This official apology does not restore stolen lands or lives. Nor does it relieve the nightmares of mistreated boarding school alums. But it finally owns up to this country's record of ill-conceived, bigoted, and often sadistic treatment of Native Americans. And perhaps, like any honorable apology should, it sets the stage for making amends.

The first official apology offered by the United States for the long-running persecution of the first Americans. It follows in the tradition of federal apologies to Japanese-Americans for their internment during World War II, and to Native Hawaiians for U.S. involvement in the 1893 overthrow of their monarchy.

Military Neglecting Fort Hood Soldiers' Medical Needs

Wednesday 09 June 2010

by: Dahr Jamail, t r u t h o u t | Report

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(Image: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: AfghanistanMatters, assbach)

At least 50 soldiers from Fort Hood who have medical profiles that should prohibit them from military training have been sent to the National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California, regardless of their conditions.

Truthout spoke with some of these soldiers on June 7, before they were to fly back to Fort Hood the next day.

"We were brought out here to NTC after being told we would be given some of the best medical treatment out here," a soldier who is an Iraq war veteran diagnosed with post-traumatic-stress disorder (PTSD), speaking on condition of anonymity because he feared military reprisals, told Truthout. "But when we were here at Ft. Irwin, nobody would see us. It took my wife calling the Chaplain to get my medication refilled. We've gone a month without seeing a psychiatrist. Some of us see them weekly, some twice a week and we haven't been able to receive any of this."

This, despite the soldier having been given his PTSD diagnosis by the military itself.

He admitted to Truthout that he needs the medication because of anxiety, depression and homicidal thoughts.

"There're people out here who've had to cancel 17 psychiatric appointments to be out here," the soldier added. "There are people needing physical treatment that have thrown out their backs."

The soldier, who is based at Fort Hood, explained that his commander, Capt. Ryan McDonald, "talked to my doctor and told him I could continue my treatment at Ft. Irwin. This obviously isn't happening, so my doctor has been trying to get me back and I've been unable to see anyone. They are two months behind here and can't see us, but said they couldn't help anyway because we're not permanently stationed there, we're supposed to be at Fort Hood."

Captain McDonald heads a unit that has, according to the soldiers Truthout spoke with at Fort Irwin, at least 55 members at the NTC who have medical profiles that are supposed to exclude them from being around combat training, weapons and ammunition.

Brandi Owen, whose husband was sent to the NTC along with the rest of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR), told Truthout she believes that Captain McDonald is responsible for pressuring doctors of many of the 3rd ACR soldiers into allowing them to be sent to the NTC.

"[My husband's] psychiatrist here at Fort Hood cleared him to go [to NTC] at the last minute because his commander told him he'd get the same treatment there as he did here," Owen explained to Truthout. "He left here May 16 and his next appointment was supposed to be the next day. He had none of his sedating medication. He was given a profile by his doctor saying he was not to have combat training exposure, but NTC is training soldiers for deployment."

Owen's husband, an Iraq war veteran who has also been diagnosed with PTSD, suffers from that along with anxiety disorder and depression.

"His doctor released him to go to NTC, assuming he'd get treatment," she continued. "Since he's been there, not once has he seen a doctor. It took them three days to fill his meds. Once you're off those meds, you get suicidal."

Cynthia Thomas runs the Under the Hood Café in Killeen, Texas, on the outskirts of the base. The café is described as a place meant to provide support for soldiers and their families.

"There are dozens of spouses here at Fort Hood whose husbands who are soldiers here have been diagnosed with PTSD, traumatic brain injury (TBI) and other problems and they are being sent to NTC anyway," Thomas told Truthout. "Even though their doctors are telling them they can't be around live-fire or weapons, they are being sent there anyway."

Captain McDonald, who is in charge of many of the soldiers, has, according to Thomas and all of the spouses Truthout spoke with, been "calling their doctors and telling them the soldiers can be taken to NTC and that they would be given medical treatment there."

Brandi Owen, outraged at the lack of medical treatment for her husband, contacted her Congressman, John Carter, of the 31st District of Texas.

"I contacted Congressman Carter on May 13, just before my husband was sent to NTC and his aid told me that there had already been 26 Congressional complaints about these guys being sent to NTC," Owen explained.

Her attempts to get answers via her husbands' chain of command and various generals have only been met with frustration.

"I've talked to all of his chain of command, the generals here and at Ft. Irwin, they always transfer me to someone else, or say they can't help me or there is nothing they can do," Owen said. "I have a notebook full of numbers they refer me to, or tell me to make an IG [Inspector General] complaint, which I do, but I still haven't heard from any of them. The Chain of Command doesn't do anything. He's going on two and a half months without seeing a doctor. He needs meds! He needs a doctor! NTC has given him flashbacks from Iraq. He can't sleep and can't eat. Now I'm worried about what he'll be like when he gets back. It's going to be worse than when he left."

Truthout spoke with another soldier at the NTC, a facility that describes itself as "The World's Premier Training Center for the World's Finest Military."

"About three days before I was told I was leaving for NTC, I went home to pack and flipped out and tore my house apart," the soldier, speaking on condition of anonymity because he, too, feared reprisals for speaking to the media, told Truthout. "I went to the ER, they talked about putting me in the psych ward, but they put me on homicide watch because they feared I would kill my chain of command. They sent me out here, supposedly with a 30-day supply of narcotics, but I ran out. I went four days without my meds and they didn't even fill one of them."

