Planting Peace

A vital, energizing message from Ronnie Cummins and the Organic Consumers Association:

"As we approach the end of 2022, OCA and our family of organizations want to thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for your loyalty and support. In this part of Minnesota, at the edge of Lake Superior and the Boundary Waters Wilderness, the traditional Finnish term for the state of mind you need in order to survive and thrive in hard times is Sisu. The internet says that "Sisu” means “determination and courage in the face of great adversity," but around here the old-timers will add that real Sisu requires “stubborn determination” and “wild optimism.”

OCA, and myself in particular, have often been dissed as “impractical,” “utopian,” and “overly optimistic.” Saying that we are going to make organic and regenerative food and farming, and natural herbs, supplements, and medicines the norm, rather than just the alternative, requires Sisu. It requires that we stubbornly nurture and strengthen the positive solutions emerging in our communities and regions, even as we expose and fight back against the evil deeds, addictive temptations, and daily threats of “business as usual.” Saying that we are not only going to mitigate, but actually reverse environmental destruction and global warming, demands that we seek out and magnify the Big Change best practices of regenerative agriculture, land use, renewable energy, and conservation, instead of just settling for small change, too little, too late.

Planting peace, regenerating health, reversing the global epidemic of diet and environmentally-caused chronic disease, abolishing nuclear weapons, eliminating poverty and forced migration, bringing genetically engineered food and the weaponizing of pathogens to a halt, stopping the next pandemic before it starts. All of this will require “stubborn determination” as well as “wild optimism.”

The last few years certainly meet the definition of “great adversity.” OCA and our closest allies, as well as myself personally, have come under vicious attack again in 2022, slandered, censored, and threatened. Despite intense pressure we have refused to back down on the muckraking and truth-telling in Organic Bytes, and have maintained our 300,000-strong network of loyal subscribers. We promise you we will continue to expose, and struggle against the corporados, mad scientists, war-mongers, and would-be dictators. But we will also do our best to publicize, support, and campaign for the organic and natural health practices that we know will someday be the norm.

If you can afford it, please send OCA an end of year tax-deductible donation. Several generous donors have agreed to match all donations that come in before January 31, 2023."

The Silence Is Deafening

Your silence is deafening

your blindness is illuminating

your amnesia is memorable

your dumbing down is instructive

your wilful ignorance speaks volumes.

We see you, we hear you, 

we remember you, we know you, 

we have learned what you have done to us.

Anthem For Doomed Youth

Anthem For Doomed Youth

by Wilfred Owen, 1917

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

      — Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

      Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; 

      Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—

The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

      And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

      Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes

Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.

      The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;

Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,

And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

... the clocks were striking thirteen.

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him.

The hallway smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag mats. At one end of it a coloured poster, too large for indoor display, had been tacked to the wall. It depicted simply an enormous face, more than a metre wide: the face of a man of about forty-five, with a heavy black moustache and ruggedly handsome features. Winston made for the stairs. It was no use trying the lift. Even at the best of times it was seldom working, and at present the electric current was cut off during daylight hours. It was part of the economy drive in preparation for HateWeek. The flat was seven flights up, and Winston, who was thirty-nine and had a varicose ulcer above his right ankle, went slowly, resting several times on the way. On each landing, opposite the lift shaft, the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran...."

These are the chilling opening lines of George Orwell's 1984.

O Canada

Canada. Our Home and Native Land.

The True North, Strong and free.

Proud in Spirit, Strong of Heart.

Not divided in two, but United As One.

Bad Cat Bob

Cartoon detail by Bob Moran, www.bobmoran.co.uk

OK, so who is this bad cat Bob?

Ah, here we go, found him on my go-to Twitter, Wikipedia, Fact Checkers (Facebook), Full Fact, Guardian, BBC, CBC, CNN, Vaxopedia ...

Here he is, Bob Malone, Bob Moran, Bobby Kennedy; why are all these nutters named Bob? Just as I thought: nutbar, conspiracy theorist, anti-vaxxer, dissident, debunked, anti-science, extremist. And I thought Bob was a brilliant cartoonist, epidemiologist, author, speaker, orator, lawyer? More fool, me. Can't be bothered to dig any further; anyway, the evidence is clear. Coach Fauci was right all along. In classic American football style, he is our trusted blustering bully destroying the opposition. He has run up an almost unassailable half-time lead. Trademark defense, running interference, block tackles aplenty, warp speed offense, nullifying the pitiful counter. What a Playbook! Shock and awe! A blowout! He's running up the score, stacking the numbers.

(And yet the home fans never gave up hope. They resisted the onslaught and rallied their brow-beaten troops from meek surrender to valiant fightback, clawing back the deficit despite all the odds. The resilient crowd found its voice and was roused into raucous uplift. It ain't over until the Coach crumbles, his Playbook implodes, or the fat lady sings).

"Science is the belief in the fallibility of experts”, said the brilliant physicist Richard Feynman.