SOCIETY

Peter

Public Education

I have been wondering about the impact school vouchers is having upon the quality of education. Certainly the average performance of students CANNOT remain the same when charter schools are allowed to steal money from the public education funds to finance private educational systems. In the long run we cannot help but see a decline in public school performance over time.

But the question also comes to mind, will charter schools then be removed from the scrutiny of public records and information reporting. The reliability of stats about school performance must be called into question as more and more money is siphoned off the public accountability scale and into private hands.

In an era where the abuse of children has been called into question by the Epstein scandal one has to ask questions about OTHER forms of abuse. In the school systems in the U.S. there has been a somewhat declining tradition of physical punishment of “mis-behaving” children. Now, we know that much of what was viewed as bad behavior by in-the-classroom teachers — who perhaps weren’t as up-to-date on medical diagnoses as they should have been — was — in fact related to medical conditions of various sorts. Many children should have been afforded better ways of learning, and different paces than has been the case in the public school system.

Even discounting the reality of physical abuse used as a cure for misbehavior, science has realized that there are lots of ways of learning and not all students will fare well when forced into a singular pattern. I had a college professor — back a lifetime ago — who even then recognized 16 different ways of learning. No wonder some folks — kids — don’t get as much from the typical classroom setting as others.

Anyway… I wanted to shine a flashlight on the correlation between school performance and the legal use of corporal punishment of students… so here you go!

The ranking of public schools by state and an indication of where corporal punishment is legal within schools for each state.

Where is Corporal Punishment Legal?

Corporal Punishment in Schools

Approved by Council, June 1988
Updated September 2014

Corporal punishment is a discipline method in which a supervising adult deliberately inflicts pain upon a child in response to a child’s unacceptable behavior and/or inappropriate language. The immediate aims of such punishment are usually to halt the offense, prevent its recurrence and set an example for others. The purported long-term goal is to change the child’s behavior and to make it more consistent with the adult’s expectations. In corporal punishment, the adult usually hits various parts of the child’s body with a hand, or with canes, paddles, yardsticks, belts, or other objects expected to cause pain and fear.

In the United States, corporal punishment is legal in 19 states (Alabama, Arizona Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming). In 2011, New Mexico became the most recent state to ban corporal punishment in public schools. Corporal Punishment has been found to occur more frequently with students who are male, poor, and ethnic minority (OCR report).  The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry opposes the use of corporal punishment and supports legislation outlawing its use. 

Research on corporal punishment has shown that it may be harmful. Many other methods of discipline are effective in promoting self-control, eliminating undesirable behaviors and promoting desired behaviors in children. The AACAP recommends non-violent methods of addressing inappropriate behavior in schools, such as behavior management and school-wide positive behavior supports. 

Corporal punishment signals to the child that a way to settle interpersonal conflicts is to use physical force and inflict pain. Such children may in turn resort to such behavior themselves. They may also fail to develop trusting, secure relationships with adults and fail to evolve the necessary skills to settle disputes or wield authority in less violent ways. Supervising adults who will-fully humiliate children and punish by force and pain are often causing more harm than they prevent. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry opposes the use of corporal punishment in schools and takes issue with laws in some states legalizing such corporal punishment and protecting adults who use it from prosecution for child abuse. The Academy joins with the National Congress of Parents and Teachers, the American Medical Association, the National Education Association, the American Bar Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and other groups calling for an end to this form of punishment.

See also the American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement, Corporal Punishment in Schools (RE9754).

Legalized Corporal Punishment – https://www.aacap.org/aacap/Policy_Statements/1988/Corporal_Punishment_in_Schools.aspx

Where do the States Stand in Educational Performance – 2026

Note: the complete breakdown of schools by state in an interactive chart is available at the link below. Do take a moment to see where your state stands. There is an interesting correlation between the MAGA states and the WORST performing state school systems.

US School Rankings https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/public-school-rankings-by-state

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Perspective
Peter

Perspective

It is hard to maintain perspective about life in the midst of chaos. It’s easy to think that everything has gone to hell and there is no hope for the future. I don’t know about you, but I find it crucial to being able to function to FIND some sense of balance with the world.