The soldier, an Iraq war veteran, said of his time there, "I had friends blown up. I've seen all kinds of shit I'd really preferred not to have seen and it is messing with my head."

"I can't be around simulated combat or combat exposure," he explained while talking with Truthout from the NTC on June 7. "But I'm here on a FOB, there are 50 caliber machine guns and ammo everywhere and I have access to all this and nobody in my chain of command gives a shit. I can't sleep at night. It's ruthless shit out here. I haven't seen anything like this before."

The soldier believes he is not going to be deployed because his medical profile lists him as being "non-deployable."

Truthout asked him why he believed he was sent to NTC.

"I got sent out here because they get $8,000 per head for every soldier out here for their budget," he said. "You have people here on respirators, people with cervical cancer, it's not just me ... there are about 50 soldiers here that should not be here, just from my unit, 3rd ACR. There're about 5,500 soldiers in the regiment right now and about 50 of us that are absolutely not supposed to be out here, period."

Crystal Hess, herself a veteran of two tours in Iraq and two in Afghanistan, is dismayed by the fact that her husband, Spc. Cory Hess, despite his having a broken hand and PTSD, was sent to NTC.

"He was sent to NTC in order to prepare to deploy to Iraq in August," Hess told Truthout. "He's got anger and depression issues. He's been blown up multiple times in Iraq, he has issues with his knees, back, shoulder and I'm pushing for him to be screened for TBI, because he has persistent headaches."

Hess explained that she has tried talking with commanders at Fort Hood about her situation, "and asked them to step up and take care of this, because it's affecting our home life. Cory has anger issues because of his deployment."

While her husband was sent back to Fort Hood early from NTC only because "I called the Department of Army IG and bitched them all out and said, 'fix it.' So they said he needed immediate surgery and sent him home. Now he's been home for six days, he has no medicine, he's in pain, every move he makes with his hand leaves him on the ground in pain. I'm probably going to have to take him to the ER to get him pain meds. They are doing nothing to help him."

Hess also blames Captain McDonald for having pressured Cory's doctor into sending him to NTC, despite his injuries.

Captain McDonald was deployed to Iraq from 2007-2008 out of Fort Riley, Kansas, as a logistics adviser with the National Police Transition Team and the Iraq Assistance Group. In 2009 he became the deputy regimental S4 with the 3rd ACR. This is apparently his first time in direct command of soldiers.

"Captain McDonald was not deployed with the guys in 3rd ACR but took command of the unit after they came back from Iraq in January 2009," Thomas explained. "The soldiers could not tell me much about him other than that McDonald has no leadership skills and does not take the family members into consideration."

According to Thomas, McDonald is not married, "Which could explain why he doesn't give a crap what the spouses have to say."

She added, however, that the problem is not only with Captain McDonald, but also with "the entire chain of command at Fort Hood."

When asked about this situation, a public affairs officer at Fort Hood told Truthout, "All the soldiers sent to NTC have, when necessary, been cleared to go by both their commanders and their doctors."

"The military are not taking care of our husbands," Stephanie Wallin, whose husband was also sent to NTC despite his having a medical profile, told Truthout. "Honestly they don't care about our soldiers, or the families. My husband has PTSD and should not have been sent to NTC, but they sent him. And when they sent him, they said he'd get meds and attention and he didn't."

Wallin explained that she and several other wives called a military chaplain to plead for help.

"I told them I was scared because my husband was saying he didn't know what to do and couldn't deal with it anymore," she said. "It's really hard on me. My husband has homicidal thoughts and I have three kids. So I don't know how he's going to deal with the kids. I want to know why the chain of command lies. I don't know why they say they are all about soldiers and families and they'll make sure they'll get the help they need. They don't. He was diagnosed with PTSD. It's very, very hard. I'm very, very stressed out. My husband is not the man I married. They pushed him until he broke and then they've pushed him beyond that."

Wallin said that she has "talked to everyone; generals, chaplains, commanders and nobody wants to listen to us spouses."

Wallin said that when she attempted to talk to her husband's commander about the situation to ask for help, "they told my husband, 'Why don't you have your wife on a leash?' Then they tried to punish him for my coming there to try to help him and said I was trying to get him in trouble."

"The Army is not what it says it is," Wallin continued. "Recruiters make it sound so good, but once you sign up, you're screwed. My kids wonder what they did wrong because of what the Army is doing to their father. They feel like they've lost their father. I don't know what to do anymore. There's a whole bunch of soldiers who need this story out. They need help and they are not getting the medical help they need."

In the Garden

Urban Agriculture here is on the rise and guidelines are being determined to facilitate small stock animals, such as rabbits, poultry and goats in the city limits in a way that doesn't disturb their human neighbors. The City of Bloomington, Indiana recently became the recipient of trees for a community orchard!

Earth Dinner
www.earthdinner.org

Truth Out
Photo by Beverly Hood
Groups Around the US Joined Haitian Farmers in Protesting "Donation" of Monsanto Seeds

Monday 07 June 2010

by: Beverly Bell, t r u t h o u t | Report

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(Photo: Beverly Bell)

"We're for seeds that have never been touched by multinationals. In our advocacy, we say that seeds are the patrimony of humanity. No one can control them," said Doudou Pierre, national coordinating committee member of the National Haitian Network for Food Sovereignty and Food Security (RENHASSA), in a recent interview. "We reject Monsanto and their GMOs. GMOs would be the extermination of our people."

