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Nov 16, 2009
Article on Green chemistry,
Reposted from http://www.bioneers.org website

Green chemistry is cleaning up pollution—and preventing it in the first place.

by Kim Ridley with Terry Collins

Industrial chemistry is a dirty business. More than 100,000 synthetic chemicals have been released into our air, water, soil and food, and few have been tested for health effects on human beings or other creatures. The consequences can be debilitating and even deadly as science continues to link exposure to industrial chemicals with diseases and disorders including cancer, reproductive problems, learning and immune system disorders and birth defects.

Terry Collins, director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Institute for Green Oxidation Chemistry, is creating chemicals that don’t pollute in the first place. He’s among the leaders of green chemistry, an emerging technology that makes new molecules that are safe by design. Green chemists avoid toxicity in new chemical products and processes by following “nature’s recipe book,” which uses elements that are commonly found in the living world.


Collins and his colleagues have invented nontoxic chemical catalysts that dramatically boost the power of one of nature’s miracle cleaners: hydrogen peroxide. Our bodies make hydrogen peroxide every day to destroy toxicants. Mimicking this process, Collins and his colleagues have created molecules called TAML activators, which work with hydrogen peroxide to clean up industrial pollution—and prevent it from happening in the first place.

While proving that it’s possible to create safe chemicals, Collins also talks his walk. He has effectively and courageously challenged industry spin-doctors for years about the perils of chlorinated byproducts. He talks with Kim Ridley about chemistry’s next revolution.


What inspired you to become a green chemist?

When I was a post-doc at Stanford University, I’d sit in the library on Saturday morning daydreaming about what the heck I was going to do in my own career. I’d always had an interest in toxicity and I was working with a group studying how various enzymes activate oxygen and hydrogen peroxide and trying to produce technologies mimicking this. At that time, chlorinated byproducts in drinking water, particularly chloroform, were being linked with cancer. I thought, wouldn’t it be incredible if we could disinfect water using a reagent that nature employs to break down chemicals, hydrogen peroxide or oxygen, rather than our manufactured chlorine. I came up with a design protocol that evolved from my initial thoughts in the Stanford Chemistry library, and fifteen years later, we had a catalyst.

How does green chemistry differ in approach from conventional chemistry?

In my worldview, green chemistry should always ask: is it good for babies? Or more significantly, is it bad for babies? If it’s bad for babies don’t do it. That’s what we’ve got to get ingrained into our field. That, of course, opens a whole new set of questions like, how do you understand whether some chemistry is or is not bad for babies? That then brings up the remarkable fact that chemists are not trained in toxicity and ecotoxicity. With conventional chemistry, we’re giving people the keys to cars without any driver training.

This is yet another one of the major changes that needs to occur in the collective academy. The toxicologists and chemists need to start talking a lot more, and the educational edifice of chemistry has to begin as quickly as possible to incorporate a fundamental understanding of toxicity. We should all be doing this because ultimately, the central issue is this: It is an inescapable responsibility of chemists that they should build the technological dimensions of a sustainable civilization.

Is it really possible to avoid unforeseen consequences when inventing new substances?

Whenever anybody is designing a new technology, there is always the potential that there will be a problem in the future. For example, people who initially developed phthalates, bisphenol-A, and other major chemicals had absolutely no idea that they would disrupt the endocrine function of all sorts of creatures. At first, they looked like the most extraordinarily innocent and nice little molecules, and phthalates even smell nice. But what’s unfolding now is an understanding of the ability of various synthetic compounds to interfere with hormonally controlled development.

Anybody developing a technology has to live with that uncertainty, but one thing we can do is to avoid the known mistakes. We pay a lot of attention to this in the design of TAML activators. When you look at where most of the ecotoxicity is coming from, the answers are relatively simple. Many of our big toxicity problems are simply elemental in origin. They occur because we are putting into a distributive technology an element that is not commonly encountered in the biosphere. Lead and mercury are classic examples. When you’re designing green chemistry that’s relatively easy to avoid. You can make the intellectual decision to only to use elements that are commonly employed in biochemistry.

