IAT
NEWSLETTER
Winter 2008
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"IT'S ABOUT TIME WE BEGIN IT,
TO TURN THE WORLD AROUND . . . "
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ORGANIZATION INFORMATION
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Co-Founder/Former President - Marcelle Orswell
(notmartha2@yahoo.com)
Co-Founder and Secretary -- Theresa Shea (Tree1A@aol.com)
Co-Founder/Webpage Designer-Sandy Clark (tybrenn@comcast.net)
Co-Presidents -- Ann Schnitz (aerie01@comcast.net)
and
Mary Ledford (eagleshorses@yahoo.com)
Web Site -- -- http://home.comcast.net/~tybrenn/iat/
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LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
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Dear Friends,
My sincerest apologies for missing the Fall 2007 newsletter! With one thing and another, the fall got away from me and before I knew it, it was January. But here we are in a new year, and an important year at that. The presidential election will be capturing all of our attention as it starts to heat up later on this year, and I look forward to some interesting, hearty debates.
In thinking about the potential candidates, as well as some of my own experiences that occurred recently, I keep coming back to this concept of personal integrity. According to Merriam-Webster, integrity is:
1 : firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values : incorruptibility
2 : an unimpaired condition : soundness
3 : the quality or state of being complete or undivided : completeness
synonyms see *honesty*
To my mind, integrity is the face you present to the world. Are we living our ideals when we say we’re working for a better future, or are we simply parroting back something we’ve heard, that sounds nice and keeps us in good stead with the clique? We show our integrity with the choices we make, and the ones we don’t make. The way we spend our money, the causes we support and even the way we deal with our family and friends. A fortune cookie saying I found on the net reads: “Integrity is doing the right thing, even if nobody is watching.” So simple and yet so true. We all know when we’re living up to our own standards of personal integrity and when we’re not.
But maybe an even better way to spin this fortune is to say “Integrity is doing the right thing, even if (and especially if) it’s only me watching.” And it’s gonna be me, and you, making a difference -- together.
My heart to yours,
Ann
P.S. We need your ideas and thoughts for our upcoming newsletters; please don’t hesitate to drop us a line!
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QUOTE OF THE MONTH
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Peace comes within the souls of men when they realize their oneness with the universe.
Black Elk
Oglala Sioux spiritual leader
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS
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January 18-20, 2008 - Norwell, MA "Almost Heaven: Songs of John Denver" The Company Theatre / 30 Accord Park Drive / Norwell, MA 02061 (781) 871-ARTS Tickets: $30
January 29-30, 2008 - Hartford, CT - "Almost Heaven: Songs of John Denver" Bushnell Theater 7:30pm (860) 987-5900 http://www.bushnell.org/index.cgi/24671
January 31, 2008 - Byron Center, MI - "Almost Heaven: Songs of John Denver" 7:30pm Van Singel Fine Arts Center / 8500 Burlingame Ave SW / Byron Center, MI 49315
(616) 878-6801 * http://events.grnow.com
February 8-9, 2008 - Pittsfield, MA - "Almost Heaven: Songs of John Denver" Colonial Theatre / 111 South Street / Pittsfield, MA 01201 http://www.colonialtheatre.org
info@thecolonialtheatre.org (413) 997-4444 $25-$40
February 10, 2008 - Morristown, NJ * Community Theatre at Mayo Center / "Almost Heaven" The Songs of John Denver" www.mayoarts.org (973) 539-8008
February 14-18, 2008 Cruise from New Orleans to Cozumel * 2008 Polyesterfest Cruise with Pete Huttlinger $599 http://www.polyesterfest.com * http://www.petehuttlinger.com Kathy Denis, Cruise Director kathyw@joystarcruises.com (866) 844-8441 Final payment needed by 11-20-07
March 8, 2008 - UK - John Adams and Guido Bos at the Broughton Astley Village Hall, Station Road, Broughton Astley, Leicester LE9 6PT * http://www.fojd.org.uk Information: fojdclub@fojd.org.uk
March 28, 2008 - Florissant, MO - "Almost Heaven: Songs of John Denver / Florissant Civic Center / Parker Road & Waterford Drive (314) 921-5678 8:00pm
April 6, 2008 - Cerritos, Ca - "Almost Heaven: Songs of John Denver" - Cerritos Sports Complex / 19900 Bloomfield Ave. / Cerritos, CA * (562) 916-1254 http://www.cerritoscenter.com * (562) 916-8501
August 15-16, 2008 - South Lake Tahoe, CA - "Dancing With The Mountains: A Musical Tribute to John Denver" – Tahoe Valley Campground / 1175 Melba Drive / South Lake Tahoe. The "Friends With You" band will be featured. Info: Laurie - Laurie@LaurieKern.com http://groups.msn.com/TheSpiritofJohn
Branson, MO - Monday through Saturday 10:00am "A Tribute to John Denver & Country Music Legends" James Garrett sings John Denver's best-loved hits.