A march held in Haiti June 4 for World Environment Day was called by at least four major national peasant organizations and one international one. The march's purpose was to protest the new arrival of Monsanto seeds. The day's slogans included, "Long live native seeds" and "Down with Monsanto. Down with GMO and hybrid seeds."

Several US organizations planned simultaneous events to protest the entry of the controversial multinational in Haiti.

Last month, Haitian citizens learned the news that the giant agribusiness Monsanto will be "donating" 60,000 seed sacks (475 tons) of hybrid corn seeds and vegetable seeds. While the seeds are free this year, peasant organizations see a Trojan horse, with Monsanto seeking to gain a foothold in the Haitian market. Hybrid seeds typically do not regenerate, so that farmers would have to buy them again each year, and they generally require large quantities of fertilizer and pesticides (two products that also fill Monsanto's annual coffers). And while the Ministry of Agriculture rejected Monsanto's offer of genetically modified (GMO) seeds this year because Haiti does not have a law regulating their use, there may follow a push to get GMOs approved, in which case Monsanto would be well-positioned. Moreover, the Calypso tomato seeds contain the pesticide Thiram, the chemical ingredient of which is so toxic that the Environmental Protection Agency has banned it for home use in the US.[1] (For more information, see "Haitian Farmers Commit to Burning Monsanto Hybrid Seeds.")

Monsanto representative Kathleen Manning commented in The Huffington Post on May 20, "It's disappointing to see people encouraging Haitian farmers to 'burn Monsanto seeds,' especially when the ones hurt by that action will be Haitian farmers and the Haitian people - not those of us watching on the sidelines."

Yet, the call to burn the seeds is based on a strong commitment of the Haitian peasant movement to food and seed sovereignty, which is the ability of local farmers to support themselves with local seeds for local consumption. Among the thousands of peasant organizations which exist among millions of peasant farmers, from village-level groups to national networks, food and seed sovereignty is a key principle. It has formed the basis of their national advocacy since the catastrophic January 12 earthquake. The linchpin of the reconstruction model that small farmers and many other sectors advocate is developing the country's agricultural potential. This would provide stable employment for the 60 percent to 80 percent of the population who are small farmers. It would improve prospects for food security, with an increase in consumption of domestic crops replacing the current dependence on imports, which now compose 57 percent of food consumed. Critical elements in strengthening peasant production include: government investment in agriculture, including technical support; the procurement of local food by USAID and other international agencies' food aid programs, instead of the products of foreign agribusiness; and restriction on the dumping of foreign food and seeds.

Pierre said, "If Haiti isn't sovereign with its food, if the government doesn't promote national production, we'll just always be opening our mouths to seeds and food aid so multinationals can make money off of us. We're for family agriculture which respects the environment." The coalition which Pierre co-coordinates represents 54 organizations from different sectors and regions throughout Haiti.

Below are some of the US-based events which protested the Monsanto seeds June 4. Also below are a few of numerous US initiatives, which are helping Haitian farmers get organic, Creole seeds.

AGRA Watch in Seattle planed a march June 4, ending outside the Gates Foundation office. AGRA stands for A Green Revolution in Africa, which is a multinational corporation-driven, GMO-driven program now being launched in Africa. The Gates Foundation has been a key promoter of AGRA. The group says, "The dumping of toxic seeds in Haiti is the latest in a series of unsustainable solutions that Monsanto has pushed on farmers around the world. If the Gates Foundation wants to support a truly sustainable agricultural system in Africa, they must divorce themselves from Monsanto. Haitian farmers and African farmers have said NO! to corporate control of their food systems. The Gates Foundation and AGRA must say no to Monsanto."

Rising in Solidarity with Ayiti in Chicago urged, "From Haiti to Chicago, reclaim our right to control our food and sovereignty!" June 4 a group of urban farmers and community members joined in a rally to burn GMO seeds in protest of Monsanto's "donation" to Haiti. Participants in the event also planted organic and heirloom seeds, and signed letters to USAID to protest the distribution of Monsanto's seeds in Haiti. The event also featured testimonials about the lack of access to food security, particularly fresh fruits and vegetables, in neighborhoods in Chicago, and how this connects to the right to food sovereignty in Haiti.

Community Action for Justice in the Americas, Africa, Asia, in Missoula, hosted a protest, asking: "Bring posters, signs, or just come. Wear black /white, or lab coats, dust masks, goggles or Tyvek suits or creative costume! Bring drums, pots & pans ..." A personal email from a member of the group said, "The people in Missoula, Montana are paying attention and taking action for farmers in Haiti."

The Organic Consumers Association's network sent more than 10,000 emails to USAID and President Obama. Two dozen members have donated to the Seeds for Haiti project.

A coalition of US churches and foundations are supporting Foundation FONDAMA, a Haitian federation of farmers and local NGOs. The coalition has sent down several million dollars to purchase 86,000 kilos of local corn seed and 59,000 kilos of local pea seeds. (Seeds are available in Haiti, but small farmers have not had the money to buy them.) All of the farmers who belong to member organizations in Foundation FONDAMA have gotten seeds, allowing them to proceed with planting their spring crop. The donations have also purchased 13,300 machetes and 9,200 hoes. The US coalition has, moreover, sent a Massachusetts farmer to the village of Papay for the march, and hosted the leader of the Peasant Movement of Papay in New York and Washington for public, media, and Congressional meetings this week.

