Nick Spencer will not be with us Monday, but will come Monday the 17th, MLK Day.

Salon Weekly
A Weekly Email Publication of The Lloyd House
Circulation: c. 450
Growing out of the Monday Night Salon
For info about the Salon, see the bottom of this email
Join us at the Lloyd House every Monday of the year at 5:45 for pot luck and discussion.
3901 Clifton Avenue
Cincinnati, Ohio

To: Friends on our Pot Luck Salon list.Â

(to unsubscribe see below, bottom of page).

Saturday, 8 January, 2005 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

(From Ellen)

   Greetings Friends!
   So what is the State of Things as we enter the new year? There seems to be so much cause for apprehension. Our society is sick with fossil-fuel addiction and deterioration of life quality as the oil begins to run out. Frantic consumerism is rampant, as is obesity and working more/earning less. To our astonishment, the government has been taken over by apocalyptic religious fundamentalists who are busy wreaking the painfully built social programs, environmental protections and international lawfulness and alliances. The hard-won democratic process has been corrupted first by corporate/media money power, and now by the very real specter of voting machine fraud.   More of our population is incarcerated in jails and prisons than any society on earth. Our food supply brings low-wage produce from way far away that has little taste nor nutritional value while local farmers are squeezed out by subdivision developers and the monolithic agribusiness distribution system. Finally, an impassioned army of volunteers, you and I, stepped into the breech for the presidential election, and to the utter amazement of alert people the world over, were defeated by the Bush campaign.
   So where's the good news? Maybe it is that with every defeat we arouse ourselves more. We come together every week to talk and support one another in our activism... like Steve Sunderland's Peace/Hunger Village program... Karen Arent and the Kraus' environmental activism, the Shenks and IMAGO, Sr. Alice Gerteman's Intercommunity Peace and Justice Center who sponsor so many good things, including every Monday at rush hour, Women ln Black demonstration at Central Parkway and Vine Streets, 6:00. Like Mother Paula Jackson and the Mt. Auburn Church of Our Savior. Like David Rosenberg and Michael Murphy working to save Wooden Shoe Hollow and to establish an alternative food distribution system for locally produced, organic food. Many, many more. I certainly know that my own consciousness about the world has been lifted and enriched tremendously by the salon, including you who rarely or never attend in person, but who send me good stuff via the web.
   We have occasionally pondered turning the Salon into a group for activism. I am thinking this is not our mission. Rather, we comfort, nourish, and support the "farmers" who plant seeds of activism elsewhere. One of my own aims this year is to get out and teach others how to form and grow salons of their own. I stand ready to share all that I have learned in a two hour talk, a longer seminar/workshop, or a weekend long training, anywhere for anyone. Pass the word.
   And,... "Gevalt! Never give up!" as Rabbi Nachman of Breslav said. And,... "Resentment... is the dubious luxury of... (other) men," as Bill Wilson said. Keep your heart open. And soft. And sweet.
   Happy New Year.

   At our salon last Monday, 1/3/05 we had a good turn out for Bob Park's presentation on Health Care for Ohioans, including:
Steve Sunderland, Judy Cirillo, Gerry Kraus, Neil Anderson, Spencer Konikov, Mrvin Kraus, Ellen Bierhorst, Lisa Haglund, Bob Park, Dan Hershey, Mira Rodwan, and David Rosenberg .

   Bob Park made a clear and persuasive presentation of the terrible fix we are in with respect to health insurance. He is a professional at NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational safety and Health) which is, of course, a related field. Bob has been a social activist in all the right causes here in Cincinnati in recent years. A smart and good fellow. I trust Bob. He has studied the bill and thinks it is good. Even if you are not 100% convinced about the legislation, in which all Ohioans would have coverage, like all Canadians, all Brits, all Germans... we certainly want it to be placed on the ballot. This is what we call a "voter initiative", where voters get to introduce legislation, rather than congresspeople. You can read all a bout the bill at

More information, including text of the initiative petition now circulating, is available at
www.spanohio.org

<http://www.spanohio.org/>
I hope you will sign the petition. I have a copy at the house.

Here are some scraps I wrote down during the discussion:

Span Ohio is "Single Payer Action Network Ohio" is the parent organization. It started originally with labor organizers. ... Our current system of paying for health care is collapsing. The cost of administering private insurance plans, like we all have, right? is fully 30%. That's three oh percent. Now consider that the cost of administration of Medicare, which is a public or quasi public single payer entity, is -- ta da! -- only 3%. That's three point oh oh. One tenth. Tells you where a hunk of our health insurance premium money is going, and it's not to greedy docs.
   Bob said the strategists have concluded that we cannot fix the health insurance mess at the federal level, but only state by state. That's what this is about.
   At the Charter Committee ("Charter Party") annual meeting recently Jerry Springer spoke and advocated the state wide health insurance.
   Lisa Haglund (BTW, an M.D. -- Thank you Lisa for coming especially to this salon) said people fear large governmental entities handling health care, like the Veterans' Administration. However, she says, in recent years the VA has really cleaned up its act and is now doing a good job.
   Used to be that hospitals and research facilities (universities) were non profit. Now hospitals are all for profit corps., and the drug companies are driving all the research. Every other developed country has their health care, hospitals, and research entities run as non-profits.
   How would this new universal health coverage be paid for? For starters, we'd save 27% on administrative costs as well. Another saving would come from cutting down on the dispensing of emergency medical care to the poor. ER care is a very costly way to provide health care.
   Another way would be to equalize tax on corporations and businesses so that they are taxed on their gross rather on their payroll. To stop loopholes of various kinds.
   There is a group called PNHP, Physicians for National Healthcare Program.
http://www.pnhp.org/
.   Hamilton County spends $200 million per year on health care for the poor.
   Three years ago Americans spent $4800/year/person on health care. Canadians spend $3000/year/person.

   From an article sent me by Bob Park, by Karen AugÃ© in the Denver Post:"
"Democrats support access to affordable, comprehensive health care for everyone, and Republicans support sound business principles which reduce administrative waste and contain costs. And each side supports the agenda of the other as long as there is no compromise in their own positions. The beauty of the single payer model is that it accomplishes these goals. It has been said that the Democrats will educate the nation on the single payer model, and then the Republicans will enact it."

So That's it for the health care operation. Please sign the petition to get this bill on the ballot in Ohio. Better, contact Bob Park
rhp9@cdc.gov
and sign up to have your own copy of the petition. We need thousands and thousands of validated signatures of voters.

Want to encourage you to visit our new blog at
http:lloydhouse.blogspot.com
.where you can post comments to the weekly, and also read old issues. Check it out. (Thanks to Steve Novotny of the new Independent Eye, culture and politics monthly, formerly Xray Cincinnati).

Blessings and good humor for the new year!
Hugs,

ellen

Here's the topics for most of the articles reprinted below:

In "Teal" color, all the articles about the election fraud allegations and responses we can/should make.

Rally in Columbus Monday 1/3; bus only $15.
link to send letters to elected officials
Bev Harris, the "Black Box Voting" heroine sends update.

In Blue, Regular articles about other topics:

John Robbins writes about public policy re. energy conservation. Is hoping that the salon group will ignite. Read his thoughts, proposals, and then reactions to the silence they met from the salon group. What's to do?
Waste transfer station told "No" by Board of Health. Thank you Karen Arnet!
Our Friend Paula Jackson Wins Award

(for Articles: see below. Beneath the "Announcements" section.)...

Announcements:

Labor Victory
go ahead and spend your nickel on Mt. Olive Pickles
I heard Baldemar Velasquez at the Dennis Kuchinich "Imagine" rally last spring and was I impressed! Grand old man of labor organizers, a Mexican American, very cool guy. I will be at this concert. ellen

Dear Friends- I am sure you have followed the tortuous effort by FLOC to

get a labor agreement with Mt. Olive Pickle Company. Here is the
opportunity to celebrate the victory! You may also have heard Baldemar
Valasquez speak in Cincinnati last year- he is a very powerful presence. I
can't think of a better way to honor MLK on the weekend set aside for
recognizing and remembering his dedication to peace and justice than to
attend this concert-

nancy sullivan

FLOC Victory Celebration Concert (full details below)

The Greater Cincinnati FLOC (Farm Labor Organizing Committee) Support Group
is sponsoring a concert on Saturday January 15th at 8:00 PM at First

Unitarian Church (full details below).

This concert is a Â³FLOC Celebration and Victory ConcertÂ² with a two fold
purpose. First to celebrate the recent North Carolina labor agreement
ending the 6-year Mt. Olive Pickle Boycott, and second to raise cash to help
FLOC implement this agreement.

The performers are a trio led by FLOC President Baldemar Velasquez and
special guest Allen Schwartz.

Please turn out for what will be a very enjoyable evening of fine music.

