Fwd: Important Readings for Today

[Ellen Sokolow]

Ellen Sokolow

www.ellensokolow.org

608-829-3702

Begin forwarded message:

From: Maureen Dill <maure...@msn.com>
Date: November 24, 2011 11:57:59 AM EST
To: Murray Bell <landscaper...@yahoo.com>, Mark and Deb Bergeron <berg...@hotmail.com>, Alan Curtis <acu...@stny.rr.com>, Maureen Dill <maure...@msn.com>, Doug Ernst <dae...@yahoo.com>, Carla Hall <car...@chdg.com>, Jayne Frye <jf...@frontiernet.net>, ChrisandKaren <giv...@frontiernet.net>, Nancy Goehner <na...@strawberryandvine.com>, Faith Houston <faithh...@gmail.com>, TedNan Johnston <ted...@frontiernet.net>, David MacKenzie <ma...@pipeline.com>, Dee Mackie <deem...@msn.com>, Bill Nealis <shamro...@citlink.net>, Carol Nealis <rev...@citlink.net>, Stacia Norman <sta...@gatehousebooks.net>, Rich Barbieri <doo...@yahoo.com>, Rick <ro2...@columbia.edu>, Christine Parshall <cparsh...@yahoo.com>, Alice Richardson <arich...@stny.rr.com>, Marilyn Roveland <rove...@yahoo.com>, Linda Rowett <lro...@msn.com>, Dawn Sieck <dsie...@gmail.com>, Roy Bartoo <bart...@frontier.com>, Mike Virgil <mkvi...@yahoo.com>, Barbara Virgil <virgi...@yahoo.com>, Mike Wilcox <mikewi...@yahoo.com>, Mary Dugan <coms...@hotmail.com>, Sharon Bosco <sbo...@frontiernet.net>, <be...@chdg.com>, Joan Lawton <jmla...@stny.rr.com>, Kelly O'Brien Shumway <kelly...@hotmail.com>, bob thomas <bob.th...@gmail.com>, BillandPat Moore <tom...@frontiernet.net>, Brenda <brenda...@yahoo.com>, Heidi Stanton <rawh...@yahoo.com>, Lois Jones <lois...@frontiernet.net>, Ellen Sokolow <ellen....@gmail.com>, Earl Boyd <earl...@frontier.com>
Subject: Important Readings for Today

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Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2011 11:21:08 -0500
From: russell....@gmail.com
To: carole...@frontiernet.net
CC: sustaina...@lists.riseup.net
Subject: Re: [sustainableotsego] A reply to a request from a Bloomberg reporter.

Here is a bit broader context, it comes from Andrew Phillips.

Andrew used to say years ago that the fracking was the war come home, and I reminded him.

Carole elegantly expanded on that, and asked for more input. Thanksgiving Day, what the hell - I'm

thankful for the people who stand up - as Anne Marie Garti  wrote a few minutes ago. What follows is

from my brother, Andrew Phillips:

FY collective Information: Yes I have said this. I do remember but thank you for reminding me that I did. I think we have all three - Russ, Ann and me had cogent things to say about this frack thing. I just wrote a small tract on the Occupied Movement here at KPFA and include it here" In terms of the Occupied movement. Of course it will never please everybody. It started from a groundswell of people's frustration. It started out with a simple premise - "occupy Wall Street" and then occupy other places too, to show there is deep concern about the the direction of our societies. Whether it (whatever "it" is) has done enough to include other viewpoints and communities may be open to debate. But I am surprised the Occupied Movement has gone this far. How much further it can go I don't know. I am not hopeful. But it shows there are a lot of people concerned and not just those in tents. It is the tip of an iceberg.  If other movement can tap into the need to change and have positive suggestions and actions to do that then they should - but don't expect the diffuse and essentially leaderless Occupied Movement to do it. It is a frame for change. I don't think it is the change itself.  Whether it's possible to create real change in the larger community has always been the subject for much debate. From my point of view, mercantile capitalism, which has always been supported by slavery of one kind or another including the "slavery" many in the workplace face today here and abroad, is the real enemy. But neither has Communism provided any credible examples of authentic positive change. And Communism has its own litany of atrocities and abuse. Both rely on resource depletion to drive them. Until society stops depleting resources there will be inequality. Fracking is such a clear example of environment abuse and the damage caused by resource depletion. But I have also always said that until we are prepared to not use the gas provided by NYSEG et al, to boil our water and heat our homes , we really don't have a right to complain.  I've always said that the silver lining in the anti-frack movement is the community it has drawn together and the accumulated intelligence gathered. It is highly insulting for the drones who run these hearings, who are the handmaidens for industry (as Russ has said), that they can ignore the truth of what has been said. How fucking dare they! I ask - how much more can we take? They need to be shut down. I urge you to look at this and send it on - "MIC CHECK!"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbmjMickJMA&feature=player_embedded Andrew Leslie Phillips General Manager (Interim) KPFA Pacifica Radio 94.1FM 510-848-6767 ext. 203 www.kpfa.org (mobile) 917-771-9382 http://andrewlesliephillips.blogspot.com/ http://www.hancockpermaculture.org http://www.permaculturedesignsolutions.com Permaculture encourages:  "Care of Earth. Care of people. Return of surplus to both." "It is time to sit down and be still,  for you are very drunk, and we are at the edge of the roof." --Rumi and... "Follow your bliss and don't be afraid;  doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be."  ---Joseph Campbell

