Blog Action Day..."Water" theme! Participate on October 15th!

Today, organizers for Block Action Day - not only launched their web site - but also unveiled the topic for discussion this year on October 15th.

Water!

"You don't have to be a water expert to participate," underscored a spokesperson in a press release that was ceremoniously e-mailed out early this afternoon.

You just have to be interested in joining thousands of  bloggers collectively to raise the consciousness about one of the most important issues facing the global community in recent years.

Clean water is essential for survival.

Unfortunately, thousands of North Americans take the resource for granted, and are unaware of its scarcity in impoverished regions of the world.

In fact,  nearly one billion people don't have access to clean water.

Sadly, 42,000 people die each week from water-borne diseases, as well.

And, the lack of water negatively impacts facets of modern-day society - from the environment to women's rights - to technology and fashion.

Bloggers who are stumped for ideas are encouraged to check out the Blog Action web site for inspiration.

Last year, voices from all stratas of society particpated, including former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

To get the momentum flowing, register today!

http://www.blogactionday.org

http://www.thetattler.biz

Blog Action Day...introduction to 4 posts on "poverty"...

When we think of poverty, many disturbing images float into the consciousness.

Images of young children starving in the streets of an impoverished country, for starters, seem to exemplify the extreme horrors of it.

The thought of young ones being without a crumb to nourish their bodies turns my stomach.

At a time when there is so much advanced technology and widespread global communication, how is it possible that in our reach we have managed to pass over and turn our backs on the truly needy?

After all, we are all "one" in the grand scheme of things.

If one part of us is unhealthy or lacking in nourishment, then each of is, in some capacity.

As Shakespeare said in one of his dramatic plays of yesteryear:

"All are punished!"

In tandem with the "Blog Action" movement today to rise up against poverty - and ultimately effect some healing - I am posting 4 articles.

"World Hunger" has been included for two reasons.

For starters, the article throws a spotlight - not only the waste and superficiality of life in America - but exposes the greed of a few to the detriment of the many.

Further, the statistics underscore the urgency for a call to action.

With that in mind, constructive solutions are also offered up that are not only consciousness-raising, but quite novel in approach.

So, I trust you'll hop on the bandwagon when you peruse that article!

To complement the first post, I have also included a few words from Mahatma Gandhi, written several decades ago in the infancy of our surge for selfish gratification.

Even still, the thoughts resonate with truth, today.

In a few sentences, the spiritual leader managed to put his finger on the underlying causes of the ills of our modern-day society - which ultimately - hinder our ability to realize a much gentler, kinder, Garden of Eden.

When our focus drifts to poverty in America, undoubtedly thoughts turn to the homeless who struggle daily in the mean streets of this once-great Nation.

In a world of plenty - how is it possible for an ugly scenario such as this - to have unfolded in our own backyard?

The land of the brave and the free - appears less likely to turn out a good Samaritan or two - willing to lend a helping hand in troubling times.

Such is the width and breadth of our lack of compassion!

For this reason - I have posted "Alms for the Poor" to remind us on blog action day how important it is to give to the homeless - even when a dark shroud has cast a shadow on the rest us considered more fortunate.

Finally, it should be noted, there are many forms of poverty.

On many different levels we are poor, and needy, and wanting.

When it comes to nurturing Mother Earth (for instance) - sentient beings are poor in spirit and slow to replenish a great bounty - once thought bottomless.

In the final analysis, we are all spiritually poor in America.

That's worse than financial bankruptcy in my humble opinion.

Were it not true - each and every one of us would be striving stridently to curb the ills of global warming, anxiously attempting to minimize the carbon footprint, and diligently seeking a way to end all the senseless polluting.

We must end the apathy!


The 4th post focuses on a remarkable woman (who just passed into spirit this past week) - who founded the green movement "Heal the Bay".


Unlike so many others, Dorothy Green was not poor in her ability to rectify a wrong, effect right action, and bring about a positive logical outcome.

Why did she tackle the challenge?

Because it had to be done!

The Dorothy Green post is a tribute to a great lady.

And, the best way to end on an inspiring positive note.

Happy Blog Action Day!



Mother Nature is alive and well and living...

Blog Action Day...World Hunger! Give to the needy...

What a novel idea!

If you surf to - freerice.com - you can test your facility for words - and at the same time - make a contribution to feed hungry mouths of the world.

For example, when you surf to the automated web site, just click on a word to test your knowledge of its meaning.