Like numerous other supportive groups in the US, Groundswell International's approach to seed sovereignty in Haiti pre-dates Monsanto's announcement. Through its Haitian partner Partnership for Local Development, Groundswell is strengthening the capacity of peasant organizations in Haiti to sustainably improve their agricultural production, income generation, food security, health and natural resources management. A Groundswell staff member wrote, "A key thing we'll be working on is trying to promote the alternative, which is Haitian production of 100 percent of their seeds so they don't need imports."

1. Extension Toxicology Network, Pesticide Information Project of the Cooperative Extension Offices of Cornell University, Michigan State University, Oregon State University, and University of California at Davis . Monsanto denies that Thiram contains the toxic chemical ethylene bisdithiocarbamates (EBDCs).

This work by Truthout is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Beverly Bell has worked with Haitian social movements for over 30 years. She is the author of "Walking on Fire: Haitian Women's Stories of Survival and Resistance." She coordinates Other Worlds, which promotes social and economic alternatives, and is an associate fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies.

Editors Note May this note find you each well in body and spirit. It has been some time, definitely much longer than anticipated. As with many you, more of my time is turned toward clarifiying, sorting, maintaining and stabilizing my own footing. Writing on this first day of summer, I consider notes from friends involved in similar work around the globe, and acknowledge our collective state of hopefulness as many lives seem to expand to include greater possibilities, new challenges and increased uncertainty.

This issue includes information about CAM in the new Health Care Bill, Medicine After Oil, Review of "You Can Attract It", the oil spill, article on the military and Soldiers Medical Needs, Protest of Monsanto Seeds, Autism Resources Directory,Truth About Vitamins and Supplements, Happiness Studies and more!

The Indiana Holistic Health Network and its sister Local Food Bloomington are projects of Green Dove Network, Inc. and all of its resources are available on the web because of volunteer work, mainly by me, out of the belief that these information resources are needed by our community; needed as part of our developing as a sustainable community.

As with all things, energy is needed to continue the flow and development of this directory. Energy can be in the form of time, money or other material support. It has been assessed that, if each business, practice or service listed in the directory would contribute $20 or more annually, the Indiana Holistic Health Network would have a small operating budget that would allow us funds for themaintainance of our computer technology, web resources, phone service, web connections, etc.

That stable reality will be most welcome. Until the time when donations and advertising satisfies those needs, this work will continue as it fits into my changing life.

This means that when a listing is submitted, it will be posted at the time of my next update. If you would like immediate service, make a donation. I have often been asked , why the IHHN does not use a direct listing service. The answer is simple. The IHHN receives an amazing variety of submissions, and a number of them have no relationship to any of what the IHHN represents; and surprisingly, nor are their services in our focus area! So, the IHHN will continue to be maintained by people, and all interested submitters beyond Indiana, nearby Ohio and Kentucky will continue to be invited to advertise with us.

So, what can be done will be done. Calendar listings of free events will be posted as time allows. I apologize for submissions not posted. If you notice mistakes, need for clarification, please let me know.

Now on to other things- The IHHN is often contacted by a variety of organizations and media seeking to establish a national picture of CAM growth. The primary request are for numbers serving veterans, the elderly and the poor. They want to know if we as individuals are keeping good statistics. These questions are also coming because of IHHN/my collaboration with and my establishment of the Reiki Wellness Project. If you have the time, please answer these questions and drop me a note including:

Your Name

Practitioner Type

A brief description of your services

Your Contact Information

What pages are you listed on in the IHHN Directory (we will use this information to post a blog listing of all practitioners serving veterans and others experiencing PTSD).

# of Veterans Served

# of Veteran Family Served

# of PTSD Related Services

# Served for Stress Disorders

% # of Elderly Clients Served

%# of Poor Clients Served

Your information will be assembled and the numbers will be made available for future CAM survey request .

As always, your participation is invited.

Medicine After Oil
It could be distributed a lot more democratically
by Daniel Bednarz - Orion Magazine - July/August 2007

The scale and subtlety of our country’s dependency on oil and natural gas cannot be overstated. Nowhere is this truer than in our medical system.

Petrochemicals are used to manufacture analgesics, antihistamines, antibiotics, antibacterials, rectal suppositories, cough syrups, lubricants, creams, ointments, salves, and many gels. Processed plastics made with oil are used in heart valves and other esoteric medical equipment. Petrochemicals are used in radiological dyes and films, intravenous tubing, syringes, and oxygen masks. In all but rare instances, fossil fuels heat and cool buildings and supply electricity. Ambulances and helicopter “life flights” depend on petroleum, as do personnel who travel to and from medical workplaces in motor vehicles. Supplies and equipment are shipped—often from overseas—in petroleum-powered carriers. In addition there are the subtle consequences of fossil fuel reliance. A recently retired doctor informs me, “In orthopedics we used to set fractures mostly by feel and knowing the mechanics of how the fractures were created. I doubt that many of the present orthopedists could do a good job if you took away their [energy-powered] fluoroscope or X-ray.”

Despite this enormous vulnerability, public discussions of health care routinely ignore the prospect of peak oil. The proposed reforms, which seek to cover more people while holding down escalating costs, amount to little more than fiscal maneuvers. They take no notice of ecological resource constraints that will set limits on our ability to give people access to medical care.

