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More Peace in the world today. Nuclear Security Summit of 47 nations.

We haven't blown ourselves to bits and kingdom come due to the deterrent of the people.

God bless the 47 nations call to peace.

Climate Bill moving through Congress

Well, I am still waiting on the $1 million rebate to Americans to come through. In the mean time some news on the Climate Crisis/Global Warming problems. Finally the US government is doing something about our major contribution to CO2 emissions by working on a Climate Bill. The House will probably finish up their work this summer and then on to the Senate. This bill is an excellent lesson on what happens when a President presents a really good bill to Congress and then the vultures take it apart. When the final bill is finished it would be a really good example of what started as a terrific bill and what Congress and lobbyists do to it. It is also a good example of how powerful anything to do with energy is in this country. Still it is better than nothing. Maybe concessions to big industry is the only way to get something like this done, even if the middle class taxpayers lose something.

Exxon has started drillling in the Arctic. Govenor S. is talking about more offshore drilling around Santa Barbara near Channel Islands National Marine Life Sanctuary. Oil already leaks on top of the ocean around the present platform. What if it caught fire? Taking 10 steps forward on the answers to our CO2 emission problem in our Climate Crisis and then going 50 miles backwards is not the way to proceed. It does take thinking and a whole lot of committment to turn our civilization around. We must. The polar ice caps are melting faster than thought as well as our glaciers and Greenland's coast. We can only predict what a couple of degrees warmup of our oceans could mean to life there. There are already dead zones that are huge in the Pacific Ocean. Scientists are predicting that we will lose at least 1/3 of the species on the planet. That loss will effect their environments in far-reaching negative ways.

I never thought I would see what is happening and read about what is going to happen in my whole life and I have been working in environmental concerns for over 40+ years.

Great Change for the USA ~ Lincoln-King-Obama

Much has been written and will be written about this great event in America and how it will change our history forever. From Abigail Adams telling her husband John Adams, our Second President, that the great sin of slavery will blight this nation to President Lincoln and the Civil War of Emancipation and the abolishment of slavery, to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and the Civil Rights Act of the 60's and finally, the election and Inauguration of the first African-American President, our 44th President Barack Obama.

I feel so blessed to be a participating citizen and to watch these changes take place, changes that sometimes caused dissention in my family. The fun part for me is that this President is also a green President. I am looking so forward to working through the many organizations with which I am active with President Obama and this 111th Congress. The past 8 years of frustration will hopefully fade away into the fruitfullness of the future.

One terrific improvement in my life has already transpired...Books! I love to read biographies and lately I have been reading presidential bios. One of Obama's guide books to the Presidency is Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals which I am currently reading. She has a several bios under her belt so I am happy.

Anyway, Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, maybe the best ever, and hope you watch the Inauguration, especially for the historical significance but also because it should be quite a show!

Democracy

I like to photograph the sky when I can. Here in Silicon Valley there are rarely clouds above but almost always there is a beautiful blue sky. The second shot with the jet in it was an experiment in how well my Auto setting works with moving objects. Pretty good! I like blue skies because they help me to think and to dream. I am often at a bus stop and I always take into consideration my surroundings. I try to always keep my camera with me just in case something is worth shooting. The thoughts I had during when I shot these pics was about the up and coming Olympics and the Democratic National Convention and democracy in general.

I loved the Olympics and love to cheer, especially the water sports. My brother developed a dive in the early 60's that made a world record in NCAA. He never went on to the Olympics because it was an extremely dangerous dive. It killed a Soviet diver when he tried it off the high dive in the Soviet games. It hurt Greg L. when he tried it off the low dive and hit his head. My brother's close friend and life guard buddy talked him out of performing it after he recorded it in competition. My brother named it "The Suicide Dive". It was a 3 and 3/4 dive off the low. I truly believe he is alive today because he agreed to stop. I noticed this year again, that no one had attempted this dive, even off the high platforms. Of course, Michael Phelps was such an inspiration this year. I am in awe of his skills and sportsmanship. He is a true Olympian! Some of my favorite sculpture is from ancient Greece and shows some of the sports of the ancient games, the Olympians in white marble. I saw these sculptures in a special show when I was in London. They were wonderful and really captured the sport. It was such a thrill to see these games in Communist China, something from our ancient world that the Chinese obviously respect! I think it is events like the Olympics that will one day make communism disappear.

So from something from the ancient world of democracy up to the modern world of politics and the Democratic National Convention is a real thrill for me. The ancient Greeks are a culture that I have studied and read from the originals (not in Greek, though) because I think it is a fairer form of government than republics. My dad's family has been traced back to ancient Greece, particularily Troy, so I have a deeply personal interest. I have been watching speeches and seeing people I have never heard before. But tonight was the topper when, Hillary Clinton spoke. I wanted her to be our next President, believing she is the most prepared and has the best platform for the future of our country than anyone else. It has been a let down for me that she is not the candidate. But hearing her tonight, seeing her in her state of grace she so wonderfully wears for the world, I was so inspired to tears by her ideas, fortitude and energy to get on with it and support the candidate, Barack Obama. I just finished reading her book, Living History and was all fired up anyway.

Three weeks straight of world and national democracy has brightened up my world.