Tickets are on sale at:

Northside Â Â³Shake It RecordsÂ² - 513-591-0123 - 4183 Hamilton Av. (in
Â³downtownÂ² Northside)

Clifton Heights - Rohs Street Coffeehouse, (at intersection of Rohs and
McMillan, near Hughes High School)

Downtown / OTR - Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center (IJPC) -
513-579-8547 - at Peaslee Neighborhood Center, 215 East 14th Street, (corner
of 14th & Sycamore)

Concert Details:

FLOC Victory Celebration Concert

Baldemar Velasquez Trio
Baldemar Â acoustic guitar, Jesse Ponce Â accordion, Jacob Estrada Â bass

With special guest Allen Schwartz

Saturday January 15th at 8:00 PM

First Unitarian Church
536 Linton Street Â Cincinnati, Ohio 45219
(just off Reading Road, 2 blocks south of Martin Luther King Drive)

Adults - $10.00, Children $5.00 (10 and under free)

If you need additional information on FLOC, please go to their website at
FLOC.Com

MLK Day January 17, Monday
12:00 noon, Music Hall
MLK Commemorative Program featuring the amazing
Martin Luther King Chorale.
Free (collection will be taken, like in church)
No long, boring speeches. High spirit. Fabulous music.
I'll be in the soprano section. Come.
Hold hands, sing "Lift every voice" and "We shall overcome".
Great time.
Also, at 8:45 you can, for $30 attend the "Dreamkeepers Breakfast" put on by the Arts Consortium of Cincinnati
at the Music Hall Ballroom (get tickets in advance from Arts Consortium, call 513-381-0645.
And
You may want to march in the Traditional Civil Rights March from Fountain Square (assembly at 11:15) to Music Hall.
(I've always wanted to go to this, but I'll be rehearsing with the MLK Chorale)

I now have a copy of the petition to get the
Single Payer Health Care Initiative
placed on the Ohio Ballot.
Please consider signing it when you are here.
More information, including text of the initiative petition now circulating, is available at
www.spanohio.org
<http://www.spanohio.org/>
- Bob

Morning Wake Up Class
with
Fanchon Shur
9:00 to 11:00 a.m.
every Wednesday morning
Starts Jan. 5.
Friends,
I invite you to this wonderful class which I am starting on Jan. 5. Many of you were students for many years. Some, only recently. Some of you know my work as a dance artist, others as choreographer, others as movement therapist. No matter, all of these skills are woven into the work. You are all welcome.

A technique of deep power,
lightness, joy, fabulous music,
and full range of motion in space,
awakening organs, bone and muscle,
and bringing
flow, freedom and renewal
in a small, incredibly supportive group.

Growth in Motion Studio
4019 Red Bud Ave.
513-221-3222
info@growthinmotion.org

$12/class (4 classes) $20 for individual class
mat optional, wear layered clothing, bring towel. We will sweat!
See you then
Must Call first! 221-3222
Fanchon

Nick Spencer, independent candidate for Cint. Mayor will be with us at the Salon

on January 17, 2005

Don't miss this.

And whatever you do, don't miss the spectacular MLK Day event in two weeks, on Jan. 17, Monday MLK holiday, at noon at Music Hall. Todd O'Neal and Cathy Roma will lead the 150 voice MLK Chorale in rousing spiritual and civil rights music, with extra musicians and soloists. Courtis Fuller will preside. There will be no long boring speeches. It's free (they do pass a collection plate for donations, and it is worthy.) The program will be about 2 hours long.

For those who want to really celebrate the whole way, you can go to the Traditional Civil Rights march from Fountain Square at 11:15, marching to Music Hall prior to the big event. There is even a breakfast sponsored by the Arts Consortium of Cincinnati ($30; reservations required, call 684-0902) with awards for local "Dreamkeepers", and music/dance entertainment. That will be at Music Hall as well starting at 8:45 AM. Consider going to the Breakfast, then taking the shuttle to Fountain Square for the March, and coming back to Music Hall for the noon Celebration. You'll be glad.

How you can help

The following are among the aid agencies accepting contributions for those affected by the earthquake and tsunamis in Asia. Contact the individual group for information on how to send donations.

American Jewish World Service
45 West 36th Street
New York, NY 10018-7904
800-889-7146
www.ajws.org


International Orthodox Christian Charities
PO Box 630225
Baltimore, MD 21263-0225
877-803-4622
www.iocc.org

American Red Cross
International Response Fund
PO Box 37243
Washington, DC 20013
800-435-7669
www.redcross.org


International Medical Corps
11500 West Olympic Blvd., Suite 506
Los Angeles, CA 90064
800-481-4462
www.imcworldwide.org

CARE USA
151 Ellis Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30303
800-422-7385
www.careusa.org


Oxfam America
26 West Street
Boston, MA 02111-1206
800-776-9326
www.oxfamamerica.org

Catholic Relief Services
PO Box 17090
Baltimore, MD 21203-7090
800-736-3467
www.catholicrelief.org

Mercy Corps
PO Box 2669
Portland, OR 97208
888-256-1900
www.mercycorps.org

Direct Relief International
27 South La Patera Lane
Santa Barbara, CA 93117
805-964-4767
www.directrelief.org

Operation USA
8320 Melrose Avenue, Ste. 200
Los Angles, CA 90069
800-678-7255
www.opusa.org

Doctors Without Borders
PO Box 2247
New York, NY 10116-2247
888-392-0392
www.doctorswithoutborders.org

Boycott Spending on Jan. 20
NOT ONE DAMN DIME!

> >Not One Damn Dime Day - January 20, 2005
> >
> >Since our religious leaders will not speak out against the war in Iraq,
> >and our political leaders don't have the moral courage to oppose
> >it, Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20, 2005 is "Not One Damn
> >Dime Day" in America.
> >
> >On "Not One Damn Dime Day" those who oppose what is happening in
> >our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour national boycott of all
> >forms of consumer spending.
> >
> >During "Not One Damn Dime Day" please don't spend money. Not one
> >damn dime for gasoline. Not one damn dime for necessities or for impulse
> >purchases. Not one damn dime for anything for 24 hours.
> >
> >On "Not One Damn Dime Day," please boycott Wal-Mart, Kmart,
> >Target...
> >
> >Please don't go to the mall or the local convenience store. Please
> >don't buy any fast food (or any groceries at all for that matter).
> >
> >For 24 hours, please do what you can to shut the retail economy
> >down.
> >
> >The object is simple. Remind the people in power that the war in Iraq
> >is immoral and illegal; that they are responsible for starting it
> >and that it is their responsibility to stop it.
> >
> >"Not One Damn Dime Day" is to remind them, too, that they work for
> >the people of the United States of America, not for the international
> >corporations and K Street lobbyists who represent the corporations
> >and funnel cash into American politics.
> >
> >"Not One Damn Dime Day" is about supporting the troops. The
> >politicians put the troops in harm's way.
> >
> >Now 1,200 brave young Americans and (some estimate) 100,000 Iraqis
> >have died. The politicians owe our troops a plan - a way to come home.
> >
> >There's no rally to attend. No marching to do. No left or right
> >wing agenda to rant about. On "Not One Damn Dime Day" you take action by
> >doing nothing. You open your mouth by keeping your wallet closed.
> >
> >For 24 hours, nothing gets spent, not one damn dime, to remind our
> >religious leaders and our politicians of their moral responsibility
> >to end the war in Iraq and give America back to the people.
> >
> >Please share this email with as many people as possible.

Upcoming Presentation on

Ohio Rail Transit Plan
What, where is OKI?

Sunday, November 21, 2004
Rail plan spans Ohio

The Associated Press

CLEVELAND - The development of a passenger rail network in Ohio is at least
nine years away and would require federal money that doesn't exist for such
projects.

The Ohio Rail Development Commission has a $3.5 billion plan to develop a
passenger network throughout the state that could become self-sufficient
once it's up and running.

The commission's two-year proposal for an Ohio and Lake Erie Regional Rail
Hub calls for using existing
railroad rights of way where tracks could be added or rehabilitated to build
a network.

The network could be used for new, high-speed passenger service and improved
freight service, commission spokesman Stu Nicholson said.

From Cleveland, passengers could get to Columbus, Pittsburgh and Buffalo in
about two hours - faster than driving.

For more information see http://www.dot.state.oh.us/ohiorail/

Â• Wednesday, January 26th, 1:30 - 3:30 pm at OKI in Cincinnati:
ORDC/OKI
Ohio Hub presentation to business and community leaders in Cincinnati and
Southwest Ohio.

Â• Wednesday, January 26thth, 5:30 - 7:30 pm at OKI in Cincinnati:
ORDC/OKI
Ohio Hub Presentation to the public in Cincinnati and Southwest Ohio.

