Category: Uncategorized

            I think of you. The sun is struggling through thick clouds, looking to break free. I heard the news of your passing while I was in the midst of snow in cold upstate New York. I closed my eyes and there against the white of snow, in my mind bloomed the biggest most gorgeous flower with big petals. They were deep brilliant red in hue. The center was golden and bright yellow.  Vibrating in color. Surging in quivering glory. Bright. Giving. Receiving. Held.

            Boundless joy and exuberance bubbling into eternity. Living in the dead of frozen winter, yet flooded in light, love and energy. This is who you have been to this earth. The way you so beautifully dressed and shone your light, gave us permission to express ourselves a little more in a world where unbeneficial patterns have been ironed into generations, denouncing the boundless benefits of healing. Lies holding us captive. Trapped. I trust that you have bright light that you need to shine from a different angle. Your petals needed to continue to unfurl above the cloud cover.

            Thank you endlessly for walking up to me and inviting me to create flowers out of wool with you and our planets’ beautiful children. Each of us who have known you might well find out that a little magic ball fluffy light was placed into our pockets so that when we feel sad we can bring it out. Hey you never know- that ball of light might turn into the most gorgeous flower that you can imagine. Cheering you up from the inside out. It might turn into something else- hey you never know! Each one of us must remember the spirit that we truly are and know to be true to exhibit our fullest form. For now, and forever. Thank you for inviting us to blossom. To stand our ground and take root!!! Being light isn’t easy and we each must be a shoulder for each other to lean on.  As you truly have been, eternally.

Shining light.

Grateful. Forever.

Now.

Beaming.

From the heart.

Thank you,

Carey Ann Hunt

Irregularities Continue with ARC Proposal

* see photo credit below

By Colin Walsh

Yesterday afternoon at 3:15 PM, Assistant City Manager Ash Feeney sent emails to several people announcing the deadline would be extended for scoping comments on the ARC supplemental EIR. The new deadline for submitting comments is Dec. 16 at 5pm.

This email came less than 2 hours before the previous, now-superseded 5pm 12/9 deadline.

Feeney pointed toward an announcement on the City website: https://www.cityofdavis.org/city-hall/community-development-and-sustainability/development-projects/aggie-research-campus

This is the second deadline extension for ARC comments.

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Skippy and family camping 1955

By Robert Pratt

It must have been my 8th birthday, I had been bugging my parents for a dog, a friend of mine had just got a golden retriever puppy and I was smitten.

The day of my birthday Dad, and I got in the truck and drove across town to a farm house with a compound of chicken wire, a crude lean to, and a barking dog, I stayed in the truck, I was beyond excited!

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I am grateful for the efforts of the Davis City Council in organizing the priority items for the next year in Davis. It’s great to see actions regarding sustainability, resilience, and equity.

I would encourage that climate action be put as item #1 given our very short window of time to act and to create resilient models for dealing with the impacts of climate change. Regarding framing things in terms of “sustainability”, I would like to repeat the words of the visionary Dr. Daniel Christian Wahl, author of the book, Designing Regenerative Cultures:

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By Colin Walsh

On Tuesday night (tonight) the Davis City Council will “Provide direction to staff on new Focus Items for the 2020 calendar year.” This is a time to set the general sweeping agenda for the next Council year. This is an opportunity for the Davis City Council to set priorities for 2020.

With City Council elections pushed from March to November, the current Council will be together a little longer than expected, so how will they set their priorities?

The current expressed council goals are:

• Ensure Fiscal Resilience
• Drive a Diverse and Resilient Economy
• Pursue Environmental Sustainability
• Fund, Maintain, and Improve the Infrastructure
• Ensure a Safe, Healthy, Equitable Community
• Build and Promote a Vibrant City
• Foster Excellence in City Services
• Cultivate Positive Workplace Dynamics

Every part of the Council’s goals deserve a deeper look, but let’s just look at 2 of the goals: the goal to “Pursue Environmental Sustainability and to “Drive a Diverse and Resilient Economy.