If you get the answer correct, the UN World Food Program will donate twenty grains of rice in your name!

Essentially, FreeRice has two goals:

First, to provide an English vocabulary to everyone for free.
Secondly, to end world hunger by providing rice to needy people without cost.

The project is made possible by concerned sponsors who advertise on the site.

Whether you are a CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your vocabulary can improve your life. Subsequently, the goal is not only a worthwhile one, but a great investment for the future.

More importantly - the organizers note - a hands-on involvement in the project results in a donation of rice to the impoverished of the world, which later - by virtue of its nutritional value - not only nourishes, but enables the needy to function - and hence - be more productive with their lives.

If you contribute to the effort in the near future, somewhere around the globe a hungry individual will be eating rice you helped provide!

You may wonder how playing the "vocabulary game" at FreeRice may help a person. For starters, a grasp of new vocabulary has tremendous benefits.

For example, a facility with words can help an individual:

*Formulate ideas better
*Write better papers, emails and business letters
*Speak more precisely and persuasively
*Comprehend more of what is read
*Read faster because the ideas are comprehended better
*Get better grades in high school, college and graduate school
*Score higher on tests like the SAT, GRE, LSAT and GMAT
*Perform better at job interviews and conferences
*Sell themselves, services, and products better
*Be more effective and successful at their job

And, after participating in the FreeRice program for a couple of days, organizers allege participants may notice an odd phenomenon. Words that were never consciously used before will begin to pop into the head while a person is speaking or writing. In sum, those who get involved in the project, may find themselves facilitating words in remarkably new and interesting ways, according to the sponsors.

This is how the program works at the site:

FreeRice has a custom database containing thousands of words at varying degrees of difficulty. There are words appropriate for people just learning English and words that will challenge the most scholarly professors. In addition, there are thousands of words tailor-made for students, business people, homemakers, doctors, truck drivers, retired people - you name it.

FreeRice automatically adjusts to the player's level of vocabulary as they engage in word play at the site. For instance, it starts off by giving words at different levels of difficulty - and then, based on how well a person does - assigns an approximate starting level. Then, the individual may determine a more exact level as they continue to play.

When word turns out to be wrong, the person is kicked down to an easier level. When three words in a row are right, a harder level is activated. This one-to-three ratio is best for keeping individuals at the “outer fringe” of their vocabulary where learning can take place, note the experts.

There are 55 levels in all, but it is rare for people to get much above level 48.

How is the difficulty level for each word determined?

The program keeps track of how many people get each word right or wrong, and then adjusts each word’s difficulty level accordingly. So the words at the easiest levels are the ones that people most often get right. The words at the hardest levels are the ones that people most often get wrong. As more and more people have played the game, these levels have become increasingly more accurate.

The rice is paid for by the advertisers posted on the bottom of the vocabulary screen. This is regular advertising for these companies, but it is also something more. Through their advertising at FreeRice these companies support both learning (free vocabulary for everyone) and reducing hunger (free rice for the hungry).

The rice is distributed by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).

The World Food Program is the world’s largest food aid agency, working with over 1,000 other organizations in over 75 countries. In addition to providing food, the World Food Program helps hungry people to become self-reliant so that they escape hunger for good. Wherever possible, the World Food Program buys food locally to support local farmers and the local economy.

People may wonder why the rice is not handed out right away...

FreeRice is not sitting on a pile of rice; the players are earning it at twenty grains at a time.

Here's how it works. When a person plays the game, advertisements appear on the bottom of the screen. The money generated by these advertisements is then used to buy the rice. So by playing, the interactive party generates the money that pays for the rice donated to hungry people.

Facts about World Hunger

In the Asian, African and Latin American countries, well over 500 million people are living in what the World Bank refers to as "absolute poverty"

Every year 15 million children die of hunger.

For the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for five years, according to the latest research.

Throughout the 1990's more than 100 million children will die from illness and starvation. Those 100 million deaths could be prevented for the price of ten spanking-new stealth bombers or what the world spends on its military in two days, apparently.

The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world is well-fed, one-third is under-fed, while the remaining one-third is starving.

When a person first enters the freerice site, at least 200 people will have died of starvation. And, according to the latest statistics, over 4 million will perish this year.

One in twelve people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million children under the age of 5.

The Indian subcontinent has nearly half the world's hungry people. Africa and the rest of Asia together have approximately forty percent, and the remaining hungry people are found in Latin America and other parts of the world.