IMAX Little Opry Theatre / 3562 Shepherd of the Hills Expressway / Branson, MO 65616 (800) 419-4832
(thanks to Emily Parris and the Rocky Mountain High newsletter for these dates; thanks too, to Karen Tupek for keeping us up to date with Mack Bailey’s schedule, Judy Therrien and others for information on Chris Westfall’s engagements, and Deb Sanderson for news of events in California)
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LETTERS & POEMS
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Our Disposable Society
(by Carole Romanowski - whispjesse@aol.com)
I read an interesting article recently in my newspaper, "The Journal News", about another additive hurting our planet - the waste from take- out food! The plastic and paper bags and food containers, paper napkins, food wrappers, and coffee cups (styrofoam), soda bottles, aluminum containers and cans, even wooden chopsticks - some of these remains of the take-out meals, minus the food, will wind up in the garbage if they cannot be recycled.
From the garbage to the landfills - the paper will degrade in about 2 and a half mos. but plastic bags can last 10 - 20 years, a tin can around 100 years, and a beer can up to 500 years! Some U.S. cities burn their trash in waste-to-energy garbage plants which produce electricity, but ash has to be specially disposed of in their county's ash pits, some of which are running out of space.
According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, the world is consuming 25% more resources each years than the Earth can generate in that year. And the U.S. is among the worst! - our "ecological footprint" is 4 times larger than the Earth can afford!
The U.S. produces 70% of the world's solid waste, according to the N.Y.C. Council on Environment. Each year we throw away 5.5-billion cans and 28-billion glass bottles and jars! With aluminum cans, it takes 19 times as much energy to manufacture one from raw ore as from recycled aluminum!
Furthermore, in the U.S., the drinking of water in plastic bottles has greatly increased, but amazingly recycling of these bottles has declined. Only 23% of water bottles were recycled in 2005, compared with 40% a decade earlier!
In conclusion, I am not saying to avoid take-out food and chain ourselves to the kitchen stove! But perhaps we can save the plastic utensils and plastic and aluminum containers,water bottles and even plastic straws and wooden chopsticks - wash and rinse them and reuse again for backyard barbecues. The plastic bags take-out foods come in can be reused for garbage use if large enough, or if too small, to hold small items to store away and keep things together.
It's obvious from the statistics above, this recycling would greatly help the environment, our planet, and be in keeping with John Denver's "conscious choice" for a "sustainable environment", thereby preserving his legacy!
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From Theresa Shea (Tree1A@aol.com)
Five Things Your Parents Nagged You About That Could Save the Planet - Green Daily
http://www.greendaily.com/2008/01/16/five-things-your-parents-nagged-you-about-that-could-save-the-pl/
When you were a kid, your folks probably had a few things they liked to remind you of over and over and over again until you wanted to pack up a sandwich in a hobo bindle and run off to join Ringling Brothers. But you didn't, and now it turns out that a lot of the stuff Mom and Dad wouldn't shut up about is actually good for the earth (excluding "you're the best-looking kid in school and you're going to be a movie star", which, let's face it, was just a self-esteem boosting lie.) Some of the solid green advice you might want to pass along to your own offspring includes:
1. Take your shoes before you come in the house - One word: slippers. By leaving your shoes outside, apart from keeping noxious substances on your soles and out of your house, you save time, money and electricity on carpet and floor cleaning.
http://www.greendaily.com/2008/01/16/five-things-your-parents-nagged-you-about-that-could-save-the-pl/.%20http://www.greendaily.com/2008/01/04/leave-your-shoes-at-the-door
2. Shut the door when you go out - Just common sense if you're heating or cooling your home, since you don't need all that expensive hot or cold air to blow outside for the benefit of the squirrels. You can go even further, and save big bucks, by making sure that your home is properly insulated.