The coming scarcity of fossil fuels, on top of inflationary costs in medicine (the prices of oil and natural gas are approximately four times what they were in 1999 and rising) and the expenses of treating Baby Boomers (a cohort twice the size of its predecessor), could overwhelm a medical system already in crisis. We can avoid collapse, however, by reducing medicine’s present consumption of energy and creating a health-care system that reflects our actual relationship to resources. Ironically, peak oil can be a catalyst for creating a health-care system that is cost-effective, ecologically sustainable, and congruent with a democratic social ethos.

At present we have a tiered health-care system. At the top is a Ferrari model of care that reflects our affluence, fascination with technology, and extravagance. Ferrari care has made possible the treatment of rare life-threatening diseases and expensive procedures like organ transplants, but it has also been used for esoteric and often redundant testing and vanity procedures such as botox injections. At the bottom is a jalopy model serving over 50 million un- and underinsured Americans who very often receive no treatment, defer treatment until their condition cannot be ignored, or face economic ruin when they seek adequate care. If the two tiers persist after peak oil, they will eventually be preserved by force—armed guards at gated medical facilities—for the few able to pay, while the rest of Americans are relegated to the jalopy and faced with overt rationing, triage, and curtailment of medical care. Such an outcome would be an overt contravention of democratic values—most Americans tell pollsters they believe that health care is a human right, not a privilege awarded those with higher income.

What then should we do? The best democratic option is to replace both the Ferrari and the jalopy with a Honda. The post-peak Honda health-care model will of necessity operate with fewer overall resources and less energy than today’s health-care system, and at lower cost. But it need not result in poorer quality of care. Although the United States spends more on health than any other nation—per capita health-care costs in this country are three times those in Great Britain and more than twice those in Canada—we do not have the best health outcomes. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2006, for example, reported that “white, middle-aged Americans—even those who are rich—are far less healthy than their peers in England.”

The commonsensical Honda model will emphasize public health—the prevention of disease and the promotion of health within the population as a whole—over treatment medicine, which focuses on restoring health to chronically or acutely ill individuals. Typically accomplished through the diffusion of information, low-cost therapies, and the promotion of healthful nutrition and lifestyle, preventive medicine allows people to avoid or postpone disease, and to stay clear of the costliest and most energy-intensive sectors of the medical system—doctors’ offices, pharmacies, and the hospital. In the Honda model, treatment medicine would continue, but its role would be brought into better balance with the vastly more cost-effective and energy-efficient mode of preventive health care.

The public health system arose in the early decades of the last century as a response to fears of infectious diseases in our country’s crowded cities. Its outlook is inherently egalitarian—if the entire community is not protected, then no one’s health is assured. Public health is no longer the force it was when it sent “ladies in white uniforms” into communities to preach the Gospel of Germs, explaining the relationship between hygiene and disease prevention. Today, public health is overburdened and underfunded, receiving about 5 percent of health-care dollars, with the balance going to treatment medicine and to biomedical research.

Despite funding inadequacies, public health is in place and functioning. Public health workers, for example, educate about and test for HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases; they interdict infectious diseases like avian flu; they create emergency plans to deal with a variety of disaster scenarios; they monitor waste management and air and water quality. No new system needs to be invented or institutionalized to meet the health-care challenges of the coming energy transition, or, for that matter, those of climate change.

Already, some public health officials are beginning to address peak oil’s effect on health care. On the national level, the Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control is investigating impacts of petroleum scarcity on pharmaceuticals. In Congress, a Peak Oil Caucus led by Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) and Tom Udall (D-NM), is looking into the health risks posed by economic decline and mass unemployment, which peak oil is likely to trigger. At the local level, Indianapolis’s Marion County Health Department is the first in the country to begin planning for maintaining public health services under differing scenarios of energy scarcity.

Late though the hour is, we can still avert the worst health consequences of an energy downturn, but doing so will require transforming our entire health-care system. The elitist impulse to perpetuate Ferrari care for the explicit benefit of the few at the expense of the many will persist after peak oil, and substantial citizen action will be needed to put into effect the affordable, egalitarian Honda model. Medicine itself could play a central role in this effort, by educating those who are unaware of the sweeping changes peak oil will initiate. Reprising its inaugural campaign against germs, public health could become a platform for disseminating a Gospel of Energy Conservation. For the most part, the medical community is as naÏve about peak oil as the rest of the citizenry. As one public health official told me after hearing about medicine’s reliance on oil, “Oh my, I never thought of it that way. This is serious.”

Dan Bednarz is a health-care consultant in Pittsburgh. He is working to build a broad-based consortium on energy, climate, and the future of health care.

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/314.

Out in the public arena, people frequently twang on me for being "Mister Gloom'n'doom," or for "not offering any solutions" to our looming energy crisis. So, for those of you who are tired of wringing your hands, who would like to do something useful, or focus your attention in a purposeful way, here are my suggestions:

1. Expand your view beyond the question of how we will run all the cars by means other than gasoline. This obsession with keeping the cars running at all costs could really prove fatal. It is especially unhelpful that so many self-proclaimed "greens" and political "progressives" are hung up on this monomaniacal theme. Get this: the cars are not part of the solution (whether they run on fossil fuels, vodka, used frymaxâ"¢ oil, or cow shit). They are at the heart of the problem. And trying to salvage the entire Happy Motoring system by shifting it from gasoline to other fuels will only make things much worse. The bottom line of this is: start thinking beyond the car. We have to make other arrangements for virtually all the common activities of daily life.

