Gloria Ferris

Who knew that I would have to be reminded by my husband Tim of what is so important? I am fortunate to have the most wonderful care here (at MetroHealth in stroke rehab), but today this story is about my nurse Michelle.

Yesterday, she spent quite a bit of time with us telling us about Foster and Kleiser’s billboard business and about her uncle who was a poster artist. I believe I may have known him during the political campaigns of the ’70s, but that’s a blog for another day.

So yesterday, when we were having this conversation, I insisted on continuing to call her Marjorie even though I insisted I knew her name was Michelle. I said that Marjorie was a beautiful name and that it would be a good name for her.

To be truthful, I am not sure that I could get "Michelle" to stick in my head. But, what I didn’t realize was that I had forgotten what I had always prided myself on: Remembering peoples’ names. I am putting it in my head early, I have done this since 1972 when I first started student teaching: People’s names are who they are.

I grew up with Mom and Dad, who always were very centered on making sure that people were included and that new people were welcome. Thanks to Tim, I didn’t forget the biggest part of me and I won’t forget Michelle’s name, I know I won’t.

Through the days, I’ll be writing more little snippets, but they may be much different from what you remember, but remember, after all, this is my experience.

Wow, is it great to get back to writing!

Last evening I was with a small group of neighbors working on a group project when our conversation turned to heating our homes this winter- the cost of doing that, what each of us are doing to achieve that, and alternative ways to do it without a large dependence on natural gas.

Our hostess had apologized for the coolness of her home, and since we had finished our original task we turned our attention to heating our homes.   She said that she had turned the heat on when she arrived home from work but the furnace was still catching up.  She then said she was  looking for alternative ways to heat her home.  Three stories is a lot of square footage to heat.  Of course, she said her third floor bedroom was quite toasty.  It was the public area on the first floor that was more problematic.

Interestly enough, none of us had turned on their heat yet.  We all said that we had been wearing bulky sweaters and vests, wool socks, and heating our homes with electric heaters.   We have had some pretty chilly nights, but all of us were stretching the time line to its limit.  We were all aware that this weekend might be the turning point. 

We all agreed that our relationship with normal gas suppliers was deteriorating daily. The news that the PUCO had agreed to allow them to increase delivery charges, when conservation is at its highest point ever,  does not bode well for natural gas prices this winter.  Additionally, the international news that Russia, Iran, and  Qatar are exploring the formation of a cartel much like OPEC for natural gas should concern us all.  Given the fact that the United States has a 3.5% reserve of the natural resource compared to the 60% the cartel would own  means that this commodity will only rise on the world markets just as oil did.  We will definitely not be controlling our destiny if we continue our dependency on natural gas.

One of our group mentioned Mr. Slim heat pumps good to 0 degrees Farenheit.  He said that the electricity is negligible to run the unit.  Right now, he personally uses two $120 electric heaters to heat his 900 square foot home.  He is looking for alternative sources for heating and cooling for his rental properties.  He believes that low energy bills will be a marketing point for getting and retaining good tenants.  We all agreed.

One of our friends installed a geothermal unit.  He said that it did his heart good when he finally received that first gas bill where they owed him.  So my questions are how do we leverage this discomfort with the old models of heating, how do we cut our dependence on natural gas, how do we continue to conserve energy, and how do we eventually get off the grid and form a new paradigm?  We need more instruction than layering of clothes.  HELP!!    

Below is an email that I received after I signed the petition to demand labeling of Gene-Altered Food. 

Dear  Friends,
I have just read and signed the petition: “Frankenfood? Demand Labeling of Gene-Altered Food!”.
Please take a moment to read about this important issue, and join me in signing the petition. It takes just 30 seconds, but can truly make a difference. We are trying to reach 10000 signatures – please sign here: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/314188001
Once you have signed, you can help even more by asking your friends and family to sign as well.
Thank you! Gloria

http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/VdK7/qM../AoKSy

Locally grown and locally produced food is one way that Tim and I avoid over processed and gene altered food.  I grew up in the country surrounded by farms and farmers.  My grandfather and his brother were dairy farmers.  My father kept his finger in the pie by buying equipment and working for farmers to supplement his income.  Believe me, as long as I can remember chemicals and genetics were a topic of conversation at the local feed mill, around the dinner table and after church.  The balancing act is only getting more tottery as the years pass.