At the same time, green chemists need to study the toxicity of the technologies they’re creating, and if something bad comes up that they didn’t expect, they need to be prepared to abandon the technology. One of the very profound lessons from the last century is that persistent, bioaccumulative compounds, particularly those that are mobile in the ecosphere, are going to wander around looking for trouble to cause and they’re often going to find it. So another thing not to do is to make these substances and put them into distributive technologies. Ultimately, if we can move the elemental composition of our technologies closer to the elemental composition of life and avoid using persistent, environmentally mobile compounds, we can stay away from a lot of trouble.

What are some of the most promising applications of TAML activators?

Sometimes the only way to get rid of a pollutant in water is to burn it. The TAML activator plus hydrogen peroxide breaks down pollution by the same sort of chemistry. It’s mechanistically different from burning, but with the same result. And so you can get rid of a large number of pollutants in water without combustion and this has real potential to be a lot cheaper and simpler to do.

There are several promising applications to clean up and reduce pollution from paper mills. For example, effluent streams from some paper mills around the world are turning rivers dark colors and paper mill pollution has a foul smell. We can really help there. A tiny quantity of our TAML catalyst and a small amount of hydrogen peroxide can rapidly get rid of most of the color. TAML technology can also easily ameliorate the smells associated with pulp mills. And you can use the catalyst and hydrogen peroxide instead of chlorine to bleach wood pulp for high quality paper.

This technology can also break down invisible pollutants like organochlorines. For example, we have shown that chlorinated phenols, including the legacy wood preservative pentachlorophenol (PCP), an EPA priority pollutant and a very tough molecule to destroy, can be completely degraded to harmless products in minutes at room temperature and pressure without measurable production of dioxins. This dioxin point is important because fungi actually degrade PCP by related chemistry, but produce trace dioxins in the process.

In addition, this technology also can disinfect water. We have demonstrated this clearly with spores, which are the most difficult pathogens to kill, and we are now turning our attention to the other types of pathogens including protozoa, fungi, viruses, and vegetative bacteria. TAML technology has a phenomenal ability to kill spores and so it could become a mainline defense against anthrax attacks in the future. You also can use it to break down chemical warfare agents such as sulfur mustard. We have tested four common thiophosphate pesticides and these are all easily destroyed, as are their often-toxic residuals that are produced from existing breakdown procedures. And we can easily decompose many other pathogens and pollutants. We will be writing about these and other novel applications in the coming years.

Is this technology being widely used?

It’s a question now of production, volume and cost. There’s a lot of activity right now about next steps and strategies for large-scale commercialization. The catalyst is licensed for several applications, and I receive requests every week from companies interested in exploring TAML uses.

Many companies have issues with effluents that are very expensive to handle. For example EDTA, a chelating agent that has many uses, often becomes a big time pollutant at the end of its use in the economy. Our prototype catalyst that’s heading into commercialization decomposes it with peroxide quite effectively.

It’s hard to say when we’ll see big scale uses, but obviously the sooner the better. That’s where the focus is right now and there’s a distinct possibility that Pittsburgh, which is an icon of a city putting itself back together in first class style from a highly polluted past, might become a major center for green technology. This idea is very attractive to people in the region, and the ideal situation would be to employ people here to make and market the catalyst.

What are the chances of shifting the chemical industry in a more sustainable direction?

Sustainability doesn’t just mean feeling positive about the direction of our civilization. It’s also about fundamental strategic stability in the stock market, which is why change is going to happen.

Look, for example, at the lead industry and the damage it has done and the consequences that are now accruing. Americans lost IQ across the whole population because of lead in gasoline and paint. A court in Rhode Island recently said that the lead-based paint industry—Sherwin-Williams; NL Industries, Inc.; and Lyondell Chemical Co., the parent company of defendant Millennium Holdings LLC—are to blame for the lead poisoning of Rhode Island children and Rhode Island is holding them fiscally responsible.
What this means for the future of the evolution of the economy is that polluters can be held accountable decades after the people who originally made the decisions are long gone. So people will realize that it’s much smarter to invest in the stock market in companies that are producing safe products rather than in companies that are not dealing with their pollution and especially pollution that harms children.

I’m very optimistic. The three big technology areas for sustainability are safe energy, which has nothing to do with fossilized carbon or nuclear power, but will be solar based; renewable feed stocks; and a nonpolluting technology base. These things are not only doable; they’re inspiring to contemplate, wonderful to watch in progress, and fun to work on.

