Sun-News 10-11



----PO BOX 5588, Santa Fe, NM 87502-5588------(505-745-0589)-----www.TheSun-News.com
	May 2004 Vol.5. NO. 5 ......................................................Pages 10 and 11 Letter to the Editor: Sixty Years is Enough Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has been getting ever increasing amounts of money to be expended for Homeland Security. Homeland Security is selfish. It is time to consider making the world safe from US, a world safe for EVERYONE. Peace through strength is obviously an ongoing failure. We have thousands of weapons of mass destruction. We threaten to make another’s country “go away” if it crosses the USA. This makes us the “good guys”? We boast, “For fifty years IT kept the peace.” This has been control by our fearfulness. Such hostile control is unrewarding within a family or for a nation. It makes the controlled rebellious. They strike back in any and every way they can. Cries from Cape Town to Santa Fe proclaim, “Stop The Nuclear Madness.” Does not LANL have a social responsibility? Must LANL only follow orders, only do its job, only do its duty? This self denial of responsibility has been voiced before. Is there not a responsibility for scientists to say, “For sixty years we have done our duty and we will work at war no more. We want, now, to do science in the service of humanity.” What could be more noble? For twenty years this writer worked at a singular task for making “better” weapons of mass destruction (WoMD). I helped to decrease the size of WoMD by thirty times while increasing the yield from 15 to 475 kilotons of TNT. For sixty years LANL has worked at this onerous, humanity threatening task. Is it not time for the LANL hierarchy and LANL workers to do science to make a better world? Let no future generation fault LANL for a failure of responsibility. This could be a fatal mistake, “only made once”. Our lawless Commander In Chief, our Leader, our beloved Fuhrer, has diminished the respect for the United States around the world. Cries of “No War” have been shouted from everywhere. His obedient minions will not be wise enough to refrain from carrying out nuclear holocaust initiating commands. It is disingenuous to assume numerous individual refusals to obey orders. And, how say you churchmen? You preach a wiser philosophy. Isn’t it time, maybe your last chance, to loudly espouse a love of the enemy, to loudly espouse your elementary and wise dictum? J’accuse you of being hypocritical. Isn’t life on this planet in jeopardy by accident or evil intent? Don’t you recognize the potential danger and your responsibility to help assure a continuation of life on this planet? Why must you flex your knee and prostrate yourselves to Caesar rather than to your God? LANL has done it’s duty for sixty years. It is now time for LANL to be born again and to move on to nonlife threatening, Nobel rewarding, scientific investigations. Homeland Security is not enough. The world must be made safe from US. Everyone, everywhere must be assured a peace of mind. With redirection of the ineffective expenditures for the military/industrial/corporate complex, which saps our very strength, peace could be assured. It is wisdom not weakness nor appeasement if monies are spent to bring peace on earth BY DOING GOOD. Peace and love, Don Eduardo de Los Alamos Edward B. Grothus, Los Alamos Phone: (505) 662-5053 work, e-mail: edgrothus@aol.com Old Friends Two elderly ladies had been friends for many decades. Over the years, they had shared all kinds of activities and adventures. Lately, their activities had been limited to meeting a few times a week to play cards. One day, they were playing cards when one looked at the other and said, “Now don’t get mad at me .... I know we’ve been friends for a long time ... but I just can’t think of your name! I’ve thought and thought, but I can’t remember it. Please tell me what your name is.” Her friend glared at her. For at least three minutes she just stared and glared at her. Finally she said, “How soon do you need to know?” “I CAN HEAR JUST FINE!” Three retirees, each with a hearing loss, were playing golf one fine day. One remarked to the other, “Windy, isn’t it?” “No,” the second man replied, “it’s Thursday.” And the third man chimed in, “So am I. Let’s have a beer.” What is an Earth-Based Vocation? At the EcoVersity, this is a question we often consider as we design our coursework and prepare for students to come take our classes. Traditionally speaking, an Earth-based vocation might’ve meant just farming or gardening. But today, as our understanding of the Earth and the limitations of its resources become more apparent to us, Earth-based vocations are literally “cropping up” in every field. “Vocation” is more than just a description for a job, or even a lifelong career. The word tends to imply an occupation that is more than a job, but is rather a “calling,” based on a strong interest or passion in the field