3. Turn off the lights when you leave the room - Not just lights, but make sure all TVs, computers, stereos, and other appliances are really off when you're not using them. Many devices actually continue to suck up electricity even when switched off, and it's estimated that these "vampire electronics" are responsible for between 5 and 10% of the power use in a typical household. The vamps can be staked by turning off power bars or unplugging unused devices. (A good one not to forget is cell phone chargers – AS)
http://www.greendaily.com/2007/11/01/electricity-vampires/
4. Turn off the TV/computer/video game and go outside and play - It's estimated that the average American child spends up to 5 hours a day in front of a screen, and those Indoor gadgets use a whack of electricity.
http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/howmuch.html
Besides that, at least once researcher says that kids who spend all their time inside don't use all their senses or develop an affiliation for the natural world, which isn't good for their development.
http://www.greendaily.com/2008/01/15/go-outside-even-if-its-freezing-out/
5. Finish your dinner - Agriculture is one of the biggest producers of greenhouse gases thought to cause global warming. When you waste food, polar bears drown.
http://www.greendaily.com/2008/01/09/greenpeace-says-farming-causing-climate-change/
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Announcing...Peaceful Blue Planet!
What’s different about Peaceful Blue Planet than other environmental and peace organizations?
Peace and the environment are linked in ways that we can only begin to recognize. Without a healthy environment we can not have peace, and without peace we can not have a healthy environment. Peace and the environment must be part of the solution that works together. Unrest in poor nations forces farmers to use slash and burn farming techniques.
Corporations vie for natural resources often at the cost of disrupting communities. Wars leave the natural landscape scarred and polluted with dangerous conditions, like land mines, for generations in the future. Peace and environment are inseparable if we choose to try to create a sustainable future.
Why Peaceful Blue Planet?
The foundation has been set up to encourage people to contribute and participate. Peaceful Blue Planet does not belong to anyone; it belongs to everyone that cares about our planet and our children’s future. It is an opportunity to make a difference in a way that you choose.
Here at Peaceful Blue Planet we want to support individuals and other organizations that work to solve the world's two biggest challenges, Peace and the Environment. We would like Peaceful Blue Planet to be a gathering point for interesting solutions and new approaches to the most important work that we can do as inhabitants of this planet.
Vision-
Our vision is to enlighten people that all species are respected and that the beauty of nature be protected for future generations without interference of man.
Mission-
The Peaceful Blue Planet Foundation’s mission is to enlighten and educate people about current environmental and social issues. Through the use of Public Service media programs we will give people the necessary resources to affect positive change in their communities.
Through the use of camps, we will provide children and adults an opportunity to connect to nature in a meaningful way thereby giving them a greater appreciation for the importance of the natural world and the need for it’s preservation.
In partnership with other organizations we will raise funds benefiting local environmental groups, allowing them to focus on the function of being in the community working with less of their volunteer hours being spent on fundraising.
Goals-
Our goal is to work with other local organizations, corporations, and individuals to raise funds so that other public service organizations, such as food banks, environmental groups, and peaceful society programs, can be effective in dealing with community challenges on a local level.
As Peaceful Blue Planet approaches things on a more global scale, we will create an environment of support between local and global organizations. We hope to create an environment that local human resources can be spent on resolving issues rather than raising funds.
We will work with corporations that support green products and make the public aware with hands on interaction and new technologies.
Other Goals-
We will use Public Service Announcements and air waves to create awareness for current environmental issues, and suggest ways that people can effectively participate in positive change.
Come visit us on the web at http://www.peacefulblueplanet.org/, and at http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=223448630
For more information, email pbplanet@aol.com
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"Windsong" Eternal |
Once upon a time so dear
On a cold and wintry eve
I heard the "wisdom" of the wind
My heightened senses could perceive.