All I know is that the local farmers I grew up were much closer to the overall environment than the agriculture conglomerates of today.  My father taught me how runoff from fields entered the water supply, how chemical dusting entered the atmosphere and settled downwind, how it was our responsibility to produce the best product possible so that we got the best prices for our wheat and corn and beef.  i wonder what drives agribusiness firms today. Are they as close to the interconnection of our ecology as the farmers of yesteryear or are they driven by return on investment?

Tim is fond of saying that fast food and processing have altered the stature and weight of younger generations.  In comparison to my generation, younger people have consumed more steroids, more antibiotics, more processed and more altered food in their lifetimes.  These alterations will probably become even more commonplace in the future.  Should we not know what we are consuming?  If genetically altering our food is an okay thing to do, why would there be resistance to labeling?  How difficult could it be to create an international symbol that could be stamped on such food?  If altered food is equal to unaltered food what is the problem?

If you believe in quality control of our food supply, take the 30 seconds to click thru and sign the petition.  

Having read the comments on this Plain Dealer article and this one, I couldn’t help but wonder why the commenters attack the very people that need help more than any of us.  How do the borrowers who are victims of predatory lending become the cause of the problem?  I believe that the statistics show that at least 80% of the loans are being paid.  And are we ignoring the fact that at this point in time 10% of conventional loans are 60 days past due?  What are the causes of THAT statistic? How have the women, children, and chronically ill who rely on Medicaid become the reason that an HMO contract is seen by a hospital as too restrictive and not sustainable?

The poor in this country are our children who certainly are not perpatrators but victims and our elderly that live longer lives without resources.  I grant that there is a group of people who have made poor choices that end up the recipient of public assistance, but how large a percentage?  And when we focus on that segment do we diminish our ability to solve the social issues that cause extreme poverty?

For the majority of us, I think that the underlying emotion that fuels this animosity is fear.  After all, many of us in this country are just a heartbeat away from that which we fear.  And if not a heartbeat, just a phrase away.  Downsizing  will certainly start rolling off the lips of employers for many reasons.

Now is not the time to be fearful and attack the victims of what has occurred.  Now is the time to be bold, to invent new ways of dealing with runaway healthcare costs, to innovate new ways to create jobs and to educate our children so that they will be prepared to compete in the world.  A sure way of  losing what we have is to jealously guard it from unseen “foes”.

I believe that the opportunity here in NEO to reverse twenty years of poverty has never been better.  We have the talent, the resources and the capabilities to become very prosperous here if we don’t forget that inclusiveness serves a better purpose than exclusivity.   The possibilities for innovation are almost endless-new ways of educating our youth, creating jobs through new industries, approaching healthcare from the viewpoint of wellness instead of sickness, collaboration among businesses to create an enterprise mind set…. 

I believe that if we heed these words of Hubert Humphrey:

It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped.

when moving forward that we indeed will be prosperous.  We as a society–forget government– cannot forget the children, the elderly, the sick, the needy and the disabled.  We should not be looking elsewhere for the answers on how to transform our region.  It is not up to the government.  It is our task.  We must be fearless.

While in Tennessee visiting my granddaughter Teagan and her parents, one day, as I sipped my coffee, I began thinking about the global financial crisis which led me to financiers, stock brokers, and bankers. Suddenly, my mind wandered over to pirates.  At that time, my take was that pirates way back when had a code of ethics that prevented them from plundering certain countries-loyal to the crown and all that. Certain ports were protected. The pirate crews, often retreated to their own islands dividing their booty carousing and living the good life until they ran low on rum and other necessities. They, then.  took another foray out into the world.  Given the romantic notion that we now have of pirates, it is often thought that they did not take more than was necessary to keep themselves and their communities alive and well.

