Three amazing women decided to post a photograph everyday and create a blog called 3x3x365. The first photo on each day’s post belongs to Patti Digh, the second to Kathryn Schuth, and the third is Amy McCracken’s.
Sometimes when life adventures take one of them them away from the connected world, they call in a pinch hitter. Patti has called up her husband, John Ptak, to pinch hit for her while she is speaking and teaching.
John Updike once described John Ptak’s writing as “brilliant.” Ptak’s March 15, 2014 post is, again, brilliant. http://3x3x365.blogspot.com/2014/03/31513.html?m=1
North Carolina artist Kathy Clark is calling for the tradition of Ash Wednesday to also be Coal Ash Wednesday. She is encouraging people to reduce their use of electricity as much as possible today as a reminder of the damage coal ash continues to do in the Dan River.
Clark is urging people to use a bare minimum or no electricity from 7:00-7:30 tonight. Whether you observe Lent or not, this is an excellent opportunity to consider how you use electricity (and other fuel) and how you can reduce your consumption. It is time to get some religion about energy use in our country.
Senator Josh McKoon R-Columbus, thinks that Georgia taxpayer dollars shouldn’t be used for legal medical choices that a teacher or state employee covered by state health insurance might make with her doctor because some people might find her decision to be “morally repugnant and reprehensible.”
Does this mean Jehovah Witnesses who pay state taxes and object to blood transfusions can expect state health insurance to no longer cover transfusions because it is in direct contradiction to their faith?
How about Georgian’s paying their taxes who object to the death penalty as “morally repugnant and reprehensible.” Does this mean no one will be executed in our state as long as a taxpayer says they find the death penalty to be in conflict with their personal beliefs?
Will any Amish come forward and ask that we abandon the grid, mass transit, and all things electric?
What if a taxpayer is just kind of annoyed by something, but not really worked up about it? Will the state hit the pause button while said taxpayer sorts out their feelings?
McKoon’s sponsored SB98 is “morally repugnant and reprehensible.” It is reflective of the GOP and Tea Party’s lack of respect for teachers and state employees. We entrust them to teach our children and do our state’s work, but not enough to let them make health decisions without the General Assembly cherry picking what is covered by the state’s health insurance.
Arizona’s Republican United States Senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake, are joining the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and major corporations and calling for Gov Jan Brewer to reject SB 1062, a bill designed to allow discrimination against gay people (and who knows who else) based on the religion of the person who feels a need to discriminate. The uproar and pushback are so strong that four major companies are reconsidering decisions to bring thousands of jobs to the state. Arizona hobbled itself over establishing a Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday years ago, and there is already plenty of talk about moving the 2015 Super Bowl out of the state if Brewer signs the bill.
Arizona’s bad idea is also a bad idea for Georgia, and there are two bills in the General Assembly that would hurt our state by legalizing discrimination based on the “preservation of religious freedom.” The House version of this hate bill masquerading as religious freedom is HB 1023. The Senate’s version is SB 377.
I was stunned to find Rep Mack Jackson’s name on the House version of this bill. Mack, a Democrat who serves District 128 where I live, is the minster of St. James Christian Fellowship in Tennille.
My first questions to him were, “Have you talked to Dr Lowery about this? Would Dr. King support you on this?”
I value religious freedom and the separation of church and state. But there’s a big difference between religious freedom and legalizing discrimination based on one’s personal faith.
What lies at the heart of this bill is legalizing discrimination against gay people. In addition to a business choosing to refuse service to gay people, they could also discriminate against Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, …….. How about overweight and obese people if your faith deplores people who are more than a healthy weight (that could reduce revenues for businesses in the South where we seem to have an epidemic of weight issues)?
It is stunning that in the state where Dr King is buried, and Civil Rights champions Dr Joseph Lowery and Rep John Lewis call home, any state legislator would put their name on a bill like HB 1023/SB 377.
Crossover Day in the General Assembly is Monday, March 3rd. That means you need to act now! You can sign this petition,contact your legislators, or do both.
As this morning has progressed Mack replied to my text message saying he took his name off the bill (it still appears in the online version). A couple of hours later he posted on Facebook that he didn’t sponsor this bill. Now, as I am posting here, he has texted me saying, “My name was on the bill but was taken off in the clerk’s office after it was brought to my attention the effect of this bill. It is never my intention to discriminate against anyone. I did not sponsor the bill.”
