What specific, radical personal changes have you made in how you live because of what you know about catastrophic global climate change? How can we expect corporations and politicians to wake up and make major necessary changes if we are too spoiled, lazy and stubborn to change how we live?My testimony:I have ridden in no car for 12 years. I have owned no car for 34 years. I love to walk. I have not flown in airplanes for decades.I wash my clothes by hand. I hang them up to dry. I bathe my body with less than two gallons of water. I pour gray water on the garden. My urine is free fertilizer for my garden.My home is one sunny 9 1/2’ X 12’ rented room with six windows in the house of a friend. In cold weather my room is heated largely by the sun. I have no air conditioner. I live naked at home and mostly naked elsewhere when I am warm enough. I use a small fan for cooling. On warm nights I open my door and windows. I eat alfalfa and highly nutritious wild green quelites from my garden in blended smoothies. Quelites and alfalfa need less water than common garden greens.I have no refrigerator and no cooking stove. I eat only raw plant foods—no meat, no dairy, no junk food, no booze and no cooked food.I enjoy living simply and healthy. I live well!I am deeply indebted to many people who have taught me, loved me and inspired me.Change as fast as you can as long as you enjoy it and are quite sure you will stick with it for life.
Letters: Spinning Their Ground Spinning Their Ground
The Journal has yet another article about stand your ground in New Mexico.Their position: Since we have no specific stand your ground statute, we are not a stand your ground state.Two very good attorneys and a district court judge disagree with them. I thought they explained it very well, but the Journal missed the point. Again.If there is no duty to retreat in New Mexico, and a state supreme court case makes it very clear there is not (State v. Horton, 1953), we are a stand your ground state even if a statute/law does not say we are.Making the same mistake twice doesn’t make the Journal right, it makes them twice as wrong.
Letters: Prairie Dog Appeals Death Penalty Prairie Dog Appeals Death Penalty
My name is Myra, and I am a prairie dog. I live in one of the isolated prairie dog villages in Valencia County. For some reason, many members of your species hate mine. I think it is probably because they don’t understand us.We are not dangerous, and we do not carry diseases. We simply live in little villages and mind our own business. Some people think we kill trees, but that is not true. We do not feed on tree roots unless there is absolutely nothing else to eat. We find most of our food above ground. Other little animals such as gophers will feed on the roots of trees and bushes. Other people think we carry the plague and can spread it to your species. This is also not true. When the fleas that carry the plague invade our villages, we die just as humans do. If our village is full of healthy, fun-loving prairie dogs, then I can assure you that the fleas that carry the plague aren’t in our village. Unlike some other small animals, we are not a prolific species. I may have four pups a year but generally only two will survive. We are lucky to be able to maintain a population if we are left alone.For whatever reason, fear, misunderstanding or just plain meanness, your species likes to persecute us. Recently some friends of mine who lived in a prairie dog village close to a church in northeast Albuquerque had their village covered by the church because the church officials were expanding their parking lot. One church official, when questioned, said he doesn’t give a "rat’s ass" about prairie dogs. Doesn’t he understand that the same Being that created your species created us? Doesn’t he understand that all species can live in peace? Why does your species with your superior intelligence find it necessary to destroy other species?Some people like to shoot us with high-powered rifles so they can see us "explode" when the bullet rips us apart. Some people like to feed us rat poison. Rat poison destroys our capillaries, and we bleed to death internally and very slowly. Is there no limit to your imagination when it comes to destroying not only other species but your own? We have been gassed, poisoned and shot at to such an extent that we now only represent about 1 percent of our original numbers. We are not stupid little animals. We have one of the most sophisticated of all animal languages.We can vocalize different sounds, which identify many of the animals that feed on us. We recognize hawks, owls, eagles, coyotes, snakes and, of course, humans. All of the other animals kill us for food, which is the way nature is supposed to work. You folks do not kill us for any good reasons except that you can. You may think you are killing us for good reasons, but you really don’t understand us or know anything about us.We like to socialize and we constantly visit other prairie dogs and even groom each other. When two prairie dogs meet, we nuzzle and kiss each other.If we are in your way and you can’t live with us, then hire someone who will help relocate us. We all live on the same planet, and we can all live together. We will not infect you with any exotic or domestic diseases. We will not destroy your landscaping, and we will not harm your children. We will live our little lives as best we can in an ever-changing world. Some day we will become extinct, unless we can get your species to help ours survive.If we leave this world, it will not be the same, just as it is not the same when any species becomes extinct. Many other species are dependent on our activities, and they will follow our fate. When enough of the animal and plant species become extinct, then your species will soon follow them into oblivion. We were all created to help each other survive on this planet and as long as species are rapidly disappearing, then the future of the planet is pretty bleak.Thank you for taking time to read this letter of introduction to our species. Hopefully we can all get along and I hope they reconsider their plans to have a contest to shoot us.
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