Fast forward to the pirates of today, and it is hard to see where the loyalties of these modern day pirates lie.  Basically, it seemed more like a feeding frenzy of sharks who had been given the hapless pirate who “walked the plank”.  Needless to say, I thought my early morning musings farfetched and fanciful so I parked them in the dark recesses of my mind doubting that they would see the light of day.  And then, today, I read this article from  the October 15, 2008 Science Daily which comments on the recent writings of Dr. Peter Hayes, Senior Lecturer on Politics at the University of Sunderland     

No longer so far-fetched.  But now, my mind wanders to dinosaurs, evolution, and how some species become extinct.  And, as I wander I wonder, is it time for these dinosaurs to die?  And if they die, what will evolve to take their place? 

Warren Buffett knows if you are going to take on great risk, be sure to negotiate a hard bargain and at least have the option to make millions.  I just received my latest edition of The Economist where I learned this. 

I haven’t seen anything on line about the $700 Billion Bailout of the banking industry.  Personally, I like the idea of loaning them the money.  You see, when they get behind on their loans because they haven’t the money to pay back the American taxpayer, we can have our servicing agent, the government, tell them that their “client” has informed them that they can no longer work with them and that they are in default.  We, the taxpayers, will then own the banks.  In other words, we can foreclose on them. Turnabout is fair play.

Why in the world would we the American Taxpayer give the money to the banks without getting something in return?  Shouldn’t we let the free market decide which banks would survive and which would become part of the collateral owned by the United States?  After all, I believe that is what U.S. Treasurer Hank Paulson recommended not so long ago when told that the housing bubble had burst and that the walls were crumbling down.

Of course, no one knew just how far the rolling stones would fall and now that retirement and pension funds, local and state governments will be affected by this debacle, something should be done.  But I ask you, why should we give them this money with no strings attached so that they can again “play the game” with no repercussions for the reckless way they played “the game” this time?

Could that be the problem with this whole scenario?  It wasn’t a game, it was people’s lives, it was people’s savings, it was America’s way of life.  It was only a game to those who saw only the numbers and never the faces behind those numbers.

I see no reason that we the American Taxpayer should bail out the financial industry without receiving something in return.  After all, according to the investment gurus, our world revolves on ROI (Return on Investment).  Maybe not so much.

I picked up this article form the Cincinnati Enquirer about libraries and the Internet through Crain’s Business Round-up.  I LOVE getting that update everyday in my email.  It broadens my knowledge of what is going on throughout our state through the eyes of the Crain’s Business staff.  I tried to provide the link here but for some reason am unable to do so.  Sorry about that.

I realized how lucky I am to have wireless and a laptop because my access is instantaneous and complete.  Obviously, the American public knows the advantage of access to the Internet.  Education today comes in many different forms and in many different places.  People are willing to wait in line for it.

Our Cleveland Public Library is not called the People’s University just because it is a catchy phrase.  It truly is the people’s university. Voters know the importance of our libraries.  Time after time they vote to raise our taxes so that we can continue to have world class libraries in our communities.   

So how are we going to raise awareness of the advantages of using the Internet beyond those who already know and how are we going to broaden access to the very things that could help our communities prosper through their own efforts?  OneCommunity has begun the process with Linked Communities, but there is more work to be done.

Education comes in many shapes and sizes.  Time is of the essence.

I just posted this over at Midtown Brews.  I think the topic, the speaker, and the opportunities at this event are so important and timely that I have decided to post this everywhere.

“Give me land lots of land, lots of land under starry skies above. Don’t Fence Me In”, the Cole Porter song sung by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters as well as a host of others.  On the other hand, Will Rogers said “buy land, they aren’t making any more of it”.