Like a lot of retirees, I suppose, I watch more TV than I should. That being said we no longer have cable tv — we get along quite nicely with a feed to the interWebs and with YouTube and Prime we fulfill pretty much all our needs/desires/interests that we can’t find in any other way.

I don’t think I have watched any commercially produced U.S. television except for a very very few news broadcasts in… well, at last since we moved into this house and for quite a while during the 5 years before in Franklin. On Prime I mostly watch foreign language TV. I find the languages challenging and my comprehension is growing in French, German & Spanish, and I am still totally confused by Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish. Mostly I rely upon subtitles — so it’s a family joke that we don’t “watch” tv, we “read” it.

The interesting thing — to me, has been that programs produced by other countries end up telling you subtle things about their cultures that you don’t get in “news stories.” Attitudes about social problems, for example, come infinitely clearer than we might expect from U.S. News stories about other culture. Yeah – if you are watching some fictional story about, for example, police procedurals, you have to realize that they too exaggerate various ideas to make their point, or their story — but the run of the mill life of characters, and living conditions that pass by your eyes as the camera pans from one place to another are telling.

We also tend to watch videos on YouTube about bike packers, through hikers (people walking a LONG trail or series of trails to a destination many miles distant). Sure, the scenery is interesting, we’ve gotten to see many places on this planet we’ll never get a chance to visit. But in addition to. scenery there are also the interactions between the biker/hikers and local residents of wherever they may be traveling. We’ve watched, with fascination, on every continent and been fascinated how humans are just that — human. We all have our joys and sorrows, we have troubles that we do our best to overcome, we interact with family, but we also interact with absolute strangers and there are millions of folks out there who are kind, and loving, and eager to help, feed, get to know strangers — just because. They have no ulterior motive. They aren’t greedy or miserly. Often, it seems that the poorest among them, among us, are the most generous and giving.

It’s important not to believe everything you see or hear. I remember being in my 20’s or younger and first coming across a scripture in the bible that exhorts people to “try the spirits, whether they be of God” — well, “Trying the Spirits” is pretty much the best advice you can give anyone. You always want to know whether you can trust the people you are dealing with, not everyone is wholesome and caring, some people are just jerks, others are pure evil, and “trying the spirit” is a good way to stay alive.

Here in the U.S. we are living in a bubble, and ugly, angry bubble — perhaps about to burst — or not. But we can easily be blinded to the fact that millions of people outside this country are getting along nicely, humanely, cooperatively together. No — not everywhere. There are wars and rumors of wars — there always have been. Humans seem unable to live together in peace for very long. Greedy people are impossible to satisfy and wars and poverty have been a constant in human experience. But not everywhere, at all times, for all people.

I don’t know how YOU maintain perspective. I wonder about what others are doing to maintain a level head in a very un-level world.

I hope you’re doing well — as well as can be expected. I know that’s always my comment back to my doctor on my 6 month visits: Are you depressed? Why sure, I’m depressed, anyone who is paying attention to the news HAS to be depressed, but no, I’m not having feelings of self-harming and I’m living the best life I can. It’s IMPORTANT to talk about the elephant in the room — world affairs. But never let the elephant stand on your toes!

So, enough for today. I’ll be back soon to chat some more. Take care of yourself and your loved ones. :-)

Peter

Butterflies

I used to think I was a pretty good birdwatcher. Then I got a little older and realized I’m just a piker when it comes down to it. I enjoyed watching birds, but I was never REALLY a twitcher, just an occasional ‘see-er’.

During our time RV’ing we spend a couple winters and one long year in South Texas. There are a lot of birds there. There are also a lot of butterflies. And, while living there we happened to discover the National Butterfly Center in Mission Texas. It was a wonderful resource to learn about butterflies, and sadly it was at the center of attention during dRumpf’s first 4 years because his crusade to build a wall between Texas and Mexico happened to cross their backyard — and as they were easy pickings part of his first section of wall to be worked on cut their property in half, damaging their mission and certainly not doing any of the critters local to the area any favors.

But let me not get onto that track when I’m really thinking about quite something else.

I came across this graphic about 42 butterflies of North America. I wish the graphic was larger but, I wanted to share it anyway.

These creatures are so amazing and capable of astonishing journeys that most of us humans would never dream of attempting — yet nature, instinct, and amazing design make it possible for them to migrate thousands of miles with no obvious assistance and with extremely limited energy sources. How they even have enough calories saved up in their bodies to flap their way from the Upper Midwest all the way to Lower Mexico and beyond is truly amazing.