Wind caressed my cheeks and Mother Earth
While blowing leaves and icing snow
Yet was gentle as a lullabye
Awakening sleeping fawn and doe.
So I " ...(let) the breezes surround (me)"
Whispering like water through a sieve
And "...bearing ...good tidings..."from John's spirit
"Sweet taste of love...", they would not leave.
Now lifting up my ear I listened
To dear John's "Wind Song" so profound
"Respect the wind,nature, each other..."
Words that could never be time-bound.
(copyright by Carole Romanowski - whispjesse@aol.com) |
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CONSCIOUS CHOICES – TIPS AND TRICKS FOR SAVING $, TIME AND THE ENVIRONMENT
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Did you know that chargers such as those for your iPod or cellphone are always drawing electricity, even when they’re not in use? Pull out their plugs unless you’re charging your electronic equipment to save money and energy.
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WEBSITES OF INTEREST
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None this month
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FOR SALE
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If you're looking for something special for a special someone, come check out what Wildlife Creations (http://www.geocities.com/wldlifecreation) has to offer!! We have many items relating to John Denver and other items that would make fantastic gifts for people you know and love! Or gift someone who is hard to buy for, something that they will talk about for years! From keychains, snowglobes, t-shirts, potpourri jars and more!!! We're sure you'll find something! And remember, whenever you purchase from Wildlife Creations, you're not only giving a gift to someone you know, but to the Windstar Foundation and also the National Wildlife Federation, in John's memory, for wolf education as all proceeds are given to them. Wildlife Creations is now offering a feature product.
Checkout the website for this month's offering! For more information, you can email us at wldlifecreation@wildmail.com.
In this healing time...
Thank you for helping to make the world
a better place in which to live,
Diana and Susan
Wildlife Creations
http://www.geocities.com/wldlifecreation
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ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS
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A Divide as Wolves Rebound in a Changing West
Published: January 2, 2008 by Kirk Johnson for the New York Times
Sheltered for many years by federal species protection law, the gray wolves of the West are about to step out onto the high wire of life in the real world, when their status as endangered animals formally comes to an end early this year.
The so-called delisting is scheduled to begin in late March, almost five years later than federal wildlife managers first proposed, mainly because of human tussles here in Wyoming over the politics of managing the wolves.
Now changes during that time are likely to make the transition even more complicated. As the federal government and the State of Wyoming sparred in court over whether Wyoming’s hard-edged management plan was really a recipe for wolf eradication, as some critics said, the wolf population soared. (The reworked plan was approved by the federal government in November.)
During that period, many parts of the human West were changing, too. Where unsentimental rancher attitudes — that wolves were unwelcome predators, threatening the cattle economy — once prevailed, thousands of newcomers have moved in, buying up homesteads as rural retreats, especially near Yellowstone National Park, where the wolves began their recovery in 1995 and from which they have spread far and wide.
The result is that there are far more wolves to manage today than there once would have been five years ago — which could mean, biologists say, more killing of wolves just to keep the population in check. And that blood-letting might not be quite as popular as it once was.
“If they’d delisted when the numbers were smaller, the states would have been seen as heroes and good managers,” said Ed Bangs, the wolf recovery coordinator at the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. “Now people will say they’re murderers.”
Wolves are intelligent, adaptable, highly mobile in staking out new territory, and capable of rapid reproduction rates if food sources are good and humans with rifles or poison are kept in check by government gridlock — and that is precisely what happened.
From the 41 animals that were released inside Yellowstone from 1995 to 1997, mostly from Canada, the population grew to 650 wolves in 2002 and more than 1,500 today in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. The wolves have spread across an area twice the size of New York State and are growing at a rate of about 24 percent a year, according to federal wolf-counts.
Human head counts have also climbed in the same turf. From 1995 to 2005, a 25-county area, in three states, that centers on Yellowstone grew by 12 percent, to about 691,000 people, according to a report earlier this year by the Center for the Rocky Mountain West at the University of Montana. That compares to a 6 percent growth rate for Wyoming as a whole in that period, 7.5 percent for all of Montana, and 19 percent for Idaho. The wolf population has grown faster in Idaho than any place else in the region, doubling to about 800 in the past four years.