IMAGO
HAS FUNDRAISING PROJECT to support their eco-friendly work
Recycle your empty laser and inkjet cartridges and your used cell phones.
Imago provides your business (hr home office) with a box or bag which we will ask you to fill with your used cartridges, cell phones. Once full, call Imago Earth Center and a rep. will come pick up the box.
Call 921-8455 or email earthcenter@imagoearth.org, or
Http://imagoearth.org

- end of Announcements -

A r t i c l e s

Anthropology Prof. Mary Carol Hopkins
answers my question about human pop. growth

Hi Ellen,

Yes, about curbing the birth rate: Birth rate goes down according to:

1) rising chance of children surviving
2) job possibilities for women
3) freedom of women to assure their own security in old age

This is pretty standard anthropology, for those of us whose area is non western. In difficult situations (most of the non-western world), men are assured of care in old age by having enough wives, especially enough young wives, to take care of them. Women, however, usually outlive their (often older) husbands, and thus need to be certain that they will have enough ADULT children so that the mother won't be an impossible burden to any one or two of them. It's also in (poor) women's interest to see that their sons get educations for good jobs, but that their daughters also remain close and dutiful.

So, yes, the best route to ZPG (zero population growth) is good education for women, good health care for mothers and babies and kids, and access for women to reliable, independent income providing enough for saving and investing (buying goats or their own land, for example) for the future. Over millennia, women have invested in children as their social security. Women know that having lots of babies ruins their health and exhausts them and hobbles their ability to produce income themselves, but they do it out of forward thinking, not stupidity or inability to think ahead, as westerners often complain. If there is another reasonable way to secure their futures, women will take it.

Also interesting, perhaps deflating to some feminists but nevertheless true: Population Growth (PG) goes down with polygyny (men having more than one wife). Also with polygyny, because each woman therefore has fewer children and spaces them more widely, women's health is better, babies' birth weight is higher, their weight at one year is higher, they nurse longer (more years, often up to 3 or even more), the babies' survival rate is better, and those women are (because of having fewer babies and having others to share the housework and farm work with) are more likely to have outside jobs and earn their own money.

We should not confuse (this polyguny with) American men having a bunch of teenage wives that are more or less captive. The situation in traditional Africa ... where wives were often sisters or old friends, and become helpmates and companions in the very grueling work of hauling water, hoeing fields, etc. Traditional African cultures were pretty near to ZPG---it's urbanism, cash cropping (both of which lead to poverty and insecurity), and Christian-imposed monogamy that has lead women to have more babies than they used to.

Whew, sorry for the sermon! But most people misunderstand the causes of population growth, and I thought y'all were a group who would listen and get it!

Happy New Year everyone!

MaryCarol Hopkins (anthropology prof. NKU)
Thanks MaryCarol! ellen

More on Health Care System from Wall Street:

Ellen, hereÂ¹s another lament from the people who can change things. - Bob Park
Â

Thanks to Dave Pavlick for passing along this article from Business Week, with its scathing indictment of our health care system.

Â

Many people in SPAN have asked for critical comments from business sources regarding the system. We don't find too many from this milieu but here is one extraordinary exception.

Â

Jerry

Â

Â

Â

BUSINESS WEEK: Health Care: More Money, Less Care
Date: Monday, January 03 @ 09:59:10 EST
Topic: Health Care & Pensions

Ever higher outlays aren't getting the U.S. a better health-care system,
but the pols aren't doing much to redress this miserable equation.

This is what passes for good news in health care: U.S. spending will increase by only 9% to 10% in 2005, about the same rate as last year, according to UBS Securities (UBS ). That's still three times the rate of inflation, but at least it's less than the gains the nation saw in the first two years of this century, when costs rose by 12% to 13% a year.

All told, the U.S. will probably spend an estimated $1.9 trillion on health care in 2005, $100 billion more than the prior year. That's 15.7% of the gross domestic product. Despite such mammoth sums, hospitals will continue to struggle to stay solvent, employers will continue to face higher insurance premiums, employees will continue to shoulder a higher percentage of those premiums, and insurers -- well, insurers will continue to do very well, thank you, because they get to pass on their higher costs to the policy holders. Though not, of course, to the 45 million people who are uninsured -- 15.6% of the population.

At some point, and probably in the not-too-distant future, this level of spending will almost certainly become unsustainable. Expensive new drugs and medical technologies, a growing number of uninsured, and an aging, overweight population virtually guarantee cost increases will climb back to the 12% to 13% range in a few years. By 2010, UBS Securities estimates that health care will consume 17.4% of the GDP. "In my view, the pressure is not off costs at all," says William McGeever, a UBS health-care analyst. "I see nothing on the horizon that will moderate increases."

All of this might be O.K. if we were getting maximum bang for all those bucks, but we're not. Other industrialized nations, which have universal health coverage, spend less of their GDP on health care -- 8% to 10%. Yet they rank well above the U.S. in average life expectancy and infant mortality rate, standard measures of a nation's health. The U.S. ranks in the bottom quartile of all industrialized nations on those two measures.

Nor does the U.S. do well on more specific quality measures. In a study of a broad range of procedures in five highly industrialized nations, released last spring in the well-regarded journal Health Affairs, researchers determined that the extra spending on health care in the U.S. is "not buying better experiences with the health care system, with the exception of shorter waits for nonurgent surgery." That conclusion was backed up by a study released in December by Veteran's Administration researchers: They found that only 51% of patients nationwide receive medically recommended care for their conditions. So much for the oft-heard claim that the U.S. has the best medical system in the world.

Despite this dire situation, there are no serious proposals in Washington to redress the miserable cost/quality equation. President George W. Bush's main health-care reform initiative, the introduction of tax credits for Health Savings Accounts, is likely only to siphon off healthy adults from existing insurance plans, making it harder to offset the costs of treating the sick. At the same time, the shift to high-deductible policies by many employers is likely to cause some consumers to delay health care until their conditions become serious -- and more expensive to treat.

If change is going to come, it needs to be driven by the companies now picking up the nation's health-insurance tab, as well as their beleaguered employees. The annual Towers Perrin Health Care Cost Survey predicts that employers can expect, on average, an 8% increase in health-care costs in 2005, to an annual rate of $7,761 per employee. Those employees will see their share of insurance premiums increase by an average of 14%, while benefits will be reduced by 2%.

A Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that the cost of job-based health coverage has risen 59% since 2000, while the percentage of U.S. workers who receive health benefits through their jobs has dropped from 65% to 61%. Paying more, getting less. Isn't it about time that policymakers -- and the people who vote for them -- come up with a better way?

By Catherine Arnst

Kooky mayor of Bogota, Colulmbia
Heals City

HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

One of former BogotÃ¡ Mayor Antanas Mockus' many inspired strategies for changing the mindset - and, eventually, the behavior - of the city's unruly inhabitants was the installation of traffic mimes on street corners. (Photo courtesy of El Tiempo)

Academic turns city into a social experiment

Mayor Mockus of BogotÃ¡ and his spectacularly applied theory

By MarÃa Cristina Caballero
Special to the Harvard News Office

Antanas Mockus had just resigned from the top job of Colombian National University. A mathematician and philosopher, Mockus looked around for another big challenge and found it: to be in charge of, as he describes it, "a 6.5 million person classroom."

Mockus, who had no political experience, ran for mayor of BogotÃ¡; he was successful mainly because people in Colombia's capital city saw him as an honest guy. With an educator's inventiveness, Mockus turned BogotÃ¡ into a social experiment just as the city was choked with violence, lawless traffic, corruption, and gangs of street children who mugged and stole. It was a city perceived by some to be on the verge of chaos.

People were desperate for a change, for a moral leader of some sort. The eccentric Mockus, who communicates through symbols, humor, and metaphors, filled the role. When many hated the disordered and disorderly city of BogotÃ¡, he wore a Superman costume and acted as a superhero called "Supercitizen." People laughed at Mockus' antics, but the laughter began to break the ice of their extreme skepticism.

Mockus' seemingly wacky notions have a respectable intellectual pedigree. His measures were informed by, among others, Nobel Prize-winning economist Douglass North, who has investigated the tension between formal and informal rules, and JÃ¼rgen Habermas' work on how dialogue creates social capital. (Staff photos Jon Chase/Harvard News Office)

Mockus, who finished his second term as mayor this past January, recently came to Harvard for two weeks as a visiting fellow at the Kennedy School's Institute of Politics to share lessons about civic engagement with students and faculty.

"We found Mayor Mockus' presentation intensely interesting," said Adams Professor Jane Mansbidge of the Kennedy School, who invited Mockus to speak in her "Democracy From Theory to Practice" class. "Our reading had focused on the standard material incentive-based systems for reducing corruption. He focused on changing hearts and minds - not through preaching but through artistically creative strategies that employed the power of individual and community disapproval. He also spoke openly, with a lovely partial self-mockery, of his own failings, not suggesting that he was more moral than anyone else. His presentation made it clear that the most effective campaigns combine material incentives with normative change and participatory stakeholding. He is a most engaging, almost pixieish math professor, not a stuffy 'mayor' at all. The students were enchanted, as was I."