On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 12:27 PM, Russell Honicker <russell....@gmail.com> wrote:

This fellow Schwartz who testified in Binghamton at the SGEIS hearing last Thursday sat in the hotel outside of Cooperstown a few weeks back

and heard person after person stand and deliver their outrage that the Susquehanna River Basin Commission was permitting water withdrawals for fracking.

Schwartz is the NYS representative on the SRBC. At the end of the Cooperstown meeting, new permits were issued - despite the near unanimous

opposition of the citizenry.

You have NY saying frack hell out of the Susquehanna River Basin,

but save the Delaware Basin from fracking. 

How broad an indictment of our system is that?

Russ

On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 11:59 AM, Carole Marner <carole...@frontiernet.net> wrote:

I am posting the following now on SO because since I submitted it to other list-serves I have received a lot of mail supporting and endorsing what I wrote and several saying that they welcomed a larger discussion of the broader political context of fracking.

On Nov 18, 2011, at 3:50 PM, JIM EFSTATHIOU JR., BLOOMBERG/ NEWSROOM: wrote:

Carole,

I saw your post earlier in response to Tracy Carluccio and was wondering if you had a  few minutes to talk?

Jim Efstathiou Jr. Bloomberg News Tel: 212 617 1647 Cell: 202 413 8189 E-mail: jefst...@bloomberg.net

Dear Mr.  Efstathiou,

I do have a few minutes to write to you - not privately to you, however, but also to others on these lists.

First, I have to tell you, Mr. Efstathiou, that I am a lowly foot soldier in this movement although I am sure that has nothing to do with why you wanted to talk to me.  You may have been interested in my rejection of the idea that the DRBC cancellation of the meeting is a victory for the anti-fracking movement.  But I think it is primarily because I said that what the DRBC meeting cancellation  "means to me is that the powers that want fracking need more time to tighten the screws on any legislators that might stray from the fold."

Let me preface everything by saying that, biassed as I may be, I think that it is New Yorkers that have moved this awful thing called fracking into the national consciousness.   But I also think that so far we have not faced the fact that what we may now call a struggle or a conflict is actually a war.  With the military industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us of.  With the political-corporate oligarchy that rules us now.  I am sure They know it is a war. They have been waging that same war on and off since 1914.  It is a war for resources. Or, more accurately now in the 21st century, for control of what resources are left.

Essentially, I think that, like Occupy Wall Street, the Anti-Fracking movement is fighting for the kind of future we want to have.  Both struggles began in a determination to turn back repressive political measures and economic hardships inflicted on us.  Although it has not been definitively articulated, both movements are also rooted in the fact of the loss of cheap available energy and the necessity to move on to a low-energy, low-consumption future.  I think we do know that if we win this struggle our lives will differ greatly from the ones we have lived.   Because that is the only possible future. What the oligarchy wants to maintain has no future.

Basically this is a war for survival.

Carole Satrina Marner
1245 Oak Hill Road
Franklin, NY 13775
(607) 829 8451
carole...@frontiernet.net

Visit the Sustainable Otsego website:
http://sustainableotsego.org/

Sign the petition to ban hydrofracking in NYS here:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/NY-Statewide-Ban-On-Natural-Gas-Drilling/

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