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Posted: Nov 16, 2009 4:07pm
Oct 19, 2009

Peace must actually be lived, along with indivisibly related qualities of goodness such as love, happiness, and beauty, because it is not truly real if it is only a static, abstract, presumptive, thought in the mind, without being lived, or expressed, as a dynamic, responsive, energy, through everything that we say and do, in every here and now present moment. I find that inner peace naturally leads to outer peace, meaning that when the heart is deeply relaxed, with an attitude of non-judgmental unconditional acceptance of oneself and others, so that we are fully at peace with ourselves, then that inner peace will naturally be reflected outwardly by bringing peace and harmony to our experience in the world. The key to inner peace, which brings peace, harmony, and love into the outer world, is to experience the deep sense of fearlessness, security, and well being, that comes from unselfishly expressing caring, or love, to others, and, thereby, being forgetful of the fearful, selfish, ego, a false or unreal sense of self that is the basic source of lack of peace, harmony, and goodness in our inner experience and in the outer world.

We cannot find inner and outer peace by turning inward, in any kind of selfish self-awareness, because introspective self-awareness blocks our conscious life energy from naturally flowing outward to others, and that blocked energy contracts or clenches the emotional heart center level of one’s being, producing fear, tension, hostility, and other related forms of negativity. The role of narcissistic self awareness in producing inner and outer conflict, or lack of peace and harmony, can be understood in metaphorical terms represented by a Black Hole in space, recoiled upon itself, in a powerful inward suction, producing a destructive momentum of self-confinement and disintegration, that traps light, warmth, and energy, unnaturally blocking energy from flowing outward, contrary to the naturally radiant energy of love, epitomized by sunshine, light, and water naturally flowing outward, rather than pulling inward toward their source of origin.

Some people seek a false sense of peace and security by introspectively turning inward, often through introversive practices such as solitary meditation, abstract contemplation, or living the isolated life of a hermit, as a means of avoiding the risk of possibly experiencing rejection, loss, disappointment, anger, conflict, and other forms of emotional pain, hurt, or negativity that may come from being deeply invested in heartfelt caring or loving relationships with other people. The sense of calm that comes from isolating oneself in that way is not true inner peace, because it involves escaping from fearful feelings, and a fragile sense of insecurity, which one anticipates might arise if one comes out of one’s egocentric self-protective, isolated, detached, psychological “walls”, “shell”, or “bubble.” The false inner peace, or solitary calm, of emotional detachment reflects a numbed, death-like, static, timid, stony, cold-hearted, dispassionate, rather uncaring, contracted, sense of indifference, whereas real inner peace and outer harmony reflects the living energy of unselfish, expansive, warmhearted, love, that arises from an openness to letting be, flowing with, learning from, being strengthened by, and, thereby, finding true goodness in, uncomfortable, or unpleasant, feelings and situations that might arise from being deeply invested in caring relationships with other individuals.

Although peace and harmony cannot be found by turning inward, in any kind of introspective self awareness, inner and outer peace finds us when we are self forgetful as ego, by being deeply invested in unselfishly caring about others around us, and then, in being forgetful of the ego, as a false sense of separate self-awareness, we find our real self as love and goodness, which is a relational self, an unselfishly, generously, giving nature, not a separate, selfish, self awareness. Only when people connect to one another in loving harmony can spiritual love blessing power flow through them into the world, and transform this world for the better, eliminating conflicts, and manifesting the unconditional peace, harmony, and goodness that is inherent to the permanent being of love.

One cannot reach enduring peace from a position of holding inner and outer conflict, disturbance, and deficiency, or lack of well being, to be reality, and then trying to find some way to overcome, resolve, or eliminate that negativity. Struggling against negativity, and viewing it as the true reality nature of oneself, others, and life as a whole, perpetuates and magnifies that negativity, pulling one’s conscious energy ever deeper and deeper into that negativity, which energizes, feeds, and amplifies that negativity, like trying to fight fire with fire only makes the fire hotter and more destructive. Trying to overcome conflict, brutality, and oppression by struggling against perceived injustices and oppressors, expressing a blaming, judgmental, antagonistic, attitude toward such perceived wrongdoers, can fan the flames of negativity by arousing even greater hostility in those being blamed, and reinforcing their view of themselves as actually having the malevolent qualities attributed to them by those activists who denounce them. Much more powerful and enduring change for the better can come from expressing the intrinsic permanent being of relaxed peace, harmony, love, and goodness as already being the true reality nature of oneself, and viewing that as also being the inherent true nature of other individuals, and of life as a whole, now already.