2. We have to produce food differently. The Monsanto/Cargill model of industrial agribusiness is heading toward its Waterloo. As oil and gas deplete, we will be left with sterile soils and farming organized at an unworkable scale. Many lives will depend on our ability to fix this. Farming will soon return much closer to the center of American economic life. It will necessarily have to be done more locally, at a smaller-and-finer scale, and will require more human labor. The value-added activities associated with farming -- e.g. making products like cheese, wine, oils -- will also have to be done much more locally. This situation presents excellent business and vocational opportunities for America's young people (if they can unplug their Ipods long enough to pay attention.) It also presents huge problems in land-use reform. Not to mention the fact that the knowledge and skill for doing these things has to be painstakingly retrieved from the dumpster of history. Get busy.

3. We have to inhabit the terrain differently. Virtually every place in our nation organized for car dependency is going to fail to some degree. Quite a few places (Phoenix, Las Vegas, Miami ...) will support only a fraction of their current populations. We'll have to return to traditional human ecologies at a smaller scale: villages, towns, and cities (along with a productive rural landscape). Our small towns are waiting to be reinhabited. Our cities will have to contract. The cities that are composed proportionately more of suburban fabric (e.g. Atlanta, Houston) will pose especially tough problems. Most of that stuff will not be fixed. The loss of monetary value in suburban property will have far-reaching ramifications. The stuff we build in the decades ahead will have to be made of regional materials found in nature -- as opposed to modular, snap-together, manufactured components -- at a more modest scale. This whole process will entail enormous demographic shifts and is liable to be turbulent. Like farming, it will require the retrieval of skill-sets and methodologies that have been forsaken. The graduate schools of architecture are still tragically preoccupied with teaching Narcissism. The faculties will have to be overthrown. Our attitudes about land-use will have to change dramatically. The building codes and zoning laws will eventually be abandoned and will have to be replaced with vernacular wisdom. Get busy.

4. We have to move things and people differently. This is the sunset of Happy Motoring (including the entire US trucking system). Get used to it. Don't waste your society's remaining resources trying to prop up car-and-truck dependency. Moving things and people by water and rail is vastly more energy-efficient. Need something to do? Get involved in restoring public transit. Let's start with railroads, and let's make sure we electrify them so they will run on things other than fossil fuel or, if we have to run them partly on coal-fired power plants, at least scrub the emissions and sequester the CO2 at as few source-points as possible. We also have to prepare our society for moving people and things much more by water. This implies the rebuilding of infrastructure for our harbors, and also for our inland river and canal systems -- including the towns associated with them. The great harbor towns, like Baltimore, Boston, and New York, can no longer devote their waterfronts to condo sites and bikeways. We actually have to put the piers and warehouses back in place (not to mention the sleazy accommodations for sailors). Right now, programs are underway to restore maritime shipping based on wind -- yes, sailing ships. It's for real. Lots to do here. Put down your Ipod and get busy.

5. We have to transform retail trade. The national chains that have used the high tide of fossil fuels to contrive predatory economies-of-scale (and kill local economies) -- they are going down. WalMart and the other outfits will not survive the coming era of expensive, scarcer oil. They will not be able to run the "warehouses-on-wheels" of 18-wheel tractor-trailers incessantly circulating along the interstate highways. Their 12,000-mile supply lines to the Asian slave-factories are also endangered as the US and China contest for Middle East and African oil. The local networks of commercial interdependency which these chain stores systematically destroyed (with the public's acquiescence) will have to be rebuilt brick-by-brick and inventory-by-inventory. This will require rich, fine-grained, multi-layered networks of people who make, distribute, and sell stuff (including the much-maligned "middlemen"). Don't be fooled into thinking that the Internet will replace local retail economies. Internet shopping is totally dependent now on cheap delivery, and delivery will no longer be cheap. It also is predicated on electric power systems that are completely reliable. That is something we are unlikely to enjoy in the years ahead. Do you have a penchant for retail trade and don't want to work for a big predatory corporation? There's lots to do here in the realm of small, local business. Quit carping and get busy.

6. We will have to make things again in America. However, we are going to make less stuff. We will have fewer things to buy, fewer choices of things. The curtain is coming down on the endless blue-light-special shopping frenzy that has occupied the forefront of daily life in America for decades. But we will still need household goods and things to wear. As a practical matter, we are not going to re-live the 20th century. The factories from America's heyday of manufacturing (1900 - 1970) were all designed for massive inputs of fossil fuel, and many of them have already been demolished. We're going to have to make things on a smaller scale by other means. Perhaps we will have to use more water power. The truth is, we don't know yet how we're going to make anything. This is something that the younger generations can put their minds and muscles into.

7. The age of canned entertainment is coming to and end. It was fun for a while. We liked "Citizen Kane" and the Beatles. But we're going to have to make our own music and our own drama down the road. We're going to need playhouses and live performance halls. We're going to need violin and banjo players and playwrights and scenery-makers, and singers. We'll need theater managers and stage-hands. The Internet is not going to save canned entertainment. The Internet will not work so well if the electricity is on the fritz half the time (or more).