in question. An Earth-Based Vocation at EcoVersity may be any vocation in service to the whole eco-system that is formed when we take both humanity and the Earth-home into consideration with our occupation. This is the field of sustainability, where we match the needs of human participants and the resources of the world around them in such a way that the former doesn’t overtax the latter. Jobs that may fall under the rubric of Earth-based vocations might include obvious ones – like permaculture, solar energy, and water harvesting designers – as well as less obvious ones, like forest rangers, city planners, and even land developers – provided they are using the principles of sustainability in the work they do. When EcoVersity permaculture instructors Scott Pittman and his partner Arina consider what to do with a client’s backyard, garden, or building site using the principles of permaculture, they are engaged in working an earth-based vocation. And while the pair may not precisely describe their jobs as a “calling,” they would probably agree that it was their interest in the Earth to begin with that gradually enabled them to accumulate the information they work with every day. At EcoVersity, we offer a certification program in Earth-Based Vocations that is designed to give our students a grounding in five branches of Earth-based studies in order to create a strong foundation for any vocation, but most certainly for those which combine an interest in the natural world and how humans can live well within it. As envisioned by our founder Frances Harwood, who passed away last July, these five disciplines include: · Permaculture, which deals with ecological design and site planning for everything from homes and gardens to communities, farms, and restoration projects, as well as the proper placement of elements like windbreaks, freshwater ponds, and parking lots; · Land & Gardens, which focuses on such practical issues as sustainable organic agriculture, including what to plant and when to plant it, land planning issues and design, and water harvesting and conservation methods; · Renewable Energy, which emphasizes increased energy efficiency along with the practical application of solar, wind, and biofuels technologies; · Natural Building, including hands-on instruction in the use of adobe, straw, cob, and other building methods, along with the proper implementation of passive solar design; and · Community Arts & Activism, which emphasizes the importance of aesthetics, environmental education, and the Earth Arts within the sustainability movement as a whole. Together, these five disciplines combine to form both a philosophy of approaching problems as well as the practical technical means to solve them quickly and efficiently using the best available materials for the task at hand. As we all know, the problems which face this community alone are in need of immediate practical solutions, and certainly there is no more pressing issue than that of water. Regardless of whether or not the acquifer refills itself through the miracle of snowmelt or if the drought comes to an abrupt halt through the resumption of afternoon showers in the Spring and Summer, the availability of water will continue to be an issue in this region. EcoVersity’s Certificate for Earth-Based Vocations program is helping to prepare students to address these and the many other growth and environmental issues that our community will face in the coming century. We also believe that Earth-Based Vocations – as a program, field of study, and foundation for a career – is an idea whose time has come. For more information, call (505) 424-9797 or visit http://www.ecoversity.org	Inside This Issue "Check this Out" ........... 5 Book Reviews..................15 Down at the Retirement Center ........7 Driving .........................13 Earth Based Vocation ...................11 EcoVersity Classes.......... 1 Ex-Nixon Aid Says Bush Should Be Impeached.. 5 Experts Predict a Terrorist Attack .......... 7 Family............................ 6 Friendly Fallout.............. 4 Guess Editorial from Bussflash.com........... 12 "I Can Hear Just Fine" ..11 Lara's Alternative Products Review .......... 8 Letter to the Editor ..........10 Life on a Commune...........6 Movie Making in NM ....... 4 Natural House Building Education................... 13 New TV Show ................ 13 North Central NM Events......................... 3 Old Friends ................... 11 Pojoaque Valley Youth Coalition .................... 9 Romance ..........................8 Second Time's a Charm... 9 Slaughterhouse Robbery ..................... 7 Tell Me This Won't Happen To Us..............5 Udall Calls for Increased Investment ..................6 Unclassifieds ..................8 Weird News ..................14 Where to Find the Sun-News ..................2 Who Done It? ................2 Workin' at the Car Wash ........................3 Zen and the Asteroid ......1