Nearly one in four people (1.3 billion - a majority of humanity) live on less than on dollar per day, while the world's 358 billionaires have assets exceeding the combined annual incomes of countries with forty-five percent of the world's people.

3 billion people in the world today struggle to survive on two dollars (U.S. funds) a day.

In 1994 the Urban Institute in Washington DC estimated that one out of six elderly people in the U.S. have an inadequate diet.

And, in the United States, it is alleged that hunger and race are related. In 1991 forty-six percent of African-American children were chronically hungry, and forty percent of Latino children were chronically hungry compared to sixteen percent of white children.

The infant mortality rate is closely linked to inadequate nutrition among pregnant women. The U.S. ranks 23rd among industrial nations in infant mortality. African-American infants die at nearly twice the rate of white infants.

One out of every eight children under the age of twelve in the U.S. goes to bed hungry every night and half of all children under five years of age in South Asia. One third of the populace’s children in sub-Saharan Africa are malnourished.

In 1997 alone, the lives of at least 300,000 young children were saved by vitamin A supplementation programmes in developing countries.

Malnutrition is implicated in more than half of all child deaths worldwide - a proportion unmatched by any infectious disease since the Black Death

About 183 million children weigh less than they should for their age.

To satisfy the world's sanitation and food requirements would cost only thirteen billion (U.S. funds) - a sum consumers in the United States and the European Union - spend on perfume and cosmetics each year.

The assets of the world's three richest men are more than the combined GNP of all the least developed countries on the planet.

Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger.

It is estimated that some 800 million people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition, about 100 times as many as those who actually die from it each year.

Do you part today, to end world hunger tomorrow!

FreeRice is a sister site of the world poverty site at Poverty.com


What a novel idea!

If you surf to - freerice.com - you can test your facility for words - and at the same time - make a contribution to feed hungry mouths of the world.

For example, when you surf to the automated web site, just click on a word to test your knowledge of its meaning.

If you get the answer correct, the UN World Food Program will donate twenty grains of rice in your name!

Essentially, FreeRice has two goals:

First, to provide an English vocabulary to everyone for free.
Secondly, to end world hunger by providing rice to needy people without cost.

The project is made possible by concerned sponsors who advertise on the site.

Whether you are a CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your vocabulary can improve your life. Subsequently, the goal is not only a worthwhile one, but a great investment for the future.

More importantly - the organizers note - a hands-on involvement in the project results in a donation of rice to the impoverished of the world, which later - by virtue of its nutritional value - not only nourishes, but enables the needy to function - and hence - be more productive with their lives.

If you contribute to the effort in the near future, somewhere around the globe a hungry individual will be eating rice you helped provide!

You may wonder how playing the "vocabulary game" at FreeRice may help a person. For starters, a grasp of new vocabulary has tremendous benefits.

For example, a facility with words can help an individual:

*Formulate ideas better
*Write better papers, emails and business letters
*Speak more precisely and persuasively
*Comprehend more of what is read
*Read faster because the ideas are comprehended better
*Get better grades in high school, college and graduate school
*Score higher on tests like the SAT, GRE, LSAT and GMAT
*Perform better at job interviews and conferences
*Sell themselves, services, and products better
*Be more effective and successful at their job

And, after participating in the FreeRice program for a couple of days, organizers allege participants may notice an odd phenomenon. Words that were never consciously used before will begin to pop into the head while a person is speaking or writing. In sum, those who get involved in the project, may find themselves facilitating words in remarkably new and interesting ways, according to the sponsors.

This is how the program works at the site:

FreeRice has a custom database containing thousands of words at varying degrees of difficulty. There are words appropriate for people just learning English and words that will challenge the most scholarly professors. In addition, there are thousands of words tailor-made for students, business people, homemakers, doctors, truck drivers, retired people - you name it.

FreeRice automatically adjusts to the player's level of vocabulary as they engage in word play at the site. For instance, it starts off by giving words at different levels of difficulty - and then, based on how well a person does - assigns an approximate starting level. Then, the individual may determine a more exact level as they continue to play.

When word turns out to be wrong, the person is kicked down to an easier level. When three words in a row are right, a harder level is activated. This one-to-three ratio is best for keeping individuals at the “outer fringe” of their vocabulary where learning can take place, note the experts.

There are 55 levels in all, but it is rare for people to get much above level 48.