8. We'll have to reorganize the education system. The centralized secondary school systems based on the yellow school bus fleets will not survive the coming decades. The huge investments we have made in these facilities will impede the transition out of them, but they will fail anyway. Since we will be a less-affluent society, we probably won't be able to replace these centralized facilities with smaller and more equitably distributed schools, at least not right away. Personally, I believe that the next incarnation of education will grow out of the home schooling movement, as home schooling efforts aggregate locally into units of more than one family. God knows what happens beyond secondary ed. The big universities, both public and private, may not be salvageable. And the activity of higher ed itself may engender huge resentment by those foreclosed from it. But anyone who learns to do long division and write a coherent paragraph will be at a great advantage -- and, in any case, will probably out-perform today's average college graduate. One thing for sure: teaching children is not liable to become an obsolete line-of-work, as compared to public relations and sports marketing. Lots to do here, and lots to think about. Get busy, future teachers of America.

9. We have to reorganize the medical system. The current skein of intertwined rackets based on endless Ponzi buck passing scams will not survive the discontinuities to come. We will probably have to return to a model of service much closer to what used to be called "doctoring." Medical training may also have to change as the big universities run into trouble functioning. Doctors of the 21st century will certainly drive fewer German cars, and there will be fewer opportunities in the cosmetic surgery field. Let's hope that we don't slide so far back that we forget the germ theory of disease, or the need to wash our hands, or the fundamentals of pharmaceutical science. Lots to do here for the unsqueamish.

10. Life in the USA will have to become much more local, and virtually all the activities of everyday life will have to be re-scaled. You can state categorically that any enterprise now supersized is likely to fail -- everything from the federal government to big corporations to huge institutions. If you can find a way to do something practical and useful on a smaller scale than it is currently being done, you are likely to have food in your cupboard and people who esteem you. An entire social infrastructure of voluntary associations, co-opted by the narcotic of television, needs to be reconstructed. Local institutions for care of the helpless will have to be organized. Local politics will be much more meaningful as state governments and federal agencies slide into complete impotence. Lots of jobs here for local heroes.

So, that's the task list for now. Forgive me if I left things out. Quit wishing and start doing. The best way to feel hopeful about the future is to get off your ass and demonstrate to yourself that you are a capable, competent individual resolutely able to face new circumstances.

According to the 2007 National Health Interview Survey, which included a comprehensive survey of CAM use by Americans, more than 1.2 million adults had used an energy healing therapy, such as Reiki, in the previous year. The survey also found that approximately 161,000 children had used an energy healing therapy in the previous year.

People use Reiki for relaxation, stress reduction, and symptom relief, in efforts to improve overall health and well-being. Reiki has been used by people with anxiety, chronic pain, HIV/AIDS, and other health conditions, as well as by people recovering from surgery or experiencing side effects from cancer treatments. Reiki has also been given to people who are dying (and to their families and caregivers) to help impart a sense of peace.

Some recent NCCAM-supported studies have been investigating:

* How Reiki might work
* Whether Reiki is effective and safe for treating the symptoms of fibromyalgia
* Reiki's possible impact on the well-being and quality of life in people with advanced AIDS
* The possible effects of Reiki on disease progression and/or anxiety in people with prostate cancer
* Whether Reiki can help reduce nerve pain and cardiovascular risk in people with type 2 diabetes.

Environment/Health - The Dirty Truth Behind Clean Coal by Joshua Frank / Truthout.org
If you tuned in to the Winter Olympics last week, you likely sat through repeated showings of a multimillion-dollar public relations campaign paid for by Big Coal regarding the potential laurels of "clean-coal" technology. The premise of the 30-second spot is simple: Coal can be clean and America needs to wean itself off of foreign crude and create jobs back home by tapping our nation's vast coal reserves. At the heart of "clean-coal" logic is the idea that carbon dioxide produced from burning coal can be captured and buried underground before it is ever released into the atmosphere where it will contribute to the earth's warming for centuries to come - despite the fact that this technology doesn't actually exist in any real capacity in the United States. Continue

Boxcar Books and Community Center

Bloomington Wins Orchard! In May, Bloomington Indiana's local effort to start a Bloomington Community Orchard got a big boost this when the group won a grant for about 20 fruit-bearing trees from Edy's Ice Cream!

Reiki Clinic: Reiki Peace and Wellness Arts monthly Reiki Clinic every third Friday from 2p.m. to 6p.m. Reiki wellness technique catalyzes the body's natural ability to heal and stimulates the immune system. It can help reduce pain and speed recover from dis-ease. Reiki supports healing on all levels: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. For more information about what to expect, click here.

Veterans of the Iraq and Afganistan wars can receive Reiki for free through the Reiki Wellness Project. For more information and to schedule your appointment, contact Patricia at healingart@gmail.com

Sessions are $20 by appointment only. To make your appointment, contact Patricia directly at 812-331-0886.

Eco News on WFHB

New to my list of valuable tools is "You Can Attract It" by Steve Jones and Frank Mangano. These guys show their readers important information about the workings of thoughts, and how we can us this information to direct what we send and receive into our lives. The book explains how each one of us has the ability to change the tune of those radio waves to channels we are more interested in connecting with.

Steve Jones, and Frank Mangano's, "You Can Attract It", is a beautifully written book that can be used as a roadmap to explore the Law of Attraction (LOA). Taking this journey with them has the added benefit of developing a greater belief in yourself. Use the six step process to assist you in releasing, envisioning, focusing, allowing, receiving and accepting what you want to have in your life.