A theatrical teacher

The slim, bearded, 51-year-old former mayor explained himself thus: "What really moves me to do things that other people consider original is my passion to teach." He has long been known for theatrical displays to gain people's attention and, then, to make them think.

Mockus, the only son of a Lithuanian artist, burst onto the Colombian political scene in 1993 when, faced with a rowdy auditorium of the school of arts' students, he dropped his pants and mooned them to gain quiet. The gesture, he said at the time, should be understood "as a part of the resources which an artist can use." He resigned as rector, the top job of Colombian National University, and soon decided to run for mayor.

The fact that he was seen as an unusual leader gave the new mayor the opportunity to try extraordinary things, such as hiring 420 mimes to control traffic in BogotÃ¡'s chaotic and dangerous streets. He launched a "Night for Women" and asked the city's men to stay home in the evening and care for the children; 700,000 women went out on the first of three nights that Mockus dedicated to them.

BogotÃ¡'s women enjoy the fruits of a Mockus idea, a 'Night for Women,' when the city's men stayed home and women police kept the night secure. (Photo by Martin Garcia/El Tiempo)

When there was a water shortage, Mockus appeared on TV programs taking a shower and turning off the water as he soaped, asking his fellow citizens to do the same. In just two months people were using 14 percent less water, a savings that increased when people realized how much money they were also saving because of economic incentives approved by Mockus; water use is now 40 percent less than before the shortage.

"The distribution of knowledge is the key contemporary task," Mockus said. "Knowledge empowers people. If people know the rules, and are sensitized by art, humor, and creativity, they are much more likely to accept change."

Mockus taught vivid lessons with these tools. One time, he asked citizens to put their power to use with 350,000 "thumbs-up" and "thumbs-down" cards that his office distributed to the populace. The cards were meant to approve or disapprove of other citizens' behavior; it was a device that many people actively - and peacefully - used in the streets.

He also asked people to pay 10 percent extra in voluntary taxes. To the surprise of many, 63,000 people voluntarily paid the extra taxes. A dramatic indicator of the shift in the attitude of "Bogotanos" during Mockus' tenure is that, in 2002, the city collected more than three times the revenues it had garnered in 1990.

Another Mockus inspiration was to ask people to call his office if they found a kind and honest taxi driver; 150 people called and the mayor organized a meeting with all those good taxi drivers, who advised him about how to improve the behavior of mean taxi drivers. The good taxi drivers were named "Knights of the Zebra," a club supported by the mayor's office.

Yet Mockus doesn't like to be called a leader. "There is a tendency to be dependent on individual leaders," he said. "To me, it is important to develop collective leadership. I don't like to get credit for all that we achieved. Millions of people contributed to the results that we achieved ... I like more egalitarian relationships. I especially like to orient people to learn."

Taking a moral stand

Still, there were times when Mockus felt he needed to impose his will, such as when he launched the "Carrot Law," demanding that every bar and entertainment place close at 1 a.m. with the goal of diminishing drinking and violence.

Most important to Mockus was his campaign about the importance and sacredness of life. "In a society where human life has lost value," he said, "there cannot be another priority than re-establishing respect for life as the main right and duty of citizens." Mockus sees the reduction of homicides from 80 per 100,000 inhabitants in 1993 to 22 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2003 as a major achievement, noting also that traffic fatalities dropped by more than half in the same time period, from an average of 1,300 per year to about 600. Contributing to this success was the mayor's inspired decision to paint stars on the spots where pedestrians (1,500 of them) had been killed in traffic accidents.

'Knowledge,' said Mockus, 'empowers people. If people know the rules, and are sensitized by art, humor, and creativity, they are much more likely to accept change.' (Photo by Gerardo Chaves/El Tiempo)

"Saving a single life justifies the effort," Mockus said.

The former mayor had to address many fronts simultaneously. In his struggle against corruption, he closed down the transit police because many of those 2,000 members were notoriously bribable.

Mockus was a constant presence in the media, promoting his civic campaigns. "My messages about the importance of protecting children from being burned with fireworks, protecting children from domestic violence, and the sacredness of life reached many, including the children," he said.

Once the mother of a 3-year-old girl called his office to say that meeting Mockus was her daughter's only birthday wish.

But the meeting also revealed, said Mockus, that Colombian society has a long way to go. During the visit, the mother told him: "When I am going to hit her, she runs to the telephone and says that she is going to call Mockus. She doesn't even know how to dial a number, but obviously she thinks that you would protect her." Mockus, who has two daughters himself, was shocked at the woman's nonchalance about striking her daughter.

Women's night and mimes

There is almost always a civics lesson behind Mockus' antics. Florence Thomas, a feminist and a professor at Colombian National University, pointed out to Mockus that in BogotÃ¡ women were afraid to go out at night. "At that time, we were also looking for what would be the best image of a safe city, and I realized that if you see streets with many women you feel safer," Mockus explained.

So he asked men to stay home and suggested that both sexes should take advantage of the "Night for Women" to reflect on women's role in society. About 700,000
------------------------------------------------------------------------

More of Mockus in BogotÃ¡

Here are a few more innovations from Antanas Mockus' two mayoral terms:
*        Mockus mobilized people to protest against violence and terrorist attacks. He invented a "vaccine against violence," asking people to draw the faces of the people who had hurt them on balloons, which they then popped. About 50,000 people participated in this campaign.
*   Mockus also embraced the concept of community policing. He tried to bring the community and the police closer together through the creation of Schools of Civic Security and local security fronts. In 2003, there were about 7,000 local security fronts in BogotÃ¡. "It is very important to understand that the Schools and Fronts respond to a civic ideal. They have nothing to do with firearms but basically promote community organization," Mockus points out.
* Voluntary disarmament days were held in December 1996 and again in 2003. Though less than 1 percent of the firearms in the city were given up, homicides fell by 26 percent, thanks in part to the attention given to the program by the media. The percentage of people who think that it is better to have firearms in order to protect themselves fell from 24.8 percent in 2001 to 10.4 percent in 2003.
*   In 2003, the Mockus administration provided 1,235,000 homes with sewage service and 1,316,500 with water services. The city's provision of drinking water rose from 78.7 percent of homes in 1993 to 100 percent in 2003. The sewage service rose from 70.8 percent of homes in 1993 to 94.9 percent in 2003.
* When Mockus assumed power, many city positions were distributed according to council members' recommendations. "I stopped that, and some called me an anti-patronage fundamentalist," Mockus said. He remembers that when he handed a text explaining his goals of transparency to one key council member, the council member first smiled, but later resigned.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
women went out, flocking to free, open-air concerts. They flooded into bars that offered women-only drink specials and strolled down a central boulevard that had been converted into a pedestrian zone.

To avoid legal challenges, the mayor stated that the men's curfew was strictly voluntary. Men who simply couldn't bear to stay indoors during the six-hour restriction were asked to carry self-styled "safe conduct" passes. About 200,000 men went out that night, some of them angrily calling Mockus a "clown" in TV interviews.

But most men graciously embraced Mockus' campaign. In the lower-middle-class neighborhood of San Cristobal, women marched through the streets to celebrate their night. When they saw a man staying at home, carrying a baby, or taking care of children, the women stopped and applauded.

That night the police commander was a woman, and 1,500 women police were in charge of BogotÃ¡'s security.

Another innovative idea was to use mimes to improve both traffic and citizens' behavior. Initially 20 professional mimes shadowed pedestrians who didn't follow crossing rules: A pedestrian running across the road would be tracked by a mime who mocked his every move. Mimes also poked fun at reckless drivers. The program was so popular that another 400 people were trained as mimes.

"It was a pacifist counterweight," Mockus said. "With neither words nor weapons, the mimes were doubly unarmed. My goal was to show the importance of cultural regulations."

A bigger classroom?

Mockus noted that his administrations were enlightened by academic concepts, including the work of Nobel Prize-winning economist Douglass North, who has investigated the tension between formal and informal rules and how economic development is restrained when those rules clash; and JÃ¼rgen Habermas' work on how dialogue creates social capital. Mockus also mentions Socrates, who said that if people understood well, they probably would not act in the wrong way.

Luis Eduardo GarzÃ³n, the new mayor of BogotÃ¡, is the first leftist who has been in charge of the second-most important political position in Colombia. Said Mockus, "His election expresses a consensus around the importance of addressing social issues. GarzÃ³n has the challenge of opening space to new political forces in a country that has been dominated by a 'bipartidismo bobo' (dumb two-party system)."

Mockus - a sterling exemplar of the current vogue in Latin America for "anti-politicians" - says that transforming BogotÃ¡'s people and their sense of civic culture was the key to solving many of the city's problems. He is looking forward to returning to the classroom at Colombian National University after a sabbatical year. But Mockus is also considering the possibility of launching a presidential campaign - and perhaps being in charge of a 42 million student classroom.