How is the difficulty level for each word determined?

The program keeps track of how many people get each word right or wrong, and then adjusts each word’s difficulty level accordingly. So the words at the easiest levels are the ones that people most often get right. The words at the hardest levels are the ones that people most often get wrong. As more and more people have played the game, these levels have become increasingly more accurate.

The rice is paid for by the advertisers posted on the bottom of the vocabulary screen. This is regular advertising for these companies, but it is also something more. Through their advertising at FreeRice these companies support both learning (free vocabulary for everyone) and reducing hunger (free rice for the hungry).

The rice is distributed by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).

The World Food Program is the world’s largest food aid agency, working with over 1,000 other organizations in over 75 countries. In addition to providing food, the World Food Program helps hungry people to become self-reliant so that they escape hunger for good. Wherever possible, the World Food Program buys food locally to support local farmers and the local economy.

People may wonder why the rice is not handed out right away...

FreeRice is not sitting on a pile of rice; the players are earning it at twenty grains at a time.

Here's how it works. When a person plays the game, advertisements appear on the bottom of the screen. The money generated by these advertisements is then used to buy the rice. So by playing, the interactive party generates the money that pays for the rice donated to hungry people.

Facts about World Hunger

In the Asian, African and Latin American countries, well over 500 million people are living in what the World Bank refers to as "absolute poverty"

Every year 15 million children die of hunger.

For the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for five years, according to the latest research.

Throughout the 1990's more than 100 million children will die from illness and starvation.

Those 100 million deaths could be prevented for the price of ten spanking-new stealth bombers or what the world spends on its military in two days, apparently.

The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world is well-fed, one-third is under-fed, while the remaining one-third is starving.

When a person first enters the freerice site, at least 200 people will have died of starvation. And, according to the latest statistics, over 4 million will perish this year.

One in twelve people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million children under the age of 5.

The Indian subcontinent has nearly half the world's hungry people. Africa and the rest of Asia together have approximately forty percent, and the remaining hungry people are found in Latin America and other parts of the world.

Nearly one in four people (1.3 billion - a majority of humanity) live on less than on dollar per day, while the world's 358 billionaires have assets exceeding the combined annual incomes of countries with forty-five percent of the world's people.

3 billion people in the world today struggle to survive on two dollars (U.S. funds) a day.

In 1994 the Urban Institute in Washington DC estimated that one out of six elderly people in the U.S. have an inadequate diet.

And, in the United States, it is alleged that hunger and race are related. In 1991 forty-six percent of African-American children were chronically hungry, and forty percent of Latino children were chronically hungry compared to sixteen percent of white children.

The infant mortality rate is closely linked to inadequate nutrition among pregnant women. The U.S. ranks 23rd among industrial nations in infant mortality. African-American infants die at nearly twice the rate of white infants.

One out of every eight children under the age of twelve in the U.S. goes to bed hungry every night and half of all children under five years of age in South Asia. One third of the populace’s children in sub-Saharan Africa are malnourished.

In 1997 alone, the lives of at least 300,000 young children were saved by vitamin A supplementation programmes in developing countries.

Malnutrition is implicated in more than half of all child deaths worldwide - a proportion unmatched by any infectious disease since the Black Death

About 183 million children weigh less than they should for their age.

To satisfy the world's sanitation and food requirements would cost only thirteen billion (U.S. funds) - a sum consumers in the United States and the European Union - spend on perfume and cosmetics each year.

The assets of the world's three richest men are more than the combined GNP of all the least developed countries on the planet.

Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger.

It is estimated that some 800 million people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition, about 100 times as many as those who actually die from it each year.

Do you part today, to end world hunger tomorrow!

FreeRice is a sister site of the world poverty site at Poverty.com

Blog Action Day...Mahatma Gandhi on "hunger" and pauperism in the world!

"I suggest that we are thieves in a way.

If I take anything that I do not need for my own immediate use and keep it, I thieve it from somebody else.

It is the fundamental law of Nature, without exception, that Nature produces enough for our wants from day to day; and if only everybody took enough for himself and nothing more, there would be no pauperism in this world, there would be no man dying of starvation."

Mahatma Gandhi

Blog Action Day..."Alms for the Poor" Helping hand for the needy on the mean streets of the city!

Walk down any street in any big American city and a panhandler is bound to ask you for spare change.

The beggars have all manner of excuses to wangle the cash out of you.