But then there are lots of animal stories about amazing accomplishments, aren’t there. You sometimes have to look a little to see/hear about them but they’re out there. When I get frustrated by what’s going on in human society I often find myself thinking about the natural world and reflecting upon the innate capacity that every single living thing has been created with — and life looks a little bit better to me for having looked away from my own problems for a little while.

As I sit here it’s the day after the election. The Republicans failed to get Brad Schimel elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. To those of us who live here it’s a good day. But singular success stories aren’t the entire battle and there’s a lot of work to be done to end the rape of America. Small successes don’t stop the pillaging and raping of this once great nation. Whether she will ever recover from what the electorate hath wrought I wonder. I don’t know if there really are men and women of sufficient vision who will stand up to the task. I do know that little men and women who fear for their livelihood and well being can easily be convinced to do great evil. We saw average men and women do just that in Nazi Germany — and as we hear stories of ICE stopping and harassing citizens, and detaining them, and even deporting them illegally we know that we are seeing exactly the same sort of coerced behavior that consumed Germany.

And so, what do I think about? Butterflies. Among the slightest, and least fearful of all God’s creations. One might think that they matter little and have no power — but they do have power. The power to influence, to inspire, to make us think better thoughts than we would have otherswise.

that’s it for today. I’ll be back again to chat soon. :-)

Peter

Shoppes that smell of food

I’ll tell you what I miss. I miss shops that smell like the products they are selling. In particular, I miss stores that smell like food!

There are a lot of reasons why you don’t find them anymore. Sanitation, fear of product tampering, standardization: excuses all of them. But gone are the days when you could easily find a deli or even a producer’s shoppe that actually smelled like sausage or cheese or herbs or roasting anything!

I grew up in a world where the variety and choice of BASIC products was enormous. No— there weren’t 15 different brands of grape jelly — there was one, or maybe two brand. And finding a jar of tomato sauce on a shelf was still pretty hard when I was a kid — everyone canned their own tomatoes, or knew someone who did. I remember when my father first discovered pizza, he wanted to try making it at home and the only choices for a “kit” to make at home were boxes of either Appian Way or Chef Boy Ar Dee which a bag of flour already mixed with salt & yeast so all you had to add was water; and a tiny can of tomato sauce, and a little satchel of grated cheese. There weren’t premade crusts shrink wrapped in plastic or frozen pizzas, or frozen doughs, or frozen baked pizza wheels. If you wanted pizza at home you made it from a box until you learned how to actually make your own dough and such.

I used to be able to find cheese shops with 50 different varieties of cheese. And the cheese monger would cut you a taste if you were a regular customer to make sure you really wanted that flavor — nowadays the variety has diminished to a paltry few and everything is shrink wrapped and safe for transport and safe from tampering.

Sausages used to come in a plethora of varieties and a good shop had loads of them hanging from hooks in the ceiling. They weren’t soft and watered down or ruined with extra fillers to make a less meat produce more sausage. No, they were dried in the old fashioned way and the flavor hit you in the face when you put it on your tongue.

The old ways are dying. So are us oldsters. There’s nothing to be done about a world where you can’t trust people NOT to try poisoning others. I get it. But then I know that other places in the world still manage to sustain shoppes the likes of which are now only to be found in my memory.

I miss the quirkiness of the world now lost. Products had personality. You don’t see much personality in late Capitalist products. Personality costs money and doesn’t add to the shareholder’s profit. Personality had to go.

Peter

The distraction of seeing appliances

There was a time when “rich people” had servants who hid all the workings of their estate from sight and created a pretend world in which disorder, mess, and hard work were hidden. But the staff living “below the stairs” (for all you who were binge watchers of Downton Abbey and other such period television programs) had all the same mess and hard work that most of us today still have to deal with.

A quarter century ago I started paying attention to friends and colleagues who went on vacations wanting their hotel rooms to mimic all the absence of toil attributes that they were seeing on TV. During the ensuing years that trend has only increased. And a great many work-a-day people — and families — want to live as if they were actually rich.