The first stated Objective in pursuing Environmental Sustainability is, “Reduce the community's carbon footprint and achieve measurable GHG emission reductions, including reduction of Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT).” The City goals propose to “Implement the City’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, collaborate with organizations promoting sustainable programs/projects, such as Valley Climate Action Center, Cool Davis, UC Davis, etc.”

The City’s climate action and adaptation plan can be found on the City website and is certainly worth a look. https://www.cityofdavis.org/city-hall/community-development-and-sustainability/sustainability-program/climate-change

The plan was put in motion some time ago and one wonders what the outcomes have been. There is no report or update on the City website.

There is however a March 2019 declaration of climate emergency. But no significant changes in the City’s course have been taken since then.

The Open space section of the sustainability plans seem to have nothing to do with protecting more open space at all – they are more focused on making existing open spaces and habitat areas more usable to people.

By comparison, under “Drive a Diverse and Resilient Economy,” the City is considering adding the Aggie Research Campus (ARC) as part of the goal. Because this project is oriented toward freeway commuting and will have parking for over 4,300 cars this clearly does nothing to further the goal of cutting down on car emissions. Worse, the project had 6-9,000 parking space proposed for it at one time, and it is unclear how the project has been able to reduce parking spaces since there is no transportation plan for the city, innovative or otherwise.

The ARC has such a high need for cars because the City of Davis and UCD has such a high jobs to housing ratio. UCD is a major California employer and is already a regional draw bringing commuters in from all over the Sacramento and Bay Area. If the ARC is successful, it too will draw in many of its employees from around Northern CA. That will mean more exhaust from more cars and more green house gases.

The developer will tell you that the project itself will provide housing, but there are real problems with the developers assertions. 

1. There is no plan for, nor any way to guarantee that people who work in the project would live in the project, though some might.
2. The project doesn’t come close to providing what the project would need.
3. Previously the developer said they were exempt from providing any affordable housing. 

Not to mention all of these additional cars will mean more traffic on Mace and on the freeway.

Furthermore, the Aggie Research center is proposed for prime farm land – and that is becoming increasingly scarce as 40 acres of farmland is paved over an hour in the US.

Is the City really serious about reducing emissions if it is prepared to support a freeway business park like ARC? How does the Council reconcile the disconnect between its sustainability and climate goals with a retrograde car focused project like ARC?

BY LEVI RICKERT 

Republished with permission  from Native News Online.net

Published November 23, 2019

COLEMAN, FLORIDA – Leonard Peltier, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, who is incarcerated at the U.S. Penitentiary in Coleman, Florida, for his 1977 conviction in connection with a shootout with U.S. government forces, where two FBI agents and one young American Indian lost their lives.

Peltier, who is considered a political prisoner of war by many, released this statement on Thanksgiving through the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee:

The year of 2019 is coming to a close and with it, comes the day most Americans set aside as a day for Thanksgiving. As I let my mind wander beyond the steel bars and concrete walls, I try to imagine what the people who live outside the prison gates are doing, and what they are thinking. Do they ever think of the Indigenous people who were forced from their homelands? Do they understand that with every step they take, no matter the direction, that they are walking on stolen land? Can they imagine, even for one minute, what it was like to watch the suffering of the women, the children and babies and yes, the sick and elderly, as they were made to keep pushing west in freezing temperatures, with little or no food? These were my people and this was our land. There was a time when we enjoyed freedom and were able to hunt buffalo and gather the foods and sacred medicines. We were able to fish and we enjoyed the clean clear water! My people were generous, we shared everything we had, including the knowledge of how to survive the long harsh winters or the hot humid summers. We were appreciative of the gifts from our Creator and remembered to give thanks on a daily basis. We had ceremonies and special dances that were a celebration of life.

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By Carey Ann Hunt

No one likes to be interrupted.

Cut short or side swiped.