 

Conditions of conflict, suffering, oppression, and injustice, are most likely to enduringly subside if one views that negativity as being only a temporary, dreamlike, illusory, experience, like a nightmare, not the intrinsic true reality nature of anyone’s permanent being. Recognizing and expressing that permanent being of peace, harmony, and well being, is what most profoundly, and enduringly, dispels temporary illusory experiences of individual and societal disorders, like waking up automatically dispels dreams, and like bright sunshine effortlessly dissolves dark clouds, whereas antagonistically struggling against negativity often makes it worse, by immersing one’s conscious energy ever deeper into the negativity that one struggles against, like being obsessed with darkness keeps it always in mind, instead of turning on the light, which automatically dispels darkness, or like making muddy waters muddier by stirring them up, instead of permitting the mud to naturally fall back down to the bottom of the pond by not agitating the water, which restores the natural purity of the water. Sometimes one can work to change the status quo if some other alternative would be more compassionate and beneficial, but still remain grounded in relaxed inner peace, so that that inner peace can produce, and be reflected by, greater harmony, justice, and abundance in the outer world.

 

         

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Posted: Oct 19, 2009 7:35pm
May 2, 2009

Agreement or disagreement is much less important than good communication as a way of enabling people to deeply understand each other, and, thereby, gradually develop the ability to feel inwardly close to each other, as caring good friends. Good communication, as the basis of true friendship, means that one does not keep one’s inner experience to oneself alone, but, instead, actively reaches out to share one’s experience, feelings, thoughts, and needs with another person, as openly, honestly, directly, fully, constructively, and non-judgmentally, as possible. Good communication, as the basis of true and enduring friendship, also involves being open to considering another person’s viewpoint and needs, and constructively exploring differences that may arise between oneself and the other person, without trying to win an argument, but, rather, only exploring together into the truth of those issues, without blaming, abusing, or trying to intimidate and control each other, and without insisting that one is always totally “right” and the other person is always totally “wrong”. Without that kind of good communication, actively reaching out to share one’s heart and mind with another person, one’s inner being remains hidden, disconnected, self-enclosed, so real understanding and close, caring, feelings cannot grow, as a deepening friendship.

 

So many friendships and romantic relationships fail because people permit themselves to “grow apart”, or gradually drift apart, without ever taking responsibility to deeply reveal themselves to the other person, and deeply tune into the other person, empathically, and intuitively, in order to directly experience what the other person means by the particular words that they say, or write, “reading between the lines”, so to speak, or tuning into an even deeper level of another person’s being, beyond all definable words and images. That deepest level of empathic/intuitive communion is the Source from which all true love and friendship arises, and that is what enables true love and friendship to keep growing deeper, closer, and grander, instead of gradually drifting apart because of lack of good communication, producing lack of mutual understanding, and lack of inner closeness. What makes people true friends of each other, rather than strangers, most essentially, is not outer physical contact, shared activities, and superficial social interaction, by themselves alone, but much more importantly, arises from development of substantial inner connection, by giving deeply, generously, unselfishly, of their energies to each other, and openly, honestly, directly, revealing their actual experience and true essential core being to one another.

         

         

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Posted: May 2, 2009 5:57pm
Mar 26, 2008
Type: Tribute (for the living)
To Honor: Other
Location: , United States

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/80532/

This article discusses how China can be a model to America, and other nations, in terms of enhancing automobile fuel efficiency standards, and developing clean, sustainable, cost-effective, energy sources, such as, wind turbine manufacturing and solar photovoltaics manufacturing.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/80532/

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Posted: Mar 26, 2008 8:56am
Mar 4, 2008
Focus: Workers Rights
Action Request: Think About
Location: Maine, United States
 
The following article discusses how Americans, and people in other relatively affluent nations, can use their purchasing power to support businesses marketing "fair trade" products that provide good wages to workers and artisans in relatively impoverished areas of the world. Thus, fair trade principles can contribute to global poverty reduction, economic development, workers rights, creative arts and crafts development, and international geopolitical stability.


