| | Led by Mayor Michael Hancock, Anna and Fran Simon become the first couple to take part in a civil union ceremony at the Webb Building in Denver on May 1, 2013. The Clerk and Recorder's Office opened for business from midnight on May 1 to 3 a.m. to issue civil union licenses to couples. (Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post) from Ellen
Thursday, 5/2/13
HI Fanchon
That's my Anna, in photo above -- getting the first civil union in Colorado Tuesday night, officiated by the mayor of Denver. (You can make out me in the photo, standing just to the right of the couple, brown suit, hands raised in clapping. It was a huge thrill to be there with them. I am writing this from their house in Denver. ... 5 1/2 year old Jeremy, my grandson (see below) was ring bearer ... a Rabbi was there with a Jewish touch, and I led the singing of the Shehekiyanoo and also Mazel Tov u'Simentov. Hundreds of people, scores of media reporters and photographers.
So now my wonderful daughter in law Fan is truly my daughter-in-law IN LAW! Feels great. And the two of them say there is a subtle feeling they have, now that they are legally wed in their state. I am touched. Brings tears.
And this spring the Supreme Court is deliberating over the suit of Edie Windsor concerning recognition of her marriage to 42 year lifetime partner. (See video HERE.) She had to pay over $300 in tax after her partner died which would have been zero were her marriage (in Canada) to have been recognized. Unfair! They were a beautiful couple, and she is a very cute and eloquent 82 year-old.
This week will be a shorter Virtual Salon. BAck full blast next week.
Look for my review of "V-Day", the documentary, under the "Reviews" section. You have to click the "read more" link to get it. It's about the world-wide movement spawned by Eve Ensler's "Vagina Monologues", to end violence against women and girls. Period. Now. Important.
This weekend, Green Umbrella (Brewster Rhodes') Sustainability Summit. Look under "Environmentalism and Health" section.
Next weekend, May Festival... a glorious time, ... see info and link below in "Arts and Activities" section, the first section.
Hug to all,
Ellen and grandson Jeremy:   
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~ ARTS AND CULTURE, OPPORTUNITIES ~ - This is where I announce concerts and other lovely stuff.
... ... Click on the "Read More" link below....
| ~ DEMOCRACY AND COMMUNITY ~ ********* ********
~ at least glance over all of this to the end or you'd miss some important stuff,... Nuns on the bus "Network" calling for gun control legislation; immigration reform.
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| ~ ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH ~ Do you know about the Green Umbrella local sustainability summit this weekend? Click on Read More below. And... ta-da! this is the Civic Garden Center plant sale weekend. Clean up on this! and more. Click on Read More below. ellen
Read More | ~ LLOYD HOUSE
(AND ALEXANDER!) ADS ~ Below, info about spaces available for resident housemates or office - we have one vacancy --spread the word!
AND VERY HELPFUL links to videos about the Alexander Technique including tips about how to sit at the computer w/o getting aching shoulders or back, PLUS notice of the best bargain there is, a FREE Alexander practice session for anyone. Also, some of Ellen's YouTube links. fun.
Read More
| no articles this week... enough other stuff! but send me things you'd like shared with 547 others of like mind... ellen
| ~ ARTICLES ~
Bill McKibben of the Climate Change organization "350.org"
Dear friends, Once a year or so, I write a piece that I really want people to read. Last year it was an article called "The Terrifying New Math of Global Warming," which helped fuel the divestment campaign that is now blanketing the country and even spreading overseas. Now I have a new long piece, also in Rolling Stone, called "The Fossil Fuel Resistance" that I was hoping you would read. Here's a quick summary from the article: After decades of scant organized response to climate change, a truly powerful movement is quickly emerging, around the country and around the world. It has no great charismatic leader, and no central organization; it battles on a thousand fronts, many of them very local and small. But taken together, it’s now big enough to matter, and it’s growing fast. So you could call it by many names. But for me it’s the Fossil Fuel Resistance. I hope you'll spread it around, because I think it will help people understand a few things about the climate movement. First, it shows that we're in a much bigger struggle than the fight against Keystone, crucial as that is. Across the country and around the world people are taking on the fossil fuel industry in remarkable ways that are starting to add up. Second, it's shows that we’re becoming a much broader movement tactically and organizationally than we're used to thinking about. The old-line environmental groups are playing their part, but powerful leadership is coming from all kinds of communities. There are a bunch of profiles that accompany the piece, and they focus on heroes from Indigenous nations, environmental justice organizations, and the clean tech industry, each of people doing amazing work. What I hoped to do with this article is move past restating the problem, which I think most people understand, and show how we are working together towards solutions. Those solutions take many forms, and I hope you'll read about them and share the article around so that we can start to bring more people into this resistance movement. It's not all good news, of course. We're still losing this fight, as the temperature rises. But I want everyone to know that it is going to be a real fight. This piece, I hope will help spread the word, and build our movement even bigger. Click here to read and share: 350.org/Resistance We can't outspend the fossil fuel barons, but we can out organize them, if we get to work. Bill McKibben P.S. Just a heads up that we’re planning a big push on sending comments to the State Dept. over the next few days. I wanted to make sure you knew that was coming, after these emails about new articles and films. 350.org is building a global movement to solve the climate crisis. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter, and sign up for email alerts. You can help power our work by getting involved locally, sharing your story, and donating here. To stop receiving emails from 350.org, click here. | ~ LETTERS ~ I simply LOVE getting y our letters! Thanks. Catching up here for 2 weeks worth
FROM: JUDAH SHER (on the claim that a raw diet can cure diabetes)
Sorry, but I've heard far to much debunking the raw food movement. In short, we have evolved the guts we have because of cooking, which make most nutrients far more bioavailable. Raw food diets produce health benefits because they effectively reduce the amount of food your body is getting, which is good if you live in a first world country and eat too much. Also, no diet can cure type 1 diabetes, only type 2.