Peg & I have always been interested in how people arrange their homes — when we were younger we periodically spent Open House afternoons touring homes for sale just for the sake of learning how others managed their spaces. Living in both a 6500 sq ft former school and a 230 sq ft RV has given us a lot of variation in our own living spaces and even now, having bought a home for our declining years and having no intention of ever moving — we still enjoy watching the odd design or remodeling program.

We came across the YouTube channel Never Too Small and have been taking in a few of their productions. One in particular made a comment about designing the kitchen without the “distraction of seeing appliance” and I said WHOA!

I come from a different time. This is my mom’s mother — a “good polish girl” who emigrated to the U.S. in her mid teens. Upon her arrival the lived for the first couple years with her brother Lawrence who had come a few years earlier. By this time Grandmother had married, and had 2 of her three children and they had a little cottage on a lake 40 miles from Milwaukee — made possible by gramps job as a Gear Grinder at a heavy manufacturing firm.

In those days there was no such thing as hiding appliances. Actually, folks were lucky to even HAVE appliances! At this time they were still using an icebox — which meant periodic trips to the iceman — or for those lucky enough a visit by the iceman to deliver 50 pound blocks of ice to keep their perishable food cold.

Peg’s parent built their own home and the house on the then-outskirts of Toledo Ohio. He was a union painter (houses and offices) who for most of his life worked hard during three seasons of the year and then had nothing to do during Winter as no one was building or remodeling during the worst weather of the year.

The had no “option” to hide appliances. In fact they lived their life in a kitchen with linoleum countertops that needed regular maintenance to prevent the surface from deteriorating, and a 24 inch electric stove/oven and what was about a 11 sq ft refrigeratior. It was all very humble — but being built right after WWII it was actually “cutting edge” for the time. No fancy finishes. In fact, instead of a tile backsplash the same linoleum like material used on the counters bent around the corner and went up the side of the wall to the bottom of the upper cabinets making a seamless “look.”

By the time we married in 1968 the world was looking better but our kitchen was really no better, and I don’t have any good photos

This photo does show that cabinets were limited and so was workspace. That space behind us was all there was other than the gas stovetop and our kitchen table that was really only big enough for 2 bodies. Making pasta or bread was a challenge. The only easy feature was that we heated the whole apartment with a small freestanding gas space heater the top of which I could use as proofing space for dough.

I like to look at new houses but I always hearken back to the old days. We managed just fine with a lot less and we never knew we were missing anything in life because everyone we knew lived pretty much the same way we did. Sure, some folks had better jobs and fancier houses but in those days small business owners who employed most of the workers in our area lived right there in the same neighborhood as their workers. They made more money than the workers but not the obscenely disproportionate salaries that we see in the 2020’s

So it is that when I see modern kitchens, or hear architects talking about their current projects I almost cringe to think of the expense we go to in order to hide the fundamental aspects of life. And in spite of the fact that in the U.S. average family size is declining it seems that parents are more and more obsessed with having spaces that almost appear sterile even though there are children in the family who want and need to play and make a mess and be creative and destructive and all the things that go into becoming a real, well rounded human being.

It’s not my place to decide what house others should live in. And I really don’t care. But it does speak to me about why we are facing world problems. As a people — a corporate body of humans living on the same planet — we surely seem to want to pretend we are different — and in particular, wealthier than we are.

The Greenest House

is the one that is

Already There!

It’s fun to look at remodel projects, but it really hurts to see dumpsters overflowing with perfectly usable materials — and no effort (or minimal effort) being made to reduce, reuse, or recycle. We can talk as much as we want about building greener housing but the greenest house really is the one that’s already there and it’s relatively rare to see American who are willing to do the work to find ways to make their existing property work cleaner and more efficiently.

There is a lot of deception in how we think about our homes. There’s a street nearby that I have always admired. It faces Lake Michigan, It’s on a bluff that is 50 feet back from the edge and not in any likelihood of ever being swept into the lake. Homes there were build between 1900 and 1950. By then the street had been filled. Over the years original owners have retired/died/moved away and new owners have taken over the properties. Every single re-sold house has been torn down — depending on the current phrasing of the tax laws — to provide the maximum remodel to be accomplished at the best tax rate. Instead of having 5 to 10 feet of garden space on either side of the new homes the owners have build out to the extreme buildable edge of Each and Every property. What has gone up are not homes for families but rather statement homes designed in impress — and several of them aren’t even investing in adequate maintenance to assure they homes continue looking as they were when completed. Sadly, keeping up with the Jones’ is still a big thing and not having to be distracted seeing one’s appliances is just the start of the disease.