MarÃa Cristina Caballero, a native of BogotÃ¡, is a fellow at Harvard University's Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

David Rosenberg, our salon farmer
Responds to article about
genetically modified food crops

Ellen - There is no doubt in my mind that our food system offers inadequate protections for us. To quote our resident philosopher, Mike Murphy, the real question is why are we suprised about this any more than being suprised (hopefully only once if we are smart and normal) that cats catch, torture, kill and sometimes eat mice. We know the present food system is flawed, probably beyond redemption for those of us interested in social justice and environmental sanity. So why waste our energy throwing up our hands and kfetching about how we are victims. If we are smart enough to know that something isn't working, then isn't it our most important and sacred responsibility to create something better?

I hope this is an adequate answer to your request; however feel free to continue this dialogue if I can be of further assistance to you.

Warmly,
David Rosenberg

From: Ellen Bierhorst <ellenbierhorst@lloydhouse.com>
> Date: 2004/12/30 Thu PM 06:23:43 GMT
> To: David Rosenberg <woodenshoegarden@fuse.net>
> Subject: check this out please
>
> David, you are our food supply maven. Would you check this out? Mira sent
> it to me.
>
>
> ellen

>
> Happy New Year, Ellen! I think you/we might be interested in this.....?
> Love, Mira Rodwan

>> Subject: Protect Food Supply Action
>
>
> Subject: I just visited http://www.ucsAction.org/index.asp?ref=2717079 - And
> I think you should check it out.
>
>
> <b>Ask your friends, family or any concerned consumer to tell USDA to
> protect the food supply from pharma crop contamination!</b>
> Did you know that crops are being genetically altered to grow
> pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals? A new report from the Union of
> Concerned Scientists found that current production practices and federal
> regulations are insufficient to keep these "pharma" crops out of our food
> supply. Go to the following link to tell the USDA to do a better job
> protecting our food from pharma crops:
> http://www.ucsaction.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=23460&ref=2717079
> To check out the Union of Concerned Scientists or to sign up for the Action
> Network, visit http://www.ucsaction.org?ref=2717079.
> Beth Angel

ELECTION FRAUD TOPIC:
This color..."teal"

(I am carrying over this article from last week because it is so darn good, and also important. Bev spotted the trouble with electronic voting even before the 2000 election. She is terrific. Just one little American woman, doing the right thing. ellen)

Bev Harris, heroine of "Black Box Voting" sends update:

Update from Black Box Voting, and a look toward 2005:

First, thank you so very much for your donation. It was very much appreciated and needed. In the interest of brevity, you are going to receive three separate e-mails from us in the next 48 hours:

1) Information specific to donors
2) Information about current investigations and audits: HELP AMERICA AUDIT
3) Information about current volunteer actions: ACTIVATING THE EAGLES

This message is the first one, for donors.

We received thousands of small donations in November and December ($1 to $5) and very much appreciate these. They did slow down our processing, because for accounting and tax reasons, we account for each and every donor separately, and we were caught by surprise. We did not have enough staff in place to process the volume. Therefore, please accept our apology for the delay in communicating with you.

You will soon receive a customized thank you note that provides the records you need to tax-deduct your donation. We are working on those right now.

We are commissioning an independent audit of Black Box Voting, Inc. by a major public accounting firm, which will examine all of our financial transactions from the inception of our organization. This is our first year, and we want to make sure that we provide our supporters with trust, transparency, and a solid foundation. Thus, year-end activites are extremely busy.

AN UPDATE FOR DONORS:

- We are focusing on building long-term infrastructure (Internet, personnel, reporting functions and equipment).

- We are concentrating on the HELP AMERICA AUDIT effort that launched by Black Box Voting on Nov 2, 2004, which began with a massive Freedom of Information request. We have collected tens of thousands of pages of documents, are in the process of converting those to Internet-friendly format. We have set up an online workspace for Â“open sourceÂ” public auditing of the voting machines used in the 2004 election.

Our most important effort of all is ACTIVATING THE EAGLES: We are beefing up our messy old American democracy, by empowering LOCAL CITIZENS to act effectively, independently and forcefully to return transparency to our election system.

Â“Doves, sparrows, and other low-flying birds flock together. Eagles soar alone, and must be gathered one at a time.Â”

The key in "Activating the Eagles" is to find and encourage those citizens who are self-starters, with common sense and the courage to deal with adversity. To this end, we have launched the Black Box Voting Â“ACTIVATING THE EAGLESÂ” project. This is quite revolutionary; instead of doing the expected, by launching chapters in each state, trying to control the whole thing with a top-down structure, we are focusing on empowering independent groups. In the long run, this will create a much more stable infrastructure for resistance to inappropriate governmental procedures.

Please visit our Web site to see the Â“New LookÂ” for Black Box Voting Â– We have purchased several new domains, and we are in the process of integrating them into a more effective whole.

http://www.blackboxvoting.org Â– The portal to all the action
http://www.bbvforums.org Â– The workspace for volunteers and following current happenings.
http://www.bbvdocs.org Â– This is inactive this week, but is being developed as a repository for election-related source documents and audit logs.

In addition, we are putting up mirror sites that we control, hosted on other servers. When they are up, weÂ’ll list them on the main page.

The most important part of the new Black Box Voting Web site is the FORUM WORKSPACE. It has just been activated, but is already getting quite busy. Please stop in, register, and post a message to let us know that you are behind this effort:

http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/discus.

Here you will:
- Collaborate with others to clean up elections
- Quickly find the latest news
- Locate state and local resources
- Ask questions and get them answered promptly
- Participate in "Help America Audit"

# # # # #

Because you are a donor, the three update e-mails have already been automated to send. We protect your privacy and do not allow ANY OTHER individual or organization to have your contact information. If you receive ANY message from another group or individual that you suspect came from your donation to Black Box Voting, please notify us immediately.

Now, please hit Â“replyÂ” and type ONE of the following messages in the subject line:

- Please send me weekly updates
- Please send me monthly updates
- Please send me NO updates at all
- Please send me a custom response (type your question in body of message)

Here's an update on Black Box Voting:

On November 12, seeking answers to a specific vote-fraud question on the
Diebold voting machines, Black Box Voting went to Florida for one day. We didn't
get back until Dec. 9.

While in Florida, together with local citizens, we found significant problems in
Volusia County (Diebold - audit did not check out; note the outstanding
contributions of Florida Fair Voting Coalition and citizen Susan Pynchon),
Pinellas County (Sequoia - stay tuned on this one, outstanding work by local citi
zens), Brevard County (Diebold -- obstructiveness and lying about public reco
rds) and Palm Beach County (Sequoia -- all kinds of problems, with very
important work by local citizens), in addition to what's been reported elsewhere.

Black Box Voting met with citizens in Florida who are making a real difference.
WHAT'S IN STORE FOR AMERICA: The key word is "relentless." We have not
given up. We will not give up.

1. Unfortunately, the Black Box Voting "volunteer action" forums are
compromised; hackers broke in and removed our own ability to use or moderate
our own forums. Good peopl
e are working on that and we will solve it soon.

2. The Black Box Voting Cleanup Crew plan: ACTIVATING THE EAGLES

"Doves, sparrows, and other low-flying birds gather together, but eagles soar alone and must be gathered one at a time."

You, as an individual citizen, are America's best hope to clean up elections, which must be done starting at the local level. Using your own common sense, get started on yo

ur own local elections. Take an action, and let us know what you've done. Black Box Voting investigators will be traveling to meet with c
itizens who show that they take initiative on their own.

Our republic will revive when we have REAL grass roots growing, that is, people who are taking independent action on a local level, using their own common sense. This does

not always require a group. One person can make a real difference.
We can help you by giving you ideas, technical advice, and by sending an investigator to you.

- If actions taken by Black Box Voting make sense to you, try something similar in your local jurisdiction.

- A Black Box Voting investigator may arrange to meet with you or your group, to help educate you, share ideas, and fund-raise. We will select those who show initiative on

their own, with creative ideas that make things happen independent of our organization.

When we say "fund-raising," we are not talking about fund raising for Black Box Voting. We visit you on OUR OWN dime. Whatever you arrange for fund raising during our visit

will go to YOUR group, to empower action, purchase your local public records, pay court costs, whatever you need to use it for.

Grass roots activism, in the form that is most dangerous to corporate-controlled power, is activism that is not centralized. A national organization with chapters in each s

tate, which issues official position papers and directs/organizes actions, is using a corporate model itself.

Black Box Voting is more revolutionary: We encourage independent action, which we do not control or directly organize. We are looking for relentless, clever, loosely allied

people, taking actions they have figured out for themselves, using their own common sense and whatever resources they can bring to bear.
This creates a swarm that becomes impossible to fight.

