FREEDOM OF SPEECH

For years, our government has condemned countries like China and Iran for their clampdown on Internet use.  Right now, Congress is debating a law that would give them the power to censor the world’s Internet — creating a blacklist that could target YouTube, WikiLeaks and even groups like Avaaz and individuals with “suspect” content.  Not good.  No internet company should have the power to censor me or any group they don’t happen to like for whatever reason.  It is far too tempting to censor stuff they personally don’t like that has nothing to do with terrorism or copyright infringement. . We already have copyright laws in place. The FBI monitors for terrorist related content. If a problem exists,  it can be settled in the courts. This broad-based law is over-kill.
Nor should internet companies be expected to police me. Let me give you a taste of the type of censorship we deal with because we blog for the San Francisco Chronicle, one of the most liberal, (supposedly), newspapers in the country.  If I misspell Peninsula, as Penisula, which I did one time, My blog could not be published for using the word Penis. I used the phrase tit-for-tat.  Oh, no! Bad word body part. And, honky tonk. Oops. Honky is a racial slur. And if you mention selling short your fellow-man, or that you saw something for sale that was silly, you are not allowed to advertise and sell in your blog content.  Obviously a broad mechanical censorship of the internet is frought with problems. Nor do I want a two dollar an hour employee from India, who doesn’t understand our culture, or a ten dollar an hour U.S. employee of an internet company to decide if what I say is suspect.
Why should the government  be leaning on corporations to police websites and arbitrarily close them down for “reasons unknown to us”?
To help keep the bill from passing, click on the following link and sign against this horrible bill and let congress know they’ve overstepped on our freedom of speech:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_internet_us_a/?vl 
AVAAZ accepts no corporate or government donations. They are a citizens advocacy group.

CHANGE.ORG

Jim says I don’t rant as much when I’m on the road as I do when I get home.  Of course, he is right. I’m quite shielded from all of the muck going on in the world while we travel. It feels good. But, I return and quite happily get back in the fray. On the streets of Sonora Saturday, a woman told me her daughter was afraid to come to the protest for fear of someone seeing her,  reporting back to her boss,  and costing  her her  job.   I don’t have a job to lose, thus it is even more important that people like myself get out and make sure we don’t give our freedoms away and that we stand up for what we believe in.
My first real job, after high school, was at the Alameda County Jail.  My first day of work,  I was told I would have to remove the bumper sticker on my car. (It was my father’s car.)   The bumper sticker in support of Don Dillon running for mayor of Fremont had nothing to do with any County election. I was indignant at age 17 and full of  idealism. At home, Dad said, remove the bumper sticker, you need the job.  For this woman to fear for her job made me realize  we are not as free as we think we are and our freedom and rights have to be continually protected.
This is a long away around to get to Change.org, an organization that allows you to set up a petition about something you believe should be changed.  They will help you give your idea legs as you spread the word to your friends and they spread it to their friends, if anyone out there  thinks your idea has merit.
I’ve had this thought at the back of my mind for years. Why do we allow California Nurseries to sell non-native invasive species? I had a horrible experience with an Australian  pampas grass plant when I planted the Calaveras Community Studio Garden. It’s fronds are sharp like tiny razors and the pampas I planted began to spread into the nearest parking spot. Finally, no one could exit their car door without getting scratched. It even made tiny scratches on car paint. Our studio manager tried cutting it with a chain saw. It bucked the saw back at him and snarled the chain. We cut the fronds individually, a nasty job,  and poisoned it over a period of weeks. It couldn’t be dug up with shovels,  the root ball was so deep and fibrous. What a mess. And, worse, it seeded to a neighbor’s property.

When Jim and I drove the coastal route from Washington to California, I saw plantations of pampas grass, and parking lots and roadside banks where people have tried to mow them down with little success. Yet, we allow these monsters, beautiful though they are, to be sold by nurseries all over our state.

Another invader that has proliferated is Scotch Broom, again, beautiful, but invasive. They grow incredibly well without any native enemies to keep them in check, much like star thistle. Star thistle in its native Scotland has  a parasitic enemy that keeps it in check. It has cost Calaveras  County over a million dollars to control star thistle and it is still growing and needing constant treatment. Expensive.
Now that I’m done ranting, I’ve developed a petition through change.org to gather signatures for a petition that seeks to  make it against the law to sell non-native species in our nurseries.  Realize that it will cost us huge amounts of money to eradicate them when they get out of hand.  If you are like minded, please sign my petition.
http://www.change.org/petitions/the-state-of-california-oregon-washington-by-law-prevent-the-sale-of-non-native-invasive-species-by-nurseries

OCCUPYING WALL STREET

Occupying Wall Street for me is tomorrow, on Earth Revolution day, October 15th, at Sonora, a small community in Tuolumne County.
This movement is really the first major grassroots revolution going on in America since the Viet Nam protests.  Its been a peaceful revolution and I expect it has put our legislators on notice, maybe…  Maybe not. Did they pass a jobs bill?  No.

Keeping Millions Out of Work to put One Man Out of a Job.
Republicans have turned into a fringe element as in you have to refuse any compromise with Democrats, especially any budget compromise. You have to question Science, because all those environmentalists are a bunch of crazies. You have to think  you can  run a country without any taxes, or regulation, nor listen to any sensible tax plans; you can’t support any muslim citizens of the United States, nor allow women to have control over their bodies.  And, if you are a candidate, you have to PLEDGE to hew to the party line, don’t even think of having an independent thought.  And, while Republicans sympathize with alternative lifestyles, maybe, well, some do, they start to shake when it comes to the word marriage as in same-sex marriage.  The word scares hell out of them. And, you have to deny  environmental holocaust and climate change exists because those pesky environmentalists want to phase out coal and dependence on oil where the $$$$$$ comes from.   And, you can’t be friendly to anyone who ever worked with or compromised with a Democrat.  And gun control, cannot be touched, even for a child safety lock, or for assault guns that can kill an elephant.  And you can’t associate with the “wrong” people,  as in Democrats or anyone who thinks a Union has any merit. Lock our borders, don’t let anyone in, but let cheap goods flow freely across the borders. Why make anything in the U.S?
So, I’m going to put my legislators on notice,  that this movement is about holding Wall Street, the banks, the money grabbers pushing for legislation that benefit only a certain segment of corporations, accountable.  This is about taking back Democracy By The People For The People. This is about basic freedoms and it is just part of a global revolution.
Occupy Wall Street has websites and demonstrations in every state,  ten provinces in Canada, and Puerto Rico. This occupation has been going on for 28 days.
There are protests for PEACE, and REBIRTH of  DEMOCRACY  in Egypt, France, England, Italy, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Syria, and Tunisia. Oh, and don’t be surprised if it doesn’t surface in your local newspaper.
In Ohio, the state is bulldozing houses to keep neighborhoods from turning into slums, and our Congress can’t pass a jobs bill?  They send people to prison for stealing a loaf of bread, but banks and corporations that steal billions get away without even a reprimand?
This isn’t the Democracy that I grew up with.  It may take Americans a long time to wake up, but change is in the air.  Revolution is a painful way to make change, but it works. And, it could get bloody.