We cannot save the planet as long as we obsess with living beyond our means and pretending that we are what we are not.

That’s it for today. I’ll be back tomorrow. In the meantime take care of yourself and yours. :-)

Peter

Parenting

A recent conversation about the effect of COVID isolation on young children prompted me to dig out this post that I had started a couple years ago and never finished. The material is from an article in Parenting Review and it presents some interesting problems-quandaries-disparities worth thinking about.

Single Parent Statistics

We all know someone who is carrying the burden of being a single parent. Did you know that America has the highest percentage of single parent households? Sad to say, there are 10 million households, or 23%, where kids under 18 years old are being raised by one parent. Here are some more single parent statistics you might find interesting.

“Breathe darling, this is just a chapter. It’s not your whole story.”
– S.C. Lourie

There are some big differences between single mother, and single father statistics, but we are going to dive into statistics for single parent homes as well as single parent children.

Single Parent Statistics By Country And State

In 2019, almost a quarter of U.S. children under the age of 18 live with one parent and no other adults (23%), more than three times the share of children around the world who do so (7%).

Second in line is the UK with 21%, Russia 18% and Denmark 17% and our neighboring Canada is 15%.

On the lower end, 3% of children in China, 4% of children in Nigeria and 5% of children in India live in single-parent households. (pewresearch)

Single parent households in Mississippi comprise 11% of the total households, the highest among all states. The Hospitality State has the highest percentage of single-mom households in the US at 9.2%. (Stacker, 2021)

Montana has the least number of single-mom households in the US, comprising only 4.5% of households. (Stacker, 2021)

Single Parent Statistics Mother Vs Father

There are about 15.3 million children in the United States who lived with a single mother while there are only 3.2 million children who live with a single father. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2020)

Families with children headed by unwed mothers have a poverty rate of 31% while those headed by an unwed father had a poverty rate of 15%. (National Women’s Law Center, 2020)

Single Parenting During The Pandemic

During the pandemic, children of single-parent households reported more behavioral problems (55.6%) then children from other households (50.5%). These children also report experiencing more anxiety (32.2%) than other households (25.4%). (Center for Translational Neuroscience at the University of Oregon, 2020)

More single parents (32%) have become unemployed during the pandemic than other households (25%). (Center for Translational Neuroscience at the University of Oregon, 2020)

The costs of childcare have increased by 47% in the US, making it hard for single parents to work during the pandemic. (Center for Translational Neuroscience at the University of Oregon, 2020)

The percentage of single parents who struggle to pay for food and housing utilities (33%) has nearly doubled during the pandemic. (Center for Translational Neuroscience at the University of Oregon, 2020)

The percentage of single parents who are experiencing difficulty in paying for childcare (11%) has nearly tripled during the pandemic. (Center for Translational Neuroscience at the University of Oregon, 2020)

Single-parent households had the most difficulty in paying for utilities (56.5%), followed by housing (50.6%), then food during the pandemic f(46.7%). (Center for Translational Neuroscience at the University of Oregon, 2020)

Single Parenting and Race

64% of single parent households are from Black or African American dependents, 52% from American Indian, and 42% Hispanic or Latino.

More than one-third of young black women (36%) from intact families have had a college degree by their late twenties; the share among black women raised by single parents is 18% and among stepfamilies is 25%. 

As young adults, those growing up from nonintact families are twice as likely to have been incarcerated compared to those from intact families, regardless of race. For both black and white children, growing up in a home with your two parents seems to reduce your risk of poverty and prison in about the same way.

Single Parenting and Child Education

Children growing up with intact families are more likely to graduate from high school and complete college compared to those who were raised in blended or single-parent homes.(gillespieshields)

Single-parent families usually have less disposable income for additional educational assistance such as tutoring, buying computers or reference materials for the home. Because of the limited funds, children from these households are also less likely to be involved in extra-curricular activities, which can hinder their chances of getting a scholarship.