The director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Terry Cleveland, said changes in economics and attitude were creating a profound wrinkle in the outlook for human-wolf relations. Mr. Cleveland, a 39-year-veteran with the department, said that many newcomers, who are more interested in breath-taking vistas than the price of feed-grain and calves, do not see wolves the way older residents do.
In the public comment period for Wyoming’s wolf plan, sizable majorities of residents in the counties near Yellowstone expressed opposition. Teton County, around Jackson Hole, led the way, with more than 95 percent of negative comment about the plan, according an analysis by the state. Many respondents feared that the plan would lead to more killing of wolves than necessary.
“It used to be, ‘Yeah, we live near wild animals,’ now it’s like, ‘Gosh, we need to manage them, and it’s the job of the state to do that,’ ” said Meg Daly, a writer in Jackson, who submitted a comment opposing the wolf plan and recently spoke to a reporter by telephone. Ms. Daly said she had lived in Wyoming as a child and moved back last year.
Many new land owners around Yellowstone have also barred the hunting of animals like elk on their property, sometimes, in a single pen stroke, closing off thousands of acres that Wyoming hunters had used for decades. Mr. Cleveland said he expected that those same “no trespassing” signs would be up and in force, creating de facto wolf sanctuaries, when wolf hunters or state wildlife managers started coming around this year. But the trend of land enclosure, Mr. Cleveland said, is probably not in the wolf’s long-term interest.
“As large ranches become less economically viable, the alternative is 40-acre subdivisions,” he said, “and that is not compatible with any kind of wildlife.”
Some advocates of wolf protection say that for all the talk of moderation and the nods to a changing ethos, old attitudes will take over once the gray wolf is delisted.
“I think it’s going to be open season,” said Suzanne Stone, a wolf specialist at Defenders of Wildlife, a national conservation group.
Ms. Stone said she thought the changes that led to federal approval of Wyoming’s wolf plan were mostly cosmetic.
Ms. Stone and others are concerned that the plan grants Wyoming something that no other state in the Yellowstone region received: the right to kill wolves at any time by any means across most of the state.
In the northwest corner near Yellowstone and in Idaho and Montana, wolves will be classified as trophy game animals and may be killed only in strictly controlled numbers by licensed hunters. In the 80 percent of Wyoming outside the Yellowstone area, however, wolves will be labeled predators, with no limits and no permits required to kill them.
The state has pledged to maintain at least 15 breeding pairs, or about 150 animals, in a five-county region around the park. The state now has about 362 wolves, according to the most recent estimates in late September.
That formulation sounds just about right to Chip Clouse.
“I support no wolves on private land, and right now we have wolves running rampant,” said Mr. Clouse, a rancher and a former outfitter in Cody, just east of Yellowstone, who has lived in Wyoming for 37 years. “They brought the wolves in for people to see on the public lands, in the park, and what has happened is that they have grown so many packs that they’re now impeding on people who are just trying to live and make a living on their own property.”
Joel DiPaola, a chef at a Jackson ski resort who arrived in Wyoming from Connecticut in the early 1990s, just before the wolves, said he thought much of the huffing and puffing about the animals was emotional and would make little difference.
“As the state was dragging its feet, the wolves were breeding and expanding,” Mr. DiPaola said. “It’s now going to be almost impossible to get rid of them even if they try. Once they seem to get a foothold and have a refuge in the parks, they’re here.”
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NEWSLETTER NEWS
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If you would like to submit articles, news items, stories, poetry, or any other pertinent information to IT'S ABOUT TIME, please e-mail any of the IAT staff. The submission deadline for the next edition is April 19, 2008. Please be sure to include any contact information so that members can e-mail or snail-mail for further details.
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The contents of this newsletter are entirely at the discretion of the "It's About Time" staff. Contributions, as always, are welcomed, although inclusion is not guaranteed. All contributed material may be subject to editing for content and length.
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". . . IT'S ABOUT TIME WE START TO LIVE
IT,
THE FAMILY OF MAN,
IT'S ABOUT TIME
AND IT'S ABOUT CHANGES . . .
AND IT'S ABOUT TIME."
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