Our topic for the June 5^th Brews is LAND.  County Treasurer Jim Rokakis will lead our discussion of the proposed land bank legislation that Ohio will tackle in November.  The passage of this legislation is only the beginning of what will be a transformative change in our region and Ohio.  How the land bank advisory board, the disposition of properties, and the decision-making process for local communities are shaped provides a huge opportunity to “get it right”.

Civic engagement and the public process will be critical elements of a “land bank” that will be a deciding factor in a new form of economic development.  How can the land bank be used to draw new businesses to our region?  How will it retain the businesses we now have?  How could it be used to draw in a skilled workforce?  Which communities will find new ways to use this tool to enhance the attractiveness of the live, work and play potential inherent in that community?  What is the potential to use the land bank to strategically plan for shrinking our footprint?  How will we balance quantity with quality?

This brews has the potential to give us an opportunity to start the conversation to begin thinking in new ways and bringing together the best practices of Open Source Economic Development. 

Tomorrow we vote for two very important issues that identify us as a community.  The voters of Cuyahoga County consistently support quality of life issues that affect our communities.  These are hard times financially for a lot of folks in our communities in Cuyahoga County, but I believe that again our voters will rise to the occasion and vote “YES” on these two issues. 

Issue Two will be voted on by the people of Cleveland.  The Cleveland Public Library at its inception was noted as “the People’s University”.  That moniker has been resurrected by Library Director Andrew Venable and succinctly voices the place that this library holds in our community. Ranked third nationally in the “best in research”, right behind the Boston and Chicago Public Libraries, our library stands with some great company. 

While researching for a quote earlier today, I found the perfect one on Dr. John Ellison’s website. Dr. Ellison is an associate professor of Library and Information Studies at the University at Buffalo.  His website was a rightful place to find a quote on the importance of libraries.  Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s words ring as true now as they did then.

“It seems to me that the dedication of a library is in itself an act of faith. To bring together the records of the past and to house them in buildings where they will be preserved for the use of men and women in the future, a nation must believe in three things:
It must believe in the past.
It must believe in the future.
It must, above all, believe in the capacity of its own people so to learn from the past that they can gain in judgment in creating their own future.”

                       (Remarks at the dedication of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, June 30, 1941.)   

Issue 15 will be decided by a majority vote of all Cuyahoga County voters. And, a reason to vote for Issue 15 needs nothing more in my book than the words of Hubert Humphrey:  This quote comes to you thanks to Brainy Quotes-a place where I find many of the quotes that I can’t quite place in regards to who said it or how it was said. Please Vote March 4th.  
 
It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped. 
 

This month’s Brews explored a topic that is fast approaching D-Day- the new  AMP Ohio “clean coal” contract that Cleveland City Council will sign or reject on March 1.  There will be a public hearing held this Friday, February 22 which will provide the last discussion before a vote is taken.

I grew up in rural Ohio and I am puzzled by the expression “clean coal”.  In my book, there is no such thing, but that is the tag line, so I went wanting to know the answer to that question.  I also wanted to know how it could economically benefit our city to sign a FIFTY year contract with a private company.

The format of this conversation was different than the usual Midtown Brews  Thanks to Stefani Spear of Earthwatch Ohio we had a well-versed panel on the subject.  Go here to see the panelists.   We also had approximately 100 people in the room who were extremely interested in the subject.  A lot of things were different about this Brews-we were in a new place, there was live streaming video, Andy Halko, founder of Insivia, our host monitered an ongoing chat so that people watching could enter in the conversation.  Despite all those changes, one thing remained the same.  I departed with a different perspective than when I arrived. 

My first question in regards to “clean Coal” is coal isn’t clean, but what is different about this coal plant will be the requirement for stringent scrubbing and something called CO2 Carbon Recapture Technology .  Those of us who live in Cleveland are well aware of the hows and why and if scrubbing is done.  But then, we found out that the reality of Meigs County is this.  Meigs County is the ONLY county in Ohio that does not NOW have EPA monitors in place.  The Ohio EPA is working feverishly to change this, but the legislation and the paperwork is still not in place.  Meigs County presently has more coal plants than any other county in Ohio.  I also believe it is very high on the scale nationally.  Why does this situation exist?

