This has been a very girly sort of a week for me. And tonight I have continued that tradition by eating Ben & Jerry's Brownie Fudge ice cream straight from the container while watching a classic Disney movie. I haven't seen the Fox and the Hound for years, and now I'm remembering why I used to love this movie.
Except that now I want to cry, since it's the beginning of the movie, and the baby fox's mommy just got killed, and the fox has huge eyes and acts like a sad, skiddish little kitten...
I heard another angle on the ethanol issue at work the other day. Many of our patients are small farmers, or former farmers. The new use of corn-based ethanol has increased the price of corn. Now many farmers cannot afford to buy corn as feed. Other types of feed have also increased in prices. And the outlook is that the prices will just continue to go up.
Another lady, not a farmer, but well educated in world affairs, was saying that, while we will buy less foreign oil with the use of ethanol, we will be importing more corn from overseas. Corn which is a staple food in many other countries, especially third world countries. So it is making it more difficult and expensive for people in the third world to buy food for themselves and their families. And, of course, there is a high chance of underpaying or mistreating workers in foreign countries from whom we export corn.
I'm not saying I'm against the increased use of ethanol, but I think it is important to look at all aspects of the issue.
Ah the complications of life.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Blogosphere, oh blogosphere...
I'm wondering if anyone actually reads my little blog here.
Perhaps if I actually posted on it more regularly it might stand a better chance...
Or perhaps not.
None the less, I have enjoyed the blogosphere.
So I went to this meeting the other night about starting an invisible children chapter, or have some local involvement in any case, to raise help and awareness about the situation here in Springfield.
For those of you (my many readers) who do not know what i'm talking about, you should make yourself aware. go to invisiblechildren.com and explore. little do many of us comfortable, middle class americans know, but there has been a bloody civil war going on in the country of Uganda for twenty some years, which has destroyed the lives of countless children who are forced into a rebel army as soldiers, girls who are forced to be child wives of rebel leaders, and men, women, and children who were forced out of their homes and into inhumane displacement camps.
so we were talking about the effect that the organization has made on the issue, and in thinking and talking about it, it was actually quite humbling to think about the impact it has had.
for example: last spring, about a year ago, the organization held a national event, localted in 15 major cities across the us, where thousands of people, especially young people (high school-college age) gathered and reflected a shadow of what life is like in a displacement camp by sleeping in cardboard boxes, eating only saltine crackers and water, and other such things.
we also wrote letters to our senators, urging action in ending this war.
so senators across the US all of a sudden had hundreds of letters hand-delivered to them all reading the same message: we have a responsibility to help end this war.
and they did something about it.
they wrote a letter to president bush and condeliza rice.
eventually president bush appointed a delegate to go over and help negotiate peace between Joseph Koney and the Ugandan government.
Peace is slowly, but surely being negotiated.
A war is ending.
We actually made a difference.
We actually made a difference. A big one.
We helped to end a war. every generation will make mistakes. loads of them. but sometimes it's proud moments way overshadow it's shameful. I hope ours will.
Perhaps if I actually posted on it more regularly it might stand a better chance...
Or perhaps not.
None the less, I have enjoyed the blogosphere.
So I went to this meeting the other night about starting an invisible children chapter, or have some local involvement in any case, to raise help and awareness about the situation here in Springfield.
For those of you (my many readers) who do not know what i'm talking about, you should make yourself aware. go to invisiblechildren.com and explore. little do many of us comfortable, middle class americans know, but there has been a bloody civil war going on in the country of Uganda for twenty some years, which has destroyed the lives of countless children who are forced into a rebel army as soldiers, girls who are forced to be child wives of rebel leaders, and men, women, and children who were forced out of their homes and into inhumane displacement camps.
so we were talking about the effect that the organization has made on the issue, and in thinking and talking about it, it was actually quite humbling to think about the impact it has had.
for example: last spring, about a year ago, the organization held a national event, localted in 15 major cities across the us, where thousands of people, especially young people (high school-college age) gathered and reflected a shadow of what life is like in a displacement camp by sleeping in cardboard boxes, eating only saltine crackers and water, and other such things.
we also wrote letters to our senators, urging action in ending this war.
so senators across the US all of a sudden had hundreds of letters hand-delivered to them all reading the same message: we have a responsibility to help end this war.
and they did something about it.
they wrote a letter to president bush and condeliza rice.
eventually president bush appointed a delegate to go over and help negotiate peace between Joseph Koney and the Ugandan government.
Peace is slowly, but surely being negotiated.
A war is ending.
We actually made a difference.
We actually made a difference. A big one.
We helped to end a war. every generation will make mistakes. loads of them. but sometimes it's proud moments way overshadow it's shameful. I hope ours will.
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