Co-op America: Green Business Interview: Kusikuy
http://www.coopamerica.org/greenbusiness/interviews/articles/200802.cfm
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Posted: Mar 4, 2008 10:32am
Nov 28, 2007

I would like to recommend the following links to an interesting article about William Blake, an inspirational English visionary poet, writer, and artist, who lived in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. I believe that this article, as well as other writings about, or by, William Blake, should be of interest to anyone who is interested in infusing modern society, public affairs, and private life, with greater spiritual meaning, visionary inspiration, compassion, freedom, and warmhearted caring between individuals. It seems to me that William Blake's ideas can provide a meaningful challenge and attractive alternative to the superficial, vacuous, selfish egotism, vulgarity, and soulless, dreary, overly mechanical orientation of much of contemporary society.

The links to the article that I am recommending follow below:

http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/arts_culture/literature/william_ blake_visionary

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Posted: Nov 28, 2007 4:58pm
Nov 26, 2007
The following article by Owen Waters is reprinted with permission from InfiniteBeing.com

Article: Gratitude and Thanksgiving
From:Infinite Being (News@InfiniteBeing.com)
Sent:Sun 11/25/07 3:23 AM
Reply-to:News@InfiniteBeing.com
To: mhbj8@hotmail.com
Gratitude and Thanksgiving
by Owen Waters
 
Gratitude is a key that opens the door to the flow of
unconditional love through your heart. The heartfelt
expression of gratitude, either in words or in thought, focuses on the plenty that you have rather than anything that may be missing in your life.
 
The traditional American holiday of Thanksgiving dates back to the early pilgrims in Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts in 1621. As pilgrims, they were inclined to fast and pray for all the things that they desperately needed.
 
When Founding Father Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) wrote of those times, he understood the great value of gratitude. He said:
 
"There is a tradition that in the planting of New England, the first settlers met with many difficulties and hardships, as is generally the case when a civilized people attempt to establish themselves in a wilderness country. Being so piously disposed, they sought relief from heaven by laying their wants and distresses before the Lord in frequent set days of fasting and prayer."
 
All that praying and fasting, he said, made them "gloomy and discontented." Happily, he went on, a farmer "of plain sense" suggested to the Pilgrim Assembly that instead of continuing to bother the Lord with their complaints and requests, they for once thank Him for the blessings they had been given. For although times were still hard, things were getting better.
 
Instead of a fast, the farmer suggested, it would be more fitting to proclaim a day of thanksgiving. His advice was heeded, and "from that day to this," as Franklin said, we have "every year observed [these] circumstances of public felicity."
 
In the case of the pilgrims, gratitude opened them up to receiving ever more of the blessings of nature. Prior to that, their want had been closing down the natural flow of abundance and making their circumstances seem even harder than they were.
 
Giving thanks is the expression of gratitude, and gratitude is one of the most beautiful secrets in spiritual life.
 
Gratitude is a form of love, and love is something which flows from the Creator of the universe through all forms of life and manifestation. Without love, life in the universe cannot exist. Love is the universal force of preservation which holds creation in manifestation.
 
 
The Nature of Love
 
Love is as natural as the universe. By design, there is a tension between the forces of creation and universal love. It is this tension which controls the size of the universe, holding it within its envelope. It is this tension which regulates the size of an electron's orbit around a nucleus.
Love is the force which retains electrons in their orbits, making atoms possible and the existence of life as we know it.
 
You can block love, or you can allow it to flow naturally through you. Falling in love with another person is an allowance of the flow of love through your heart. In a world where everything has the appearance of separateness, it is a surrender to the underlying unity of all life. It is a place of apparent vulnerability, a willingness to take the risk that separation will once again return if that love is later lost.
 
When you allow your heart to open to the universe's flow of love, gratitude comes with that flow. Gratitude for being alive, for just existing, for just being in the flow of the adventure of life. Gratitude for the Sun that gives us life. Gratitude for the Earth that gives us our home in the cosmos. Gratitude for the people that you love, and for those who share your journey through life.
 
Gratitude flows unimpeded from an open heart. When you allow it, it flows as freely as the sunshine, unobstructed by judgments or conditions.
 
 
*If you enjoyed today's article, forward it to a friend! They will appreciate your thoughtfulness.
 
 
This article was written by Owen Waters, author of
"The Shift: The Revolution in Human Consciousness"
 
Available in hardcover or via immediate download at:
 
http://www.infinitebeing.com/theshift
 
AOL users: http://www.infinitebeing.com/theshift"> Click here for The Shift.
 