Councilman Zone then stated that IF Cleveland signs the contract that it will give us a 10% stake (I am paraphrasing here and I may not be stating this exactly, but this would give Cleveland a place at the table where we could then monitor the company and make sure that EPA standards are followed and enhanced) Go to Meet The Bloggers for the whole story.  I believe that the three young men at that table believe that it is better to be involved than to simply say NO, and I agree with that philosophy.  I also believe that we have three very capable advocates for “green” issues.  However, I know firsthand, promises made, and not kept by coal companies. 

I grew up on the border of Wayne and Holmes Counties where strip mining in the late sixties and early seventies was ”big business” .  Promises that said land would be reclaimed, damage from blasting would be reimbursed, “when we leave you won’t know we were here”.  Thirty years later,  the forest on the hills has been replaced by what my father always called scrub brush, structures that were once homes remain abandoned and vacant because of blasting damage to foundations or because wells dried up because of a shift in the water table.  An area never wealthy in money, but an area rich in tradition, rural pride and beautiful scenery is much poorer today than it was when I was growing up.  Promises were made and not kept, and therefore, I believe that these young men who believe that they can make a difference need to proceed with eyes wide open.   

We never really talked much about the economic feasibilty of a fifty year contract or why it is in the best interest of our city except to bring in the CPP (Cleveland Public Power) piece which I understand is quite fragile at this point in time because it cannot expand unless there is a place to buy coal reasonably.  CPP is often brought up as the reason that our rates here in Cleveland are what they are, but I don’t see the advantage.  CPP and CEI rates are comparable.  We have  some of the highest rates if not the highest rates in Ohio.  Bill Callahan often posts on this issue.  Here, here, and here are examples of the questions Bill posits.  And then there is this post about the issue that includes  the independent study paid for by Ohio Citizens For Action that made me really sit up and take notice. 

From what I can glean from this study, the place at the table for those municipalities that sign the contract is on a participartory committee with no real authority.  The authority remains with the company’s board of directors but what I really found troubling was the ability of the company based on “market rates” to set price.  Why would we enter into a deal that does not set some limits to price?  Also, there appears to be no back door.  What if our need for coal dwindles because of new technologies, new ways of conservation, and who knows why else our need for coal may decrease?  If more stringent Federal EPA guidelines are introduced and passed, where will we be holding a contract that ties us to a dying industry for how many more years? How come I keep thinking of the story about Daniel Webster and the Devil?

I am still finding it hard to see the economic benefit for us to sign this fifty year contract.  As many of the people said at the meeting, with or without Cleveland the deal goes forward.  But then, the really, really hard thing for me to get my head around is how do we in Cleveland justify being part of adding one more coal plant to an area inundated with coal plants?

The accompanying air and water pollution, the health issues of breathing dirty air, the fouling of the Ohio River which is one of the largest sources of fresh water which eventually flows into the Mississippi and the possibility of mountaintop mining changing the skyline in are beautiful state  are probably the more troubling issues.  How can we here in Northeast Ohio move forward economically knowing that by so doing, we have sentenced our neighbors in Meigs County to a continuation of a quality of life that consists of dirty air and fouled water? 

If any group of people should understand the moral issue that is staring us in the face, it should be those of us who have lived in sight of the steel mills for generations.  Our economy here took a huge hit when the steel mills began to shrink, but the water quality of the Cuyahoga River bounced back.  Although our air quality is still not anything to put in the plus column it certainly is better than when I moved here in the 70’s.  And no one, in the discussion that night, mentioned the coal miners who depend on these mining jobs.  There will be two coal plants that will close.  Will those miners go to the new plant?  Will there be as many jobs as now?  

Councilman Brian Cummins in one simple statement said it all.  “I worked in the Peace Corps for three years during those years, I had no TV, I could do that I am not sure that everyone else would.” So how do we balance the need for electricty with the health of our planet?