FROM: Morris Williams on solar panels
Ellen: Thank you for including my piece on gun control. Two people wrote me their "sorrowful" agreements. And, as usual, I was stimulated about something else in your publication.
I read "Bill McKibben of the Climate Change organization "350.org." While I do everything I can to support the efforts against destroying the earth i.e., recycle everything, ride my bike to stores and other places instead of my car, etc., I was amazed at several documentaries on Discovery channel and National Geographic about how the weather patterns have already made their changes, and the documented effects that too many people still deny.
Watching the beautiful ice fall off into the ocean or the wonderment of magma flow is truly dynamatic until you understand how these processes have been maximized beyond natural evolution, and the dangers they represent to the people near volcanoes and the people in coastal areas who will soon be driven from their homes.
When I talk to groups about this I am further amazed at how many say they believe it is too late so they do nothing, especially in senior complexes where there is no separation of garbage from recyclables. I try to convince them that as we all are participating in one way or another in destroying the earth, that we aught to do at least one thing we can do personally to slow this destruction down. I even conceded to environmental groups in my Housing Value Restoration & Job Creation Strategy to include solar retrofitting for the millions of homes we p.o.ose to renovate. The immediate cost will go up which may reduce the number of people we can help, but the long term benefit in terms of lower fossil fuel use may pay off.
But, the question I'm asking your readers is to think and visualize about is how massive solar panels on most roofs will affect us?. Would this draw too much sun and affect us in a negative way? I hope that some of them are in this scientific community or have read enough into this area and have speculated on answers about this question that they will share in your next issue.
Morris.
Morris Williams, Convener
Hamilton County Community Reinvestment Group
1823 Andina Ave.
FROM: Morris Williams on Solar Panels... downside?
Ellen: In response to the questions I asked you and your readers about the environmental impact of massive solar panel use, I came across the article at the link below about a complaint about solar panels having a potentially blinding affect. This story suggest there is an environmental impact problem, the possible upside is that this may simply mean that now that a problem has been identified, other creative thinkers have an opportunity to suggest solutions. Saving the earth is important, but saving the human on the earth comes first. http://realestate.aol.com/blog/on/homeowner-robert-phipps-blinding-solar-panels-/ Morris Morris Williams, Convener Hamilton County Community Reinvestment Group 1823 Andina Ave.
FROM: | ~ REVIEWS ~
Remember Eve Ensler's one-woman show, "The Vagina Monologues"? That was back in the 90's some time. Since then there has grown up an international movement, "V-Day", dedicated to ending violence against women and girls. BAck in the "oughties" ('02 perhaps) they made a feature length documentary of the V-Day movement, -- groups hold a public performance of the "Vagina Monologues" and donate the proceeds to "V-Day". This film was shown last Friday night at Women Writing for a Change, and I went. It was tremendous! We were about 30 women, the film lasts about 90 minutes, with clips of the Shows in places around the world... Harlem, a Sioux reservation in N. Dakota, the Philippines, China, Europe, Africa, and it showed what the money collected was doing. The most moving for me was Agnes, an East African woman who walked from village to village presenting about "education for girls", but actually campaigning for the end of female circumcision. (Many Islam-influenced African peoples practice crude surgery to remove a pubescent girl's clitoris, sometimes also the labia, sometimes actually stitching the vaginal opening closed, to be violently ripped open on her wedding. The idea is to keep her chaste.) the V-Day organization bought Agnes a jeep so she can see more villages quicker, and paid to set up a "safe house" for girls who have decided not to endure circumcision, and as a result have been expelled from family, village, and denied education. I believe the safe house is in Narok, Kenya, a small city I visited in 2000. I also went into the 'hinterland' and stayed with Masaai people in their tiny homes, and got to ask questions (through an interpreter) about the subject of circumcision. I could not understand how it could be that the Masaai women I was meeting were so proud and so strong. Their answers were not at all satisfactory to me. They just said, "We cannot say how it affected us; this is all we know and all we have known."
If y ou get a chance to see the documentary "V-Day", don't let it pass. I hope to have a showing at the Lloyd House. Watch for an announcement.
Ellen | | | | | | |
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