Thank you for stepping back Rep Jackson. You and others under the Gold Dome will better serve your constituents if you fully understand the impact legislation will have on individuals, families, businesses, and our state before filing bills. Our job is to hold you accountable.
The Atlantic covers a Brookings Institute report on income inequality in 50 of America’s cities. Atlanta leads the list.
Got water? Centerville resident Bill Ferguson says SB 213, the Flint River bill, isn’t a good idea. He explains why in today’s Macon Telegraph.
Rep Mike Dudgeon’s HB 874, which would have made solar power much more affordable for Georgians, has just about seen the sun set on it. Dave Williams at the Atlanta Business Chronicle covers it.
Freshly sworn in to the Georgia House of Representatives, Rep Sam Moore, R-Macedonia, thinks:
Would it be a good idea to remove coal ash waste from places where there is groundwater and surface water contamination? “You don’t need to be Joe Chemist to figure that out.” says Avner Vengosh at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University.
Georgia has issued a new car tag featuring the Confederate flag, with $10 dollars of the $80 fee going to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who will use the revenue for “educational activities” and preservation efforts.
Remember that little ice event we had in Middle Georgia last week? As bucket trucks streamed into Washington County, preparations were underway to house approximately 25 linemen in the wellness center at Washington County Regional Hospital.
While the storm was making its way east towards us, Lower Oconee Hospital in Glenwood closed its doors. That’s the fourth small hospital to close while Governor Deal has been in office. Fifteen to twenty more are at risk for closure, but much-needed federal dollars are being turned away by Deal and his supporters in the General Assembly.
Beth O’Connor, the Virginia Rural Health Association’s Executive Director wrote in the Roanoke Times yesterday, “Hospitals are not businesses. If someone goes to a hair salon, grocery, clothing store or movie theater, but does not have money, they will not receive service. But federal regulations require hospitals to treat anyone who walks through the Emergency Room door – regardless of ability to pay.”
O’Connor goes on to point out that Virginia’s legislators are turning away $5M per day of federal funding that her state’s small hospitals need. Those federal dollars are tax dollars paid for by hard-working Virginians. But Virginia’s tax dollars are going to other states.
So are ours. Georgia’s tax dollars are also going to other states where leaders know Medicaid Expansion makes sense for the health of small hospitals and the people they serve.
And now there are efforts underway to allow a part-time legislature to have the power to fix Georgia’s already hobbled healthcare system.
Governor Deal could take action right now, today, and direct the tax dollars we’ve already paid, to come back to Georgia. Instead of taking the long view that stretches beyond November’s election, Governor Deal refuses to help small hospitals and the 1 Million rural citizens who count on them every day.
What will happen when Governor Deal hits the campaign trail outside Atlanta and finds it littered with closed hospitals? Will the four counties now without a hospital be campaign stops? Will he be met at campaign rallies in rural Georgia by already angry teachers and recently unemployed hospital healthcare professionals?
The Charlotte Observer reports that Duke Energy notified the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources on Sunday afternoon that one of their coal ash ponds at the Dan River Power Station was spilling coal ash waste and toxin contaminated water into the Dan River. The company’s early estimate was that 82,000 TONS of toxic coal ash waste and up to 27 MILLION gallons of water had poured into the river supplying municipal drinking water systems downstream.
photo Catawba Riverkeeper
Duke Energy officials waited until 4:03 on Monday afternoon to inform the public.
The Observer quotes power company officials saying on Tuesday that it was “definitely unexpected” that a reinforced concrete pipe would break.
Except Duke Energy didn’t use concrete pipes for two thirds of the length of the pipe where the leak continues to spill into the Dan River. The company thought it had used concrete pipes in the 1960s when they built the coal ash ponds, but now they know that only one-third of the length of the pipe work is concrete.
Ooops.
photo by Appalachian Voices
Late yesterday Appalachian Voices reported that coal ash has reached the intake point at the Danville water works. Virginia Beach authorities have turned off the pumps at Lake Gaston until the full impact of the spill is determined.
The water problems aren’t over for West Virginians either. The News Observer reports that Dr. Rahul Gupta, health officer for Kanawha and Putnam counties urges parents with children ages three and younger, as well as people with weakened immune systems, to avoid drinking the water. Yesterday two schools had to close when students and teachers were overwhelmed with the licorice fumes associated with the coal processing chemical that contaminated water resources last month.
There are plenty of potential coal ash spills waiting to happen. Today’s Washington Post notes that there are 207 plant sites in 37 states where coal ash contamination has violated federal air and water health standards. Georgia could be next.