Usually, before we will send an investigator to help you, you must show that you are taking action on your own. We are more interested in auditing elections and enforcing t

ransparency than we are in holding rallies, and we are most interested in helping citizens who are self-directed, gutsy, sensible, and di
fficult to discourage.

Relentless. Eagles. You can make it happen. We'll help.

# # # # #

Bev Harris - Executive Director
Black Box Voting (.ORG) - http://www.blackboxvoting.org
To donate: Mail to Black Box Voting, PO Box 25552 Seattle WA 98165 or donate
online: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html

(this, below, reprinted from last week, but check out Mike Murphy's response below, in yellow type, after John's articles. ellen)

THE POLITICS OF ENERGY:

PUBLIC POLICY AND SANE ENERGY MANAGEMENT

John Robbins writes, after his presentation for us
(YOU GOTTA READ THIS. TERRIFIC. emphases added by me. e.)

Thanks to all 12/20 Salon attendees and Ellen for inviting me to present toyour group. As usual, I did not complete the entire presentation I hadplanned, and many of the questions I heard were specific to short-termissues in various kinds of houses rather than either the more generaloverview or the Lloydhouse-specific recommendations I had prepared. This isokay, and I hope I answered the unexpected questions adequately. As I hopeeveryone learned, such answers can be short-term (related to how to get byright now) or long-term (how to prepare for the future beyond the currentmonth or year). Sometimes these compete or conflict, as I tried to say whentalking about replacing Lloydhouse's windows. Other answers are simple,like the first directive of cutting air leaks even before insulating, aboutunderstanding the directions of the airflow (i.e. heated air lifts, coolerair comes in low or from the direction of outdoor winds).

Knowing the political bent of the Lloydhouse Salon from past emails andconversations, I hope everyone appreciated that NONE OF WHAT I WAS TALKINGABOUT is part of either party's platforms, part of either party'scandidates' messages, part of any part of national or local focus. Indeed,the major and minor political parties in our nation are allowing the issuesof dwindling fossil fuel supplies, the rising costs of energy, the steadyupward demand for energy per person and per building, the huge consequencesof energy-related pollution, etc., to worsen and fester.   It is simply notenough or appropriate to suggest, as Kerry and Gebhardt did, that all weneed to do is switch to renewable sources. This is baby-talk, somethinglike Santa Claus, while our nation is or should be hungry and desirous forreal answers with longterm impact. We should all be disappointed ordisgusted that the most recent campaigns included no focus or mention ofthese issues, since we need to restart the national conversation that JimmyCarter begun 25 years ago.
To this point, please allow me to introduce some discussion of energypolicies. What should the goals of enlightened energies be? Whatcould/should our nation, states and cities be doing? How could/should oureducation systems, tax codes, building codes and real estate markets bechanged? In paragraphs below, I will present some "ideal" answers, whichare more typical of individuals and households like mine and my clients',where democracy and determination is simpler and more straightforward. Whenit comes to the larger society, community discussions and politicalcompromises will need to occur, to allow the societally acceptable solutionsto emerge. So I hope the Salon with engage these issues. Please feel freeto include me in your discussions by email or phone. I live an hour awayfrom Lloydhouse, and I hate driving, so the best way to include me moreregularly is by telecommunication, the "electronic superhighway, as Gorecalled it.

ENERGY POLICY:
When IÂ¹m asked to present or consult on how to reduce consumer or businessenergy consumption in more dramatic longterm ways, I remind myself at theonset that most people in our culture have a relatively poor understandingof their energy use, what costs what, where their energy and energy dollarsgo, what to do in what order to improve performance most cost-effectivelyand permanently. Especially in urban and suburban environments where energyinfrastructures and their negative environmental consequences are morehidden or distant, my job usually begins not just with helping clients tounderstand their individual situations and opportunities, but also how theirindividual situations relate to their big longterm pictures they probablycanÂ¹t or donÂ¹t see. Most urban and suburban settings offer easy andincreasing dependence on a relatively few sources of energy, like naturalgas or electricity, delivered invisibly by unseen utility infrastructures.Consumer demands to reduce such energy use often is in reaction to shortermincreased energy costs, fears of unreliable energy supplies or advertisingincentives to buy rather than to reduce. Such incentives are often tooshallow to motivate consumers to make better decisions for the longertimeline. Indeed, short-term decision-making is not very effective forchanging long-term cultural preferences and behaviors.To understand and make longer-term decisions, especially when thereÂ¹s a goalto buy renewable energy systems, some basic education is usually appropriatefor the client.Education must start with clearly understanding goals. If and when wedecide to plan and implement a national, community, business or home energypolicy, the ideal logical goals should be, in order of priority:1) Use much less2) Pollute much less3) Import much less4) Diversify to more sources and increase storage volumes5) Transition to renewablesThe reasons for this ordering are many, the most important of which is thatthe topmost goals are less expensive and more effective for making the latergoals more inexpensive, practical and reliable. That final goal, the heartof any plan for longterm physical sustainability, is likely the mostexpensive in the list, at least the more technology-oriented renewables likesolar. For those who think or expect that solar energy will get continuallycheaper, let me suggest that solar will likely never get as cheap as coalenergy in our lifetimes, and that right now solar electricity, for one, isat least 3 times more expensive than electricity generated by burning coal.This demands that our first goal simply be to save money by lowering ourdemands for energy, by converting some energy-demanding tasks to manualwhere possible, and by becoming more efficient in those tasks which must useenergy.Accomplishing the first goal supports the second goal since reduced demandfor energy by enough people and processes can result in reduced numbers ofpowerplants, fuel deliveries, smoke up chimneys and smokestacks, resourceextraction and pollution from spills. Using less, especially of oil,reduces imports, thereby lessening threats to our national security,lowering balance-of-trade deficits, slowing the decline in the value of USAcurrency and making more rare oil spills from the large tankers on the highseas while heading to USA refineries. Diversification and storage ofsupplies reduce potential problems which typically result from relying onjust one or two fuels while not knowing with certainty about longtermsupplies. Most renewable energies are very low-polluting and relativelymore local in nature than other energies. Solar, wind and biomass are morecommonly available most anywhere in varying amounts, which encourages thefourth goal simply because in most locations, no one renewable energy typewill be enough.Hopefully, it is now apparent that starting out with a policy of aiming forrenewable supplies first, as described at JohnKerry.com, is misguided, atleast from the perspective that it costs the most and avoids opportunities.However, I say this from a strictly energy/resource management bottom-upperspective. Our governments and corporations don't want or care much forthe ordering of goals I've proposed, simply because they have differentfundamental interests, like tax collection, for one. For instance, if eachhousehold and business suddenly and successfully cut energy use inbuildings, homes and vehicles by even a meager 25%, there would be hugelosses in sales and other taxes on energy use. Since the energyconservation workforce makes less income per worker generally than energysupply workers, tax collection in a system of progressive income taxationwould decline. Energy conservation, efficiency and renewable expendituresalso tend to happen once or only per decade in a building's history, whilefuel purchases tend to happen continually ad infinitum. This dramaticallychanges large portions of our current economy, affecting tax collection andemployment distributions as well.Powerful political labor forces like UMW, for one, which relies on the adinfinitum nature of fuel use, would lose at least some power that it nowexcerts on governments like Ohio, as it did during the last building energycode modifications when it argued the value of increased use of Ohio coal.Other entities like oil corporation could lose similar influence as demandsfor their regular ad infinitum supplies diminished. Situations like theseare too many to describe here, but suffice it to say that most governmentsand corporations may prefer more expenditures on energy supplies and supplytechnologies, both conventional and renewable, instead of more expenditureson conservation and efficiency which result in rapid dramatic reductions ofincome and product money flows. This is why I believe this effort towardthe goals I outline will occur outside the current major political andgovernment arenas, at least at the beginning, at least with the currentgroup of political and government leaders.So what are the elements of enlightened policy to produce those above-listedgoals? Below, I have organized some of my proposals into categories.

A) Energy Costs and Supplies.....Eliminate declining marginal unit energy costs, replacing that witheither flat or inclining marginal costs. For instance, Cinergy, like mosteastern USA urban/suburban utilities, discounts residential electric cost byover 40% for kWhs over 1000 per month from October through May. Considerthat in west-coast states like California and Washington, the residentialprice of electricity rises progressively as monthly usage increases, justthe opposite.   In commercial sales, Cinergy sells the last units ofelectricity to its most guzzling customers at less than one-third of theprice that the lowest-using customers pay. My proposal would be to make itillegal to discount electricity sales based on monthly volume. One mightargue that increased revenues from guzzlers could be offset by lowered unitprices for those who use much less. Others might argue that increasedrevenues could be used to improve energy-obsolete housing and buildingstocks like Lloydhouse. Others might want to use new revenues for emissionsreductions to renewable energies.