 
The Infinite Being newsletter brings you spiritual insights for the New Awareness each Sunday at your request from Infinite Being Publishing LLC, 73 Greentree Dr #54, Dover DE 19904, USA, 302-269-3852.
 

 
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Posted: Nov 26, 2007 4:24am
Jul 6, 2007
 

I find that the best kind of creative inspiration, in any field of endeavor, comes from communing deeply with other life presences, in heartfelt, open-minded, empathic attunement with them. The more deeply we invest our heart, mind, and senses, in communion with other life presences, experiences, and activities, in the world, the more does the co-creative heart core of our own being become stirred, and reveal greater gifts of creative inspiration and meaningful insight, as the source of great artistic expression, heart-full living, and enhanced performance in any area of endeavor. When individual hearts resonate in deeply invested attunement with each other, they energize each other, like magnets, releasing the co-creative process of synergy, like electricity flowing only when an electrical plug and socket, or positive and negative electrical poles, are connected to one another.

However, as long as the heart remains egocentrically, narcissistically, selfishly, self-absorbed, or self-possessed, we will be able to make only rather shallow contact with others, with only the superficial levels of our awareness. Without heartfelt communion, the mind and senses, by themselves alone, can contact, understand, and appreciate, only rather superficial aspects of reality, and provide only a relatively shallow, mechanical, level of creative artistic functioning. That is why I agree with what St. Exupery wrote, in his book, "The Little Prince", "It is only with the eyes of the heart that one can see what is most essential in life....Only the heart sees clearly, because what is essential is not visible to the eyes". I might add, what is essential in life is also not available to the analytical intellect, functioning independently of the deeper, relational, insight of the heart, because the analytical mind tends to be self-absorbed in its own thought, rather than making direct contact with other life presences, experiences, and activities, in the world.


To make direct, deep, empathic, contact with anyone or anything, and to tap into the relational source of co-creative insight and inspiration, one must let go of precommitted mental presumptions, preconceptions, and abstractions, which function like an opaque filter, barrier, or distorting mechanism, keeping the mind self absorbed in its own thought, and blocking direct contact and heartfelt empathic communion with actual life experience in the world, which the philosopher Martin Buber describes as the I-Thou relationship, in contrast to the I-It relationship. In Biblical terms, this is the difference between experiencing reality as though through a "poor reflection", or "a glass darkly" rather than "face to face" (I Corinthians 13:12). Communing with the enduring living presence, or living spirit, that the author of any creative work has invested in that creative production can empathically reveal the meaningful intention and originating inspirational experience of that author or producer. The reason why the highest source level of creative insight, inspiration, and production, comes from relational communion is because it is a relational reality nature, rather than a solo, divisive, dualistic, or separate individualistic nature. Therefore, introspective processes that produce greater self-involvement, and break off heartfelt communion with others, cannot reveal and release the highest level of creative functioning.

Caring human relationships can also facilitate creative transformations of individual people and global society by enabling the power of love to gradually transform individual hearts, and the collective spiritual heart of humanity, from selfishness, fear, and brutality to unselfish caring about others.

 

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Posted: Jul 6, 2007 7:17pm
Dec 5, 2006
Focus: Human Rights
Action Request: Petition
Location: United States

Elizabeth has received 14 new, 200 total stars from Care2 membersElizabeth has been awarded 1577 butterflies for taking action at Care2 Elizabeth O.
To:

Annette has received 13 new, 328 total stars from Care2 membersAnnette has been awarded 292 butterflies for taking action at Care2 Annette S.

Barry has received 46 new, 1201 total stars from Care2 membersBarry has been awarded 501 butterflies for taking action at Care2 Barry H.

Ben has received 260 new, 3149 total stars from Care2 membersBen has been awarded 966 butterflies for taking action at Care2 Ben O.

Charlena has received 10 new, 1246 total stars from Care2 membersCharlena has been awarded 240 butterflies for taking action at Care2 Charlena A.

Christina has received 10 new, 669 total stars from Care2 membersChristina has been awarded 794 butterflies for taking action at Care2 Christina E.
more »

Dawn has received 36 new, 4772 total stars from Care2 membersDawn has been awarded 1192 butterflies for taking action at Care2 Dawn C.

