concerns are valid and that my sense of how to have this sort of dialogue isn't completely unfounded.

Again, thanks for all your hard work, all of you. I need KUNM more than I can express. And, if I need it, so do the citizens of New Mexico.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Free Seeds

You are reading http://livinginthehood.blogspot.com

I need your help. Plant Milkweed everywhere!
Send a self addressed, stamped envelope for Butterfly Seeds to:
Suggested Donation $2 or more.
Live Monarch Foundation - Seeds
3003-C8 Yamato Road #1015
Boca Raton, Florida 3343


Ed Hume Seeds & Plant a Row 
Ed Hume Seeds has been involved in the Plant A Row for the Hungry program since 2002. Since we started participating, we've donated at least 10,000 packets of seed (mostly carrots) in support of the program every year.
Annually, we distribute:

  * 2,000 to 3,000 packets directly through our website.
  * 2,000 to 3,000 packets with our online and catalog orders.
  * 4,000 to 6,000 packets to Garden Writers to handout at lectures and appearances.

Additionally, we distribute approximately 1,000,000 packets of year-old seed to international charities to help end world hunger and varying amounts to US projects. Last year, we donated almost a ton of seed to charities in New Orleans to help with rebuilding. Several years ago, we partnered with a local grocery chain to give away PAR packets in our seed racks.

If you have participated in the program in the past, "Thank You!". We'd love to hear any stories about PAR that you'd like to share. Send them to: jeff@humeseeds.com and we'll share some of the best ones on this page in the future.

Thank you for helping the GWAA and Ed Hume Seeds in this worthwhile project.

Free Seeds Offer Disclaimer: Only 1 free packet per address and email per calendar year (please do not send multiple requests, they will not be honored). Your address will not be sold or used for any other purposes. You will not receive our catalog by responding to this offer (please browse it online). Ed Hume Seeds reserves the right to discontinue or extend this offer at its sole discretion. Due to import/export regulations and the cost of shipping, we cannot ship free seeds to most international addresses.  
http://www.humeseeds.com/PARmore.htm

Free Seeds for your School or Community Garden Project.

Tomato Bob here,

We are very thankful to the many thousands of gardeners who have helped us grow our business and have helped to preserve the heirloom varieties that remain today. It is very saddening to look through seed catalogs from the late 1800's and find that only a small percentage of the vegetable seeds are still available today, many of which are flirting with extinction. We all need do our share at helping to preserve the remaining ties to our past. We would like to help contribute to increasing awareness about the plight of losing many of these great old varieties to the newer hybrid seeds offered by "big business giants", by offering to help supply School Garden projects and Community Gardens with a selection of heirloom vegetable seeds.

If your School or Community Garden is interested in participating, please submit the information below. Thanks and we hope with a collaborative effort that many of the heirloom seeds that are still available today, will be around for many future generations.  
http://www.tomatobob.com/Free%20Seeds%20For%20Schools.htm

There are FREE things every once in a while in this world! DataWorkZ.com and its grand Network of sites has brought you this FREE website with FREE SEEDS!

All it takes is a self addressed stamped envelope mailed to the address above and please include your email address. And that's it! We'll take care of the rest and send you 10 FREE FLOWER SEEDS!

You will be sent 10 seeds of our choice to the address marked on the self addressed stamped envelope that you send to us.

There is a limit of one FREE 10 Seeds package per mailing address per year.

Supplies are limited and all seeds were harvested from the 2007 growing season for 2008 planting season. Seeds will be shipped with simple instructions. Please allow up to 6 weeks to receive your free seeds. This is due to overwhelming positive response to this FREE offer! 

Free Flower Seed

c/o DataWorkZ.com

PO Box 394

Robbinsonville, NC 28771

We give away free conifer seeds!

Here's how it works: 1) Make a comment anywhere within TreeDazzled (opportunities to comment are listed at left). Your comment may be short--even one word--but must not be non-sensical. 2) E-mail Shoot requesting your seeds and giving your shipping address. 3) You'll receive at least 10 free seeds in the mail!

You can request free seeds every two weeks.

Currently we are shipping giant sequoia (sequoiadendron giganteum) and sugar pine (pinus lambertiana) seeds. However, the seeds on offer may change without warning.

Have fun!
http://www.treedazzled.com/treedazzled/freeSeeds.html

FREE FOUR-O'CLOCK SEEDSPicture of yellow four-o'clock plants. Mirabilis jalapa 3. Four-o'clocks Around the World cancer project. Http://www.symbolofhope.com. jpg.

Free four-o'clock seeds can be obtained by sending a self-addressed stamped envelope with two First-class stamps or two international first-class stamps on the return envelope to:

Four-o'clocks Around the World
P.O. Box 8931
Metairie, Louisiana 70011-8931
U.S.A.

Note: Due to Hurricane Katrina please allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery of the FREE seeds. This project is being conducted 8 blocks from the breech in the 17th Street Canal Levee on the "dry side" which means we only had 2 feet of water in the house.

Please plant four-o'clock seeds in the memory of our loved ones who are cancer survivors and in the memory of our loved ones who have lost their battle to cancer. Share the seeds with your family and friends to perpetuate this loving tribute to our loved ones. There is a limit of ONE packet of seeds per request