B) Real Estate.....Require that energy performance be valued in appraisals and othermortage or real estate tax assessments.   Right now, few energy performanceupgrades count for anything in appraisals or mortgage valuations. Thismeans all financial incentives for efficiency or renewables enhancementsmove to personal or household or business paybacks, defined as the initialadded investment divided by the years before avoided energy payments recoverthat investment. This discourages longer payback items, including mostrenewables. Instead, I propose that just as appraisors add "value" perfurnace, per AC, per sf of floor area, etc., they should be forced to addvalue for thicker insulation, bonified solar features, demonstrated historyof low utility bills, etc. This would reduce disincentives for longerpayback items, since at least some "payback" would come from future resalewhen the improvements are passed along to the next user. This is especiallyimportant for long-term upgrades, like superinsulation or solar electric,where upgrades will last many mortgage periods. In these cases, it'smisguided to ask just the first owner to pay all the costs. Right now, evenif a willing buyer appreciates the solar or superinsulation, unless theappraisal values those items, they cannot be financed conventionally. Thisforces potential buyers to pay more cash upfront, which discouragespotential buyers......Lien homes which fall well short of reasonable energy standards at timeof resale, such that if/when they are sold, a seller or buyer must agree toperform upgrades like insulation, more efficient HVAC, airtightening,windows, etc., or else the local government will perform upgrades and addthose new costs to the asking sale price of house automatically......HERS (or home energy rating system) is a uniform energy performancerating method to allow buyers to know right away and clearly the conditionsand energy-outfitting of the home, its energy use history, how that relatesto local standards and codes, how it relates to other similarly sized localhomes, etc.

C. Tax Code Changes.....Phase out the business tax-deductibility on conventional energy use, aswell as the tax deductibility of conventional energy-using equipment whichis not at least by a certain percentage more efficient than is required bycode. Permit only the deductibility of the added cost above what isrequired by code......Increase tariffs on imported energies and imported energy equipment topay for all identified costs associated with those energy sources. Forinstance, I'd pay fully for the Iraq War, cleanup of oil spills, navalpatrols of the Persian Gulf, etc., with new tariffs on imported oil. Thiswould raise dramatically the cost of imported oil. We're also seeing morecompressed natural gas imported nowdays, so I'd develop similar tariffs onthat. It would be illegal in my proposal to move such costs in other taxes,like corporation or personal income taxes. Keep the costs where they areassociated with the responsible products.

D. Building Codes.....Mandate that new and remodelled building designs target minimal energyusage by whatever methods.....Require each building and house to be able to withstand and tolerate somany hours of power outages without losing livability. For instance,require that "a house be designed to maintain at least 55 degrees averageindoor temperature without its HVAC operating for 24 hours when outdoortemperatures are at 0 degrees F. (or whatever the local "design heatingtemperature" is, according to existing HVAC codes).....Make it illegal for homes and buildings to suffer freezing plumbing orunsealed combustion....Limit the amount of heating and cooling energy equipment capacityinstalled, based on the floor area (i.e. BTU/sf)....Limit home or building pollution demand per floor area or occupant (i.e.CO2 per sf, CO2 per person)....Integrate reasonable retrofit energy upgrade standards for older housingand building stock. These would differ from standards for new structures,as appropriate, but nonetheless target substantial upgrades.....Encourage storage in structures or on their grounds: energy storage,thermal storage, water storage, wastewater storage. This would accomplishpeak shaving during energy, resource and waste system flow peaks, plusprovide local backup for these various systems during outages and shortages.E.

Education..... Teach reasonable, best and worst resource consumption standards andhistories starting in elementary and secondary schools, including 3rd grade"story problems". The goal here is to educate future adults about whatkinds of energy and water usage, plus pollution, is appropriate, what isconsidered "least" possible, what is "bad enough" to mandate improvement,etc.   I believe right now that this ethic is completely missing largelybecause of lacking awareness......Teach energy/pollution relationships, like 2.55 pounds of CO2 per kWhfrom coal, etc......Add new college and university educational degree opportunities inenergy efficiency engineering, ecological engineering, ecological science(physical), resource management, etc. Consider that UC and Cincinnati Stateprograms in Environmental Engineering are remedial, mostly focused oncleaning up pollution after it is generated. My proposal is to provide newfuture local expertise on how to avoid the pollution from the get-go. Samewith energy, where right now most consumers are like sheep and most energyprofessionals are more like stock brokers than conservation/efficiencyprofessionals. The education I received was forced to independent studies,since local schools did not offer those opportunities 25 years ago, andstill do not today.--------------------------------(and sent in a separate email:)Sorry that I forgot to mention my policy proposals regarding personal vehicle fuels.Â It is shorter than my building proposals...Â Â Â Â

1) Change the way vehicle fuel is priced, such that it pays for the development andÂ phase-in of a variety of diversifiedÂ alternativeÂ vehicle fuels.Â Since we import 62% (according to Lieberman) of our oil, and since the average American driver isÂ said by DOE to use between 800 and 900 gallons of vehicle fuel per year, place an oil surtax on all usage above non-imported annual average-per-driver amount of fuel purchased.Â For instance, the current non-imported percent is 38%, so the non-surtaxed portion would be (using 850 gallons per driver per year) 0.38 x 850 = 323 gallons per year per driver.Â Â Each driver atÂ time of vehicle registration would be given a "credit card" with the assigned gallons.Â This card would beÂ swiped at eachÂ fuel purchase for whatever reason (lawn mowers, cars, ATVs, etc.)Â After the 323 gallons isÂ used up, an additional cost would be charged at the pump,Â beyond the stated price on the pump.Â ThisÂ additional charge, recorded automatically by the pump and printed on the receipt, would be used to pay for new fuels development, especially start-up costs of local small business entrepreneursÂ around the nation involved in farm waste-to-ethanol, biodiesel, etc.Â TheÂ surtax could be 25 cents orÂ $5, whatever is needed.Â Â

2)Â Low vehicle fuel users like me (I used less than 200 gallons of gas for my car, rental on vacation, yard tools, etc.) would not pay this new tax.Â Only guzzlers wouldÂ pay the tax, therebyÂ forcing them to pay for transitions away from oil.Â And low-users, whether due to owning super-efficient vehicles or carpooling or not driving much or whatever reason, could see their underused credits to guzzlers, thereby giving additionalÂ financial incentives to be a low-user of vehicle fuel.Â ElectricÂ vehicle drivers could sell their entire per-person allotment, since they would be using no vehicle fuel per se, instead either paying flat/inclining electricity prices or using expensive but clean solar or wind power.Â Â

3) Vehicle reregistration costs would include new environmental fees, based on vehicle tailpipe test TIMES the number of miles driven.Â For instance, tailpipe tests would result in varying fees for the same car if driven more or less.Â Vehicles, even relatively clean-burning ones like mine, could get higher fees if the car is drivenÂ 20,000 miles per year, instead of the 7000 or so miles I drive per year.Â Dirty-burning vehicles could get lower fees if driven very infrequently, but astronomical fees if drivenÂ high miles per year.Â ExtraÂ revenues would not only teach ecological relationships based onÂ RATE X HRS OF USE, but also provide additional funding to reduce pollution in locales with air pollution nonattainment.Â (I have a similar proposal for smokestacks and chimneys, for which I would require similar regular testing and usage-related fees.)Â Â

The goals of these vehicle fuels rules and fees would be to solve problems caused by the vehicles.Â The revenues could not be diverted to other sectors, like hospitals or schools, as is often done in current tax schemes designed for moneyÂ redistribution.Â We need environmental and energy moneys directly in our society, and not just from the corporationsÂ which are at least part of the problems we now face.Â And we need more personal awareness and responsibility for the transportationÂ choices we make.Â I believe my 3 proposals accomplish these goals.