Georgia is riddled with coal plants and the toxic waste they produce. Even as Georgia Power begins to shutter coal units, the coal ash remains. Middle Georgia’s Plant Branch and Plant Scherer as ranked as Significant for hazards. After the doors are locked at Plant Branch next April, the tons of coal ash and toxic-soaked water will still be there in retention ponds, right there on the banks of Lake Sinclair that feeds the Oconee River.
How can this be? Easy.
IN HARM’S WAY: Lack of Federal Coal Ash Regulations Endangers Americans and Their Environment, a report by the Environmental Integrity Project includes this on coal ash waste regulations and monitoring, “Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia either require no monitoring of their numerous ash ponds or monitoring only after the ponds have been closed, a rare event as most ponds are operated perpetually as ‘storage’ sites. Monitoring data from state files in Georgia were so minimal that no assessment of impacts could be made.”
Power companies in Georgia are allowed to self-monitor their coal waste storage sites. Not the state agency that issued their permits, not river keepers, not municipal agencies. The power companies get to make the waste and monitor the safety of its storage.
We’ve allowed corporations, lobbyists, and legislators to put us at risk for decades and we can’t afford any longer to think “it won’t happen to us”. The “us” is everyone in the Charleston, West Virginia, Danville, and now Virginia Beach.
If you are using social media (at least Facebook) you may see a lot of profile pictures washed in purple as part of World Cancer Day today. There are all kinds of good ways to support cancer research, cancer patients and survivors, health care professionals, and caregivers.
I have a friend who begins chemo tomorrow. She’ll beat this.
Cancer sucks.
I’m not going purple today. Instead I’ve picked up the phone and shared a call to action.
The Georgia Senate Natural Resources Committee is meeting this afternoon to consider SB 299, which will strip away water protection and leave us just as exposed and vulnerable as the people in West Virginia. I called and left a message asking Chair Ross Tolleson to vote NO on this bill.
There are all kinds of ways we can support cancer patients today, and tomorrow, and the day after that. The ribbons and the walks are fine, but we also need to have the hard discussions about what we are doing to the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. Because cancer sucks.
People root for teams in the Super Bowl and World Series for all kinds of reasons. We build dinner around the two teams playing.
We’ve had clam chowder (Patriots and the Red Sox), New York cheesecake (Giants), and California wine and cioppino (San Francisco 49ers and Giants). Duds have included everything we cooked in 2008 (Steelers v Vikings).
Tonight’s menu includes a new seafood chowder recipe and two New Belgium beers, Fat Tire and Ranger IPA (There are other good microbreweries in Colorado. New Belgium is employee owned and we like their beer).
It wouldn’t be a Super Bowl with the commercials (and wardrobe “malfunctions”). In 2011 Groupon learned how to make a lot of people angry in 30 seconds. And Budweiser seems to always get the right amount of heart-tugging in their ads. My favorite continues to be Volkswagon’s 2012 Darth Vader ad.
Tonight’s game, with all the chicken wings, pizza, beer, chili, and commercials, will have a lot of eyes focused on Seattle’s #40, Derrick Coleman, the first legally deaf player to play in the NFL.
There’s been some speculation about whether Peyton Manning will retire if he goes home with a second Super Bowl win tonight. Manning and his family have been role models among professional athletes, and I would like to see him win another Super Bowl (plus he was great on Saturday Night Live, so maybe a return hosting stint there might happen if Denver wins).
But tonight, just like twins Riley and Erin Kovalcik, I’m all in for Seattle and Derrick Coleman. Go Seahawks!
The Friday Photo
January 31, 2014
Solar panels at John and Gretchen Quarterman’s farm Okra Paradise cranked out power despite a coating of sleet earlier this week. John took this photo while he and Gretchen, along with their dogs Brown Dog and Yellow Dog, surveyed their farm in southwest Georgia.
You can watch the shouting matching here or read about it. And by the way, we don’t get paid what we’re worth and we ought to be.
This piece from The Weekly Sift, The Distress of the Privileged, is worth a read too (It’s long but will be time well spent).
UGA and Emory journalism professor Rebecca Burns has a keen piece in Politico on why Tuesday’s snow was such a disaster. Burn’s points here also hold true for the multitude of problems that will occur when the Braves move to Cobb County (add heat and humidity to the picture then).
Jay Bookman writes about Georgia’s bare bones budgeting, and what it means for our state.