Steve and Frank tell you their story and describe how they have learned to use the LOA in every area of their lives to bring them the mental and, emotional transformation necessary to achieve all their desires. The attribute their success from using the simple techniques outlined in their book. They believe their lives are an example of how using this "way of being in the world" is working for them, and that you can learn to achieve your own personal success using the six steps.

A few years ago, I read about a scientist named Emoto who conducts water experiments to display concretly that thoughts become things. He labeled vials of water with either positive or negative words; froze the water, examined the pictures of frozen water crystals under microscope. His microscope images were photographed. The images are portraits portraying the impact of thoughts. Positive thoughts create beautiful cohesive crystalline structures, whereas negative words created muddy fractured images. Click for information about Emoto's Crystals.

Even if you have read widely and think that you know all about the LOA; give this one a try. The steps are well explained, with clearly presented, inspiring support assignments to help you open yourself. You are asked to be present, moment by moment; to allow yourself full access to your self as you respond to the six simple, yet very powerful steps. How you digest them, and how you apply them, is up to you.

The six steps are
1. set aside negative thoughts and focus on positive results, or potential; express gratitude for all blessings and possibilities.
2. eliminate negative influences - stop the energy drain
3. determine what you really want and see how that really looks and feels to you.
4. ask for what you want and do what is needed to
5. allow it to come into your life
6. receive what you want

In reading "You Can Attract It". I found that I wanted to take my time to consider what I was reading. I intend rereading this book, some parts, I am sure I will read many times over. If you read this book, I hope you enjoy exploring the six steps; may reading the book leave you happier, and with a deepened sense of your self worth; and yes, I also wish you every happiness and joy for every area of your life.

With the help of the Green Restaurant Association, the Pita Pit in Indianapolis has completed its 2 Star Certification making it the first Certified Green Restaurant in Indiana.

Indianapolis, IN, March 01, 2010 --(PR.com)-- Pita Pit, a multi-unit concept with locations throughout the United States and Canada, is proud to add another location to their list of Certified Green Restaurant® locations: Pita Pit’s Indianapolis eatery is now a 2 Star Certified Green Restaurant®. The restaurant began working with the Green Restaurant Association (GRA) in September to earn Certification, which was recently awarded. The GRA is a non-profit organization that specializes in helping restaurants become more environmentally sustainable through their Certification program and consulting services.

AUTISM RESOURCES

Scientists often study depression, anxiety and fear, but why not devote your work to the causes of positive human qualities like happiness and compassion? the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader asked.

"I couldn't give him a good answer," recalled Davidson, a University of Wisconsin-Madison neuroscientist.

Since then, Davidson has become a partner in the Dalai Lama's attempts to build a connection between Buddhism and western science. This weekend, the Dalai Lama will mark the opening of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the university's Waisman Center, where more than a dozen researchers will study the science behind positive qualities of mind. Davidson said the center will be the only one in the world with a meditation room next to a brain imaging laboratory.

Davidson's research has used brain imaging technology on Buddhist monks and other veteran practitioners of meditation to try to learn how their training affects mental health.

His team's findings suggest meditation and other "contemplative practices" can improve compassion, empathy, kindness and attention. They support the concept that even adult brains can change through experience and learning.

"He's made some interesting discoveries about meditation, and I think he is doing very good science," said John Wiley, who was university chancellor from 2001 to 2008 and is interim director of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery.

Initially, "a significant number of his colleagues around the world were suspicious and thought that it wasn't adequately grounded in hard science," Wiley said. "He's proved them wrong."

The appearance comes as the Dalai Lama has spent more time promoting research into traditional Buddhist meditative practices and urging scientists to help create a more ethical and peaceful world.

Davidson, named one of Time magazine's most 100 influential people in 2006, will appear with the Dalai Lama at scientific events five times this year.

"His relationship with the Dalai Lama lends a great deal of public influence to the hard science that he does," said David Addiss, a former Centers for Disease Control official who now works at the Fetzer Institute, a Michigan nonprofit that gave Davidson a $2.5 million grant.

Yet Davidson's relationship with the Dalai Lama remains controversial. When he invited the Dalai Lama to speak at a 2005 neuroscience conference, dozens of researchers signed a petition in protest.

Some of the criticism appeared motivated by Chinese researchers who disagree politically with the Dalai Lama's stance on Tibet. Others said it was an inappropriate mix of faith with science.

Davidson, who meditates every morning but does not consider himself a practicing Buddhist, has also been criticized for being too close to someone with an interest in the outcome of his research.

Davidson said the Dalai Lama's commitment to science is remarkable for a religious leader of his stature, and notes that the Dalai Lama has said he is prepared to give up any part of Buddhism that is contradicted by scientific fact.

"He also is the first one to point out the limitations of meditation and how it's not a cure all and be all for everything and has very limited effects on health," Davidson said.

Davidson is ready to test his research in real-world situations. The center plans to begin training local fifth-grade teachers next fall to cultivate skills like patience and relaxation among their students.

"We're really intrigued with his research that shows students can learn how to relax so they can focus more on learning," said Sue Abplanalp, assistant superintendent for elementary schools in the Madison public schools.

Notes form Hardwick, Vermont - a local food presentation on CREATE, PBS. Featuring the Highfield Institute with a foucs on compost and the creation of a community of networking farmers with a goal of local sustainability. Community has established Jasper Hill Cheeses and Cheese bank. Recently opened is Claire's Restaurant. Town food saved - more resource info on http//www.gourmet.com/diaryofafoodie