Donna has received 38 new, 1344 total stars from Care2 membersDonna has been awarded 690 butterflies for taking action at Care2 Donna M.

Eleanor has received 148 new, 4208 total stars from Care2 membersEleanor has been awarded 1609 butterflies for taking action at Care2Eleanor has 33 Golden Notes. Eleanor B.

Electra has received 40 new, 1168 total stars from Care2 membersElectra has been awarded 278 butterflies for taking action at Care2Electra has 1 Golden Notes. Electra C.

Elsie has received 66 new, 1080 total stars from Care2 membersElsie has been awarded 78 butterflies for taking action at Care2 Elsie E.
 
 
Date:Tuesday, December 5, 2006
Subject:Another petition
 Sorry about the last message I hit send before I was finished

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/629945943



OCS - Free Angelina Smith


My name is Angelina Alexis Smith. I was taken away from my birth mother when I was eight. They said she was an unfit mother but she was always real good to me and my brothers and sisters. OCS put me in a foster home but, because I tried to run away back to my mother, they put me in a mental hospital where they drugged me up and tied me down when I was bad- which was a lot! Then I went to a group home but they still kept me on all those drugs and, to keep me from running away, I was never allowed to go to school or anything outside. As I grew older, I knew that I would be there forever because nobody wants to adopt a bad teenager.

Then a miracle happened! They told me the Smiths wanted to adopt me!
So, at the age of 13, I went to live in an old,old house in the country with old, old Mommy and Daddy. I got my own room, lots and lots of pets, bicycles, CD players, nice clothes; stuff I never had before. The best part was I got to go to school where I had friends (even boyfriends) and got to go to football games and dances and all the good things. School was tough. I had to go from the third grade into the seventh grade and my reading sucked because all we did at the facility was watch television. But everybody helped me and I passed each year up to the ninth grade. Daddy says I'm a whiz at math.

Then, last September, I went to see my psychiatrist and said something wrong. The psychiatrist went and called OCS and told them that Daddy had abused me. They came and took me to a foster home. I tried to tell them that Daddy had never abused me but they wouldn't listen so I tried to run away back home. Then they put me back in the hospital where they drugged me up and tied me down again. The therapists kept trying to get me to say that Daddy had sexually abused me. They kept harassing me. So, after four months, I gave in and gave them a story. The next day, I called Mommy and Daddy to tell them what I had done and OCS found out and wouldn't let me talk to them or see them anymore. In December, I finally got a chance to go to court to tell my story. I raised my right hand and swore to tell the truth and I did! I told the judge it was all a lie that the therapist had harassed me into saying it. My Daddy never ever abused me!  But the judge said he didn't believe me; he believed the therapist.
So I was sent back to State custody until I am 18, I cannot ever see or talk to my parents, and the judge took away their parental rights. Even Mommys!
In February 2006, I ran away from the hospital and called Mommy and Daddy to come pick me up. They did and took me to the lawyer because the lawyer said he would try to get me in another facility where I could go to school and see my parents. The judge said no and the police came and handcuffed me and took me back to that horrible place and Mommy and Daddy got arrested for coming to get me and now they are going to jail too.

(To see Angelina's picture and read more about this unbelievable story, click on "More Information" below.)

  • Signatures: 189
  • Goal: 1,000

Date:Tuesday, December 5, 2006
Subject:Another petition
 Sorry about the last message I hit send before I was finished

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/629945943



OCS - Free Angelina Smith


My name is Angelina Alexis Smith. I was taken away from my birth mother when I was eight. They said she was an unfit mother but she was always real good to me and my brothers and sisters. OCS put me in a foster home but, because I tried to run away back to my mother, they put me in a mental hospital where they drugged me up and tied me down when I was bad- which was a lot! Then I went to a group home but they still kept me on all those drugs and, to keep me from running away, I was never allowed to go to school or anything outside. As I grew older, I knew that I would be there forever because nobody wants to adopt a bad teenager.

Then a miracle happened! They told me the Smiths wanted to adopt me!
So, at the age of 13, I went to live in an old,old house in the country with old, old Mommy and Daddy. I got my own room, lots and lots of pets, bicycles, CD players, nice clothes; stuff I never had before. The best part was I got to go to school where I had friends (even boyfriends) and got to go to football games and dances and all the good things. School was tough. I had to go from the third grade into the seventh grade and my reading sucked because all we did at the facility was watch television. But everybody helped me and I passed each year up to the ninth grade. Daddy says I'm a whiz at math.