Definitely not hood-winked,

Or have a wrench in thrown in.

Worse, the dreaded fly in the ointment.

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Another example of big development lacking public disclosure is on tonight's City Council Agenda

By Colin Walsh

The City of Davis failed to disclose a significant new 76 unit project proposal on Olive Drive (addresses 1031, 1037, 1041, 1047, and 1055), just down from the corner of Richards and Olive, until a contract for environmental review was placed on the consent calendar for the Nov. 19 meeting. Even then the City failed to disclose ANY of the application information until citizens asked for it. With the documents only released on mid Friday afternoon before a council meeting Davis citizens are left with little opportunity to review the pages of material.

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By Colin Walsh

So my dear neighbors I want to tell you about the flag I just hung on my porch. You probably recognize it. It has been increasingly popular in recent years as more people display it. It has come to be a symbol of pride for many, but others find it surprisingly controversial. I want to tell you why I put it out.

It all started over the last few years. Increasingly there are kids at my house who view gender very differently than my friends and I did growing up. There is really a whole range of ideas that have been represented among the young people that come and go from my house and that is just what I know about.

Sadly, as I have talked with these young people, I have learned that many of their parents are unaccepting of their self-perception. For example, I know one young man coming of age who identifies male, but their father insists on calling them by their very feminine birth name. There are others who, I have learned, struggle with their parents over whether or not it is OK to love or desire the gender they have realized they do. It makes me sad to think of the pain not being accepted by their parents causes them, so I started thinking I might fly a flag in front of my house, so they know they are welcome here.

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By Tom Owczarzak

I’ve been replacing a rotten deck this week. It is a pretty standard task in my world. Replacing rotten things. The fact of the matter is that nature wants to break down non-living things and return them to their cellular state. Once something stops growing, like wood, nature brings a variety of tools to bear to break it apart. Sun, rain, insects – all in the toolbox.

It provides a pretty serious level of job security.

So, when I am working on these projects, I think of myself as part of the toolbox as well. Although I have tools of destruction on my side that speed it up considerably. And like the other natural elements that work toward deterioration, I try to return the material to some form that can be re-used by nature.

I have taken almost every part of a house and re-purposed it into another part of another house a multitude of times. My last house was built almost entirely out of three other houses. Wood, tile, stone, even leftover paint have all been used with impunity.

And it usually makes me think about the cycle of things. How one thing turns into another which turns into another.

When I was teaching in college, I used to tell students that reincarnation was nothing more than composting. The various parts of us eventually become the parts of other things. And in that way, we are reborn thousands of times.

And these days I have been looking around the world at all the things that people are despairing about and thinking the same thing.

There is nothing in this universe that lasts forever. Nothing. Eventually, they will rot and deteriorate or just be worn down and need to be replaced. It is not a tragedy. It is life.

The Buddhists say that most of the grief in life comes from trying to hold on to these impermanent things. And when we can accept the impermanence then we can be freed from this endless cycle of sadness.

I kinda buy into the idea even if I still get attached to things. Not holding on to the people I love is a near impossible task. And their passing brings about tremendous suffering. But I do believe that everything passes and our relationship to that is life defining.

Sometimes I find myself wanting to broadcast some grand message to the world. To try to get a couple things across to everyone. And I mean everyone. Lately it has been this message. That there is nothing permanent in this world. And change is not a tragedy. It is natural.

That we can live our lives without the impending sense of doom or panic. That we can accept the change as it comes – even if we are attached to the things that are changing.

Basically, that all things, good or bad, pass. And, if we have faith, these things will come around again. Not in the exact same way but in some manner.

And, most importantly, that it all works out in the end. I believe that.

Happy Wednesday everyone. I hope you can find some acceptance for the things that change in your life today. Maybe it is something small or maybe it is ground-shaking. But it is all on schedule and part of the glorious ride called life. And if you are having trouble accepting it – that’s cool too. There’s room for that as well. It will all work out in the end either way.