An old familiar one,

"I'm a quarter short for the bus."

Curiously, if you offer up a bus token, they balk.

Ah, gotcha!

Then, there are those who dash up to you excited and out-of-breath with a gas can in hand, alleging they're stranded because they just ran out of the pricey fuel.

Judge Judy would retort,

"Do I have stupid written on my forehead?"

I find it refreshing when a beggar is truthful, though.

One guy crafted a sign that requested "spare change for beer".

Ha, I expect his honesty paid off.

Maybe not.

Many are reticent about giving on the street; especially if a down-and-out individual has liquor on their breath.

People worry that if they hand over a buck or two the recipient will go off to the nearest convenience store, buy cheap whiskey, and go off on a binge.

Some agonize over parting with the moolah.

Am I really helping such a person, an inner voice whispers from the depths of their soul.

Maybe you're better off taking their hand and escorting them into a restaurant nearby and treating them to a nutritious meal.

I understand Johnny Depp does that.

Others rationalize that if you cave in, panhandling will proliferate on the streets.

When I was in San Francisco a few months ago - excessive begging on Market Street caused some to urge an ordinance banning the down-and-out from asking passers-by on the street for spare change - because the practise affected the quality of life, they claimed.

It appears that some didn't mind leaving their hearts in San Francisco, but thought twice about parting with their cash in the windy city.

In contrast, poet Maya Angelous once said,

"I have found that among its benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver."

Meanwhile, there are those who prefer to give to a charity, instead. At least the money is going to a worthy cause, they speculate.

With brisk fall days just around the corner, I suppose it's the appropriate occasion to suggest that caring individuals consider spending a day at a local homeless shelter to help serve food to the needy.

In my view, when I hand money to someone who's down-and-out on skid row - at least I know the cash is in hand - and it's not siphoned away by administration costs of an organization over-bloated with staff and expense accounts.

Gee, it appears that a simple act of giving on the street is so much cause for consternation!

Others, like John D. Rockefeller, Jr. perceive it this way:

"Think of giving not as a duty but as a privilege."

By the way, the scriptures heartily urge to "give alms to the poor".

"Alms are a worthy offering in the sight of the Most High for all who give them."
(Tobias 4:7-11)

But, some judge, nonetheless.

That's one of the problems with begging on the street.

An individual can't help but wonder; is pan-handling just a scam for lay-abouts to avoid work?

In Toronto, there was the infamous case of the shaky lady, which caused quite an uproar a few years ago.

Residents of the fair city couldn't help but notice as they walked by an elderly woman at the corner of Young Street and Bloor in the downtown core that she shook violently and appeared to bear the burden of a troubling disabling disease.

Of course, the image of the poor soul was enough to cause passers-by to dig deep into their wallets, and graciously offer up a fistful of coins of the realm.

Unfortunately - at about dusk one day - an idle stroller spied the shaky lady turn a corner into an alley, then hot-foot it to the rear of a building where she hopped into a late-model car and sped off.

Miraculously, all the shaking and trembling simply vanished.

Oh my gosh! Was there healing power in that hard-won cash?

Once followed by the startled citizen - who was moved by the insatiable urge to uncover the truth - it was determined from some expert clandestine snooping that she comfortably resided in a modest bungalow in the suburbs.

Ah, the shaky lady was not doing so poorly, after all!

The incident was reported to the local newspaper. Within days, the poor woman was the subject of a glaring expose featured on page one of the Toronto Sun.

Needless to say, the woman became the scorn of the city.

Golly, they tarred and feathered her, then sent her packing.

Quite medieval in scope, don't you think?

When she trundled off to Montreal, she thought she had escaped everyone's wrath, until a visitor from Hog Town spied her on the street there shaking up a storm.

Ah, you got it; she was exposed there, too.

Well, that was a bit heavy-handed - mean-spirited, too - if you ask me.

But, it's a dilemma for some.

Who are the needy, truly?

And, is your money being extracted from you dishonestly?

Oh, don't get so confused or downhearted.

Show compassion, continue to give alms to the poor, and follow the Golden Rule.

If the masses were enlightened about the fact that when a dollar is given to one needy person, it is rewarded by the Lord tenfold, I expect the citizenry would be handing out the greenback right, left, and center, eh?

But, the truth of the matter is this.

To God, anonymous giving is the most Sainted!

"Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them; otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret Himself shall reward thee openly." (Matthew 6:1-4)

In the final analysis, if you let the heart lead, you won't go astray.

What are a few cents, after all, in the grand scheme of things?

"Let not your hand be open to receive and clenched when it is time to give".

Blog Action Day...activist Dorothy Green "Healed the Bay" while others were poor in spirit!

When I informed a handful of people I would be penning a post on Dorothy Green who founded "Heal the Bay" - some undoubtedly wondered why since this year's blog action topic is on "poverty".

As I pointed out in my "introduction" at the top of the blog today, there are many forms of "poverty".

For the most part, when we use the term, we tend to conjure of images of the homeless and children begging in the streets for food in third-world countries.

While I have addressed the issues in 3 separate posts - "World Hunger", "Alms for the Poor", and by virtue of a quote from "Mahatma Gandhi" - I thought it was also important to note that some suffer from "spiritual poverty" as well.

As Gandhi noted, it is due to prevailing greed, that many remain begging in respect to the basic necessities of life.

The post on "World Hungry" points an accusing finger at a handful of wealthy men - who rape the earth of her bounty - as they likewise - greedily control the assets of the world.

Meanwhile, the masses struggle in obscurity and go hungry daily around the globe.

In sum, society is plagued by the morally bankrupt.

In essence, the lot of them are spiritually poor.

Yes - food and shelter is important - but as a race it is of the utmost importance, too, to strive for lasting peace among all nations and a harmonious co-existence with Mother Earth.

In that respect, one woman - Dorothy Green - was not "poor".

In fact, she was quite rich in spirit, and a generous "giver", as she worked tirelessly to turn back the clock on pollution, and global warming, and a consciousness that was upsetting the equilibrium.

At a time when activism in the environment arena was not popular, for instance, Ms. Green had the vision to recognize the urgency of tackling a growing problem in respect to waste in the bay off the Santa Monica Coast.

Instead of sitting back and complaining, and turning a blind eye, the feisty gal took action.

It all started when her brother was splattered with poorly treated sewage water in 1985 from an open drain at Ballona Creek in Marina Del Rey.

When there were no answers forthcoming from City Hall to account for the outrage, Ms. Green invited a handful of other concerned residents in the area to her home, and they summarily formed the "green" movement - "Heal the Bay".

At that time, the challenges were mind-boggling, but the spirited do-gooder was not deterred.

"We had a dead zone in the middle of Santa Monica Bay, we had bottom fish with tumors and 10-million-gallon sewage spills in the middle of a bright summer day. None of that occurs today," noted marine biologist - Mark Gold - triumphantly.

No, Sir!

Today, "Heal the Bay" is one of the largest non-profit organizations in Los Angeles (consisting at last count of fifteen thousand members strong).

"Heal" launched constructive ongoing "pollution" watches which continue to this day.

An annual "Beach Report Card" on water quality at California Beaches is published each year, for instance.

In addition, Dorothy Green founded and headed up sister projects such as the Los Angeles and San Gabriel River Watershed Councils dedicated to restoring and preserving the watershed in the lower mainland.


In tandem with this non-profit project, Ms. Green instituted the California Impact Network which focuses on the equitable use of public water.

The Chairman of the Board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California was emphatic about one thing.

"Ms. Green was quite unique in her generation," he beamed.

She took a step forward where no woman (or man) had gone before and effected real change.

Some say - when residents and tourists gaze out over the oceanfront beaches - and take in the glorious vistas which are healing to the eyes - that it is mainly due to Green's dedication to the cause that affords us the pleasure.

It is with sadness that I report that Ms. Green passed away into "spirit" earlier this week.

But her legacy remains with us.

And, we are much richer, for it!

Blog Action Day...I'm in, are you? Post a healing message on poverty October 15th...

Blog Action Day..."Heal the Bay" founder passes to spirit!

When I was at the West Hollywood Book Fair last week, I stumbled across the booth for the environmental activists - "Heal the Bay" - founded by nature-lover Dorothy Green (how apropos).

For blog action day (October 15th) I was planning to pen a post on the worthwhile contributions "Heal the Bay" has made to the "green" movement with additional background on Dorothy.

Well, I suppose my post tomorrow will now be part "blog action" and part "tribute" - in view of the announcement in the obituary column in the morning paper - that the likable gal just passed into "spirit".

Cruise by tomorrow and take a gander at my post - please - and learn about this great lady who was a pioneer in the movement to save the environment!