Children from single family homes tend to get lower grades, suffer more absenteeism, and have more problems relating to peers and teachers. Their drop-out rate is higher, and they’re less likely to attend college

Children raised by one parent are also more likely than their peers to exhibit problems like increased aggression and anxiety and to have trouble getting along with their parents.

It’s Not All Doom And Gloom

If you are a single parent reading this, please don’t think all is lost and that you have somehow failed yourself and your children. There are many people from single parent families who have remarried, and their kids, no matter the circumstance have thrived int he world. Look at President Barach Obama! He reached the highest political office in the nation, and was raised by a single mother.

“It takes a village” right?

Children who have single parents have many supporters such as extended family, communities or religious groups for support. These kids grow up and will have a sense of responsibility to contribute as it’s so necessary in their circumstance. Other positive outcomes is the bond between parent and child. The quality time you spend together is irreplaceable and they will never forget the sacrifice you made to help raise them.

That’s about it for today. Maybe the thoughts will spur some considerations in your own mind, and maybe in your own family. I’ll be back tomorrow, till then, be good and be kind. :-)

https://parentingreviews.com/resource/single-parent-statistics/

Peter

Word of the year/4 years

Ok — today is just going to be brief.

I have chosen my Word of the Year. In light of all the changes 45 is making to government — and the harshness and recklessness of them I propose the word draconian as the word of the year.

Peter

Efficiency and sustainability

The earth – Gaia – is both efficient and sustainable much unlike any human concepts of either efficiency or sustainability.

In Greek mythology, Gaia is the personification of Earth.  Gaia is the ancestral mother of all life. She is the mother of Uranus (Sky), from whose sexual union she bore the Titans (themselves parents of many of the Olympian gods), the Cyclopes, and the Giants, as well as of Pontus (Sea), from whose union she bore the primordial sea gods. Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Terra.

The earth doesn’t really produce waste. In it’s own very inefficient ways mother earth recycles pretty much everything she creates in one way or another. The thing is, a lot of her processes take ages. Look how long we waited for prehistoric ferns to turn into oil for us to burn today — and generate carbon that needs re-investing in some other form.

I fear that it was my generation that was responsible for a lot of the emphasis on efficiency. The advent of computing and the acceleration it caused gave humans a reason to investigate the “wonderful idea” of doing more things faster and more economically. Before this generation there were rich people who prospered off the backs of other humans doing manual labor in their stead but automation made it possible to produce a lot more “stuff” with a lot less labor and the more they produced the more they wanted to produce with less and less labor.

The thing is, in mother earth’s system everything has its purpose. You can’t take cogs out of nature’s machine and expect it to work right. In human systems we learn how to do without the cogs — we change the system so that the cogs aren’t needed and in effect we humans have become a lot of cogs laying around the planet with no jobs. And the result is that the waste products that should have been naturally processed through Momma Nature’s machine are accumulating and accumulating until eventually we are going to drown in the waste that we created trying to be more efficient. It’s a ridiculous system, but humans always want to think that we know better than nature and those with the power to force others to do their bidding are among the most arrogant of our species.

Ok — enough of the mumbo-jumbo!

The bottom line is that efficiency is only ever spoken of in terms of ver specific functions. Car engines are more or less efficient. Heating systems are more of less efficient. Every gain in efficiency comes at some cost, somewhere. There is no such thing as perpetual motion and there is not such thing as free energy: to do work costs effort or energy — resources. You can’t produce something for nothing. Even the dream of fusion energy comes at a tremendous cost because the heat energy of fusion has to be contained and harnessed somehow short of an uncontrolled explosion.

We bandy about words like efficiency and sustainability but the fundamentals of both are that they require changes in behavior. Efficiency may be good for some, but come at the cost of jobs, expense, pollution to others. Sustainability may be good for some — well, really for all of us — but sustainability comes at a cost too — the ultra rich would no longer be ULTRA RICH they would be more and more like us at the sustainability curve impacted everyone. And there you have it. The rich want more efficiency because it makes them richer; the rich aren’t interested in sustainability because the cost will ultimatlely turn them into everyday people like the ones they have spent a lifetime exploiting. There is no magic bullet. There is only reality. And reality has consequences.

I’m going to stop here. Too many heavy thoughts for one day. I’ll be back tomorrow — hopefully with something cheerier! :-) Take care of yourself till then. Peace out.