John F. Robbins CEM
Design, Analysis, Consulting & Education to Improve Ecological Performance
Website: http://home.insightbb.com/~johnfrobbins/
3519 Moffett Road, Morningview, KY 41063-8748
859-363-0376 - johnfrobbins@insightbb.com
Co-Chair, SW Ohio Alternate Energy Assn (AEA) www.aea1.org
Residential Chair, SW OH Chapter Assn of Energy Engineers (AEE)
www.aeecenter.org
Member, A-SPI, Kentucky Solar Partnership www.a-spi.org
Member, International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) www.darksky.org

More From John Robbins
Can the Salon Respond to this? Send me your ideas.
John is hoping our group can run with the ball on this. ellen

Ellen,
Â
I've been awaiting some comments or discussion about my energy policy recommendations.Â Was any of the part of Monday's discussions?Â Â BTW, I appreciated all your positive comments about my writings...Â Â However, I am trying to get a grass-roots discussion of these issue going.Â This OUGHT TO BE in the mainstream political discussions.Â Have you watched or read any of MANY analyses of the last election, not whether the election was stolen or voting falisified or mismanaged, but about the issues themselves?Â Â At least on C-SPAN, there have been several panel discussions about the future of the Dem party, about why Kerry didn't do better, about particular issues which weren't handled or presented well, etc.Â ABSOLUTELY NONEÂ of these panels (at least the ones I watched) seemed at all interested in energy or environment as an ignored or unused issue.Â Â Similarly, in a C-SPAN 3-hr program prior to the election, where there were discussions of various races and candidates around the nation, there was no mention of energy or environment being any major parts of any campaigns anywhere.Â Doesn't this seem odd, incorrect, even devious?Â Â I'm trying to light fires on these issues, but wonder why I'm having such a time doing it.Â I tried to light fires about this with the KY Chapter of Sierra Club, the Cumberland Chapter, for many weeks leading up to the election, but got absolutely no flame, not even one response from any member to whom I sent messages.Â Am I doing something wrong that you can see?Â Â Are people simply unable to latch onto these issues?Â Â I'm sure you notice that AEAers simply take matters into their own hands, ignoring the governments and corporations most of the time, but this certainly cannot be what's expected for the rest of our society...
Â
The way I see it, if grassroots political groups like your Salon and Cumberland Chapter can't grapple with these issues from the bottom-up, there's little hope the major parties will try to tackle 'em from the top-down, let alone even mention them in any campaigns.Â I think we (citizens) can't afford to leave the questions I pose to the corporations, CEOs, governments and presidents, most of whom come from and represent the elite wealthy class, whether Dem or Rep, liberal or conservative.Â That's what Cheney did with his energy summit that he's fought to keep secret.Â Unless we want more of the same, regardless of who gets elected next time, we'll still get proposals and m.o's which appeal mostly to the goals and mandates of the most powerful instead of the citizens.Â And I'm willing to bet right now that whether it's the Dems or Reps who hold the next summits, the solutions will not be ones we would seek, whether "we" are defined as the experienced implementers of EE/RE or simply lay folks who can't afford continually rising energy prices.Â Only with an educated, aware and activated electorate will future candidates rise to include and lead with our issues.Â How can "we" accomplish this with energy and environment issues?Â Â
Â
These are the kinds of questions, answers, comments and discussions I am expecting from a politically activated group like your Salon.Â If/when you ever ask me back for a more political discussion, I don't want to do all the talking or proposing or fire-setting.Â
Â
BTW, several recipients of my CD have not had any difficulties as I had when playingÂ your CD at your place.Â Have you had better luck on another CDÂ player?Â If not, please allow me to replace it with another CD.Â Let me know.Â Â
Â
Have a very nice New Year!Â I'mÂ certainly pleased to haveÂ met and engaged you this year!Â Â Â

John
=====
John,

thanks for your thoughts. I suggest that you should come back to the salon and we should have a "think tank" on how to get the grass roots consciousness arroused about energy. You are absolutely right.
Let's not let this one die. Would you be willing to come again, not for pay, to use the group mind to address the problem? It's a pretty smart group brain.
Let me know.
ellen

From: "John F. Robbins" <johnfrobbins@insightbb.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 14:58:59 -0500
To: "Ellen Bierhorst" <ellenbierhorst@lloydhouse.com>
Subject: Discussion of my "energy policy" suggestions?

Ellen,

I've been awaiting some comments or discussion about my energy policy recommendations. Was any of the part of Monday's discussions?   BTW, I appreciated all your positive comments about my writings...   However, I am trying to get a grass-roots discussion of these issue going. This OUGHT TO BE in the mainstream political discussions. Have you watched or read any of MANY analyses of the last election, not whether the election was stolen or voting falisified or mismanaged, but about the issues themselves?   At least on C-SPAN, there have been several panel discussions about the future of the Dem party, about why Kerry didn't do better, about particular issues which weren't handled or presented well, etc. ABSOLUTELY NONE of these panels (at least the ones I watched) seemed at all interested in energy or environment as an ignored or unused issue. Similarly, in a C-SPAN 3-hr program prior to the election, where there were discussions of various races and candidates around the nation, there was no mention of energy or environment being any major parts of any campaigns anywhere. Doesn't this seem odd, incorrect, even devious?   I'm trying to light fires on these issues, but wonder why I'm having such a time doing it. I tried to light fires about this with the KY Chapter of Sierra Club, the Cumberland Chapter, for many weeks leading up to the election, but got absolutely no flame, not even one response from any member to whom I sent messages. Am I doing something wrong that you can see?   Are people simply unable to latch onto these issues? I'm sure you notice that AEAers simply take matters into their own hands, ignoring the governments and corporations most of the time, but this certainly cannot be what's expected for the rest of our society...

The way I see it, if grassroots political groups like your Salon and Cumberland Chapter can't grapple with these issues from the bottom-up, there's little hope the major parties will try to tackle 'em from the top-down, let alone even mention them in any campaigns. I think we (citizens) can't afford to leave the questions I pose to the corporations, CEOs, governments and presidents, most of whom come from and represent the elite wealthy class, whether Dem or Rep, liberal or conservative. That's what Cheney did with his energy summit that he's fought to keep secret. Unless we want more of the same, regardless of who gets elected next time, we'll still get proposals and m.o's which appeal mostly to the goals and mandates of the most powerful instead of the citizens. And I'm willing to bet right now that whether it's the Dems or Reps who hold the next summits, the solutions will not be ones we would seek, whether "we" are defined as the experienced implementers of EE/RE or simply lay folks who can't afford continually rising energy prices. Only with an educated, aware and activated electorate will future candidates rise to include and lead with our issues. How can "we" accomplish this with energy and environment issues?

These are the kinds of questions, answers, comments and discussions I am expecting from a politically activated group like your Salon. If/when you ever ask me back for a more political discussion, I don't want to do all the talking or proposing or fire-setting.

Have a very nice New Year! I'm certainly pleased to have met and engaged you this year!
John

=================================

Mike Murphy's response

Â My thoughts re John Robbins' talk and follow-up recommendations is that he has provided us with a political action platform.Â The whole thing can/should be reduced to a series of checklists by which we can measure the relevance various candidates, codes and procedures.Â Perhaps a task force of several of us should take on the job of boiling his remarks down to just such checklists, and then begin to apply them to the areas involved.Â If we did even a little of this, it would attract attention and others would/could become involved.Â
Â Â Â Â It is natural that we begin by asking ourselves relevant questions about energy awareness and use.Â And your own immediate attempts to make your house leak-proof are an example of the proper approach.Â So before we rush off with accusatory questionnaires for others, we must personally run this gauntlet.Â It's certainly a task I have not at all thoroughly done.Â Â Â Â
Â Â Â Â Perhaps we need to print out John's follow-up and useÂ it as a table-text at an early Salon gathering, for general follow-up discussion purposes.Â This will ease us intoÂ this necessary process.Â Â Whether it becomes incorporated into any candidate's political platform or not, surely we need to incorporate it, internalize it.Â That is, we must facilitate encourageÂ these points becoming part of popular demand.Â Â Â Â Â

end of articles

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>
> To unsubscribe from the Lloyd House Potluck Salon list, send a REPLY message
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- end of Salon Weekly -

The Lloyd House Virtual Salon

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Salon Weekly 1/9/05-5

ellen

FLOC Victory Celebration Concert (full details below)

Unitarian Church (full details below).

FLOC Victory Celebration Concert

on January 17, 2005

How you can help

Ohio Rail Transit Plan
What, where is OKI?

A r t i c l e s

Anthropology Prof. Mary Carol Hopkins
answers my question about human pop. growth

Ever higher outlays aren't getting the U.S. a better health-care system,
but the pols aren't doing much to redress this miserable equation.

Kooky mayor of Bogota, Colulmbia
Heals City

ELECTION FRAUD TOPIC:
This color..."teal"

THE POLITICS OF ENERGY:

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Salon Weekly 1/9/05-5

ellen

FLOC Victory Celebration Concert (full details below)

Unitarian Church (full details below).

FLOC Victory Celebration Concert

on January 17, 2005

How you can help

Ohio Rail Transit Plan What, where is OKI?

A r t i c l e s

Anthropology Prof. Mary Carol Hopkins answers my question about human pop. growth

Ever higher outlays aren't getting the U.S. a better health-care system, but the pols aren't doing much to redress this miserable equation.

Kooky mayor of Bogota, Colulmbia Heals City

ELECTION FRAUD TOPIC: This color..."teal"

THE POLITICS OF ENERGY:

Ohio Rail Transit Plan
What, where is OKI?

Anthropology Prof. Mary Carol Hopkins
answers my question about human pop. growth

Ever higher outlays aren't getting the U.S. a better health-care system,
but the pols aren't doing much to redress this miserable equation.

Kooky mayor of Bogota, Colulmbia
Heals City

ELECTION FRAUD TOPIC:
This color..."teal"