Then, last September, I went to see my psychiatrist and said something wrong. The psychiatrist went and called OCS and told them that Daddy had abused me. They came and took me to a foster home. I tried to tell them that Daddy had never abused me but they wouldn't listen so I tried to run away back home. Then they put me back in the hospital where they drugged me up and tied me down again. The therapists kept trying to get me to say that Daddy had sexually abused me. They kept harassing me. So, after four months, I gave in and gave them a story. The next day, I called Mommy and Daddy to tell them what I had done and OCS found out and wouldn't let me talk to them or see them anymore. In December, I finally got a chance to go to court to tell my story. I raised my right hand and swore to tell the truth and I did! I told the judge it was all a lie that the therapist had harassed me into saying it. My Daddy never ever abused me!  But the judge said he didn't believe me; he believed the therapist.
So I was sent back to State custody until I am 18, I cannot ever see or talk to my parents, and the judge took away their parental rights. Even Mommys!
In February 2006, I ran away from the hospital and called Mommy and Daddy to come pick me up. They did and took me to the lawyer because the lawyer said he would try to get me in another facility where I could go to school and see my parents. The judge said no and the police came and handcuffed me and took me back to that horrible place and Mommy and Daddy got arrested for coming to get me and now they are going to jail too.

(To see Angelina's picture and read more about this unbelievable story, click on "More Information" below.)

  • Signatures: 189
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Sep 14, 2006
URL:
http://www.adelphia.net/news/read.php?id=13090276&ps=1020&lang=en

A white buffalo calf born Aug. 25, 2006, tags behind its mother, at the farm of Val and Dave Heider...


3rd Rare White Buffalo Born on Wis. Farm

Thursday, September 14, 2006 7:14 PM EDT
The Associated Press
By EMILY FREDRIX

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A farm in Wisconsin is quickly becoming hallowed ground for American Indians with the birth of its third white buffalo, an animal considered sacred by many tribes for its potential to bring good fortune and peace.


"We took one look at it and I can't repeat what I thought but I thought, 'Here we go again,'" said owner Dave Heider.


Thousands of people stopped by Heider's Janesville farm after the birth of the first white buffalo, a female named Miracle who died in 2004 at the age of 10. The second was born in 1996 but died after three days.


Heider said he discovered the third white buffalo, a newborn male, after a storm in late August.

Over the weekend, about 50 American Indians held a drum ceremony to honor the calf, which has yet to be named, he said.


Floyd "Looks for Buffalo" Hand, a medicine man in the Oglala Sioux Tribe in Pine Ridge, S.D., said it was fate that the white buffaloes chose one farm, which will likely become a focal point for visitors, who make offerings such as tobacco and dream catchers in the hopes of earning good fortune and peace.


"That's destiny," he said. "The message was only choose one person."


The white buffalo is particularly sacred to the Cheyenne, Sioux and other nomadic tribes of the Northern Plains that once relied on the buffalo for subsistence.


According to a version of the legend, a white buffalo, disguised as a woman wearing white hides, appeared to two men. One treated her with respect, and the other didn't. She turned the disrespectful man into a pile of bones, and gave the respectful one a pipe and taught his people rituals and music. She transformed into a female white buffalo calf and promised to return again.


That this latest birth is a male doesn't make it any less significant in American Indian prophecies, which say that such an animal will reunite all the races of man and restore balance to the world, Hand said. He said the buffalo's coat will change from white to black, red and yellow, the colors of the various races of man, before turning brown again.


The birth of a white male buffalo means men need to take responsibility for their families and the future of the tribe, Hand said.


The odds of a white buffalo are at least 1 in a million, said Jim Matheson, assistant director of the National Bison Association. Buffalo in general have been rare for years, thought their numbers are increasing, with some 250,000 now in the U.S., he said.

Many people, like Heider, choose to raise the animals for their meat, which is considered a healthier, low-fat alternative to beef.


Gary Adamson, 65, of Elkhorn, who is of Choctaw and Cherokee heritage, said tribal elders will help interpret the animal's significance.


"There are still things that need to be done, and Miracle's task wasn't quite done yet, and we feel there's something there," he said.


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Posted: Sep 14, 2006 7:12pm

 

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Barry H.
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