Peacefulness with Deer
August 30, 2007
Thanks to Ado for sending me this link...all the way from Ireland, he sends me a videoclip that is mesmerizing...
a couple having breakfast outdoors with 8-20 deer joining them...
If this doesn't make one want to be a vegetarian, I'm not sure what will!
posted by Sara Hickman at 07:26 pm
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A Poem From My Friend, Stevo
By Stevo Price
August 2007
Intelligent eyes
Open heart
Loving and wise
Always contemplating what needs contemplation
Never afraid to seek what's true and wise
Abstract artist extraordinare
Answers to a higher goddess power
Trusts the universe
Studies everything under the heavens
Expresses what needs expressing
Vastly sensitive to the world around her
Eats lots of fruits and vegetables
Never says never to her dreams!!!!!!!!!!!
posted by Sara Hickman at 07:01 pm
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Kenneth Foster Spared
http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5095416.html
Aug. 30, 2007, 11:03AM
By MICHAEL GRACZYK
Associated Press
HUNTSVILLE -- The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted today to recommend
that Gov. Rick Perry spare condemned prisoner Kenneth Foster from execution
and commute his sentence to life.
The vote from the seven-member board was 6-1. Foster was facing lethal
injection this evening.
Perry does not have to accept the highly unusual recommendation from the board
whose members he appoints.
There was no immediate response from the governor's office.
Foster was the getaway driver and not the actual shooter in the slaying of a
25-year-old man in San Antonio 11 years ago.
posted by Sara Hickman at 03:04 pm
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Save Kenneth Foster
August 29, 2007
The final push is on to save Kenneth Foster, Jr. from execution on Thursday.
The Save Kenneth Foster Campaign -- a coalition of activists and Foster's extended family -- has been working to stop the execution of a man who killed no one -- who was convicted, essentially, for driving a car, for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
The campaign has held several high profile demonstrations and other events in Austin and San Antonio. Major Texas newspapers -- including the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, the Dallas Morning News, the Waco Tribune, the San Antonio Express News, the Austin American-Statesman, among others -- have run editorials against the execution.
The campaign has done everything in its power to bring public attention to this egregious case and to give the Board of Pardons and Parole and Governor Perry every reason to do the right thing. Kenneth and his comrades on death row are in struggle with us, refusing to comply with their own executions.
On August 29th, another death row prisoner, Joseph Amadour is scheduled to be executed. Since, the 22nd of August, Kenneth and Joseph have been fasting in protest of their scheduled executions. Come join us in this 11th hour for Kenneth Foster and all death row prisoners!
In Austin ---
Wednesday, August 29, 5:00 PM, Governor's Mansion (Lavaca at 11th)
RALLY AND PRESS CONFERENCE FOR KENNETH FOSTER,
RESPONDING TO BOARD OF PARDONS AND PAROLES' RECOMMENDATION TO GOVERNOR PERRY AND IN OPPOSITION TO THE EXECUTION OF JOSEPH AMODOUR AT 6PM.
Thursday, August 30, 5:00 PM, Governor's Mansion (Lavaca at 11th)
EXECUTION PROTEST AND VIGIL
Even in the eleventh hour things could turn for Kenneth. If you can't make it to Huntsville, come out to stand with others against the execution.
Livingston / Huntsville ---
Come out to Livingston (location of Texas’ death row) and Huntsville (location of Texas’ execution chamber) to protest in support of Kenneth Foster and of John Amador. Both men are from San Antonio and have been protesting together by refusing to comply with their executions.
Livingston, Wednesday, August 29, 1:00 - 4:00 PM
Across from the Polunsky Unit: 3825 FM 350 South, Livingston, Texas
Huntsville, Wednesday, August 29, 4:00 - 7:00 PM
Protest the execution of John Amador outside the Huntsville Unit.
815 12th St., Huntsville, Texas
Huntsville, Thursday, August 30, 3:00 - 7:00 PM
Protest the execution of Kenneth Foster Jr. outside the Huntsville Unit. Groups from all over the state will converge to stand against this injustice and demand until the very end that the State of Texas do the right thing and stop this execution.
815 12th St., Huntsville, Texas
Call 417-2241 or contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for more info.
CALL AND FAX RICK PERRY AND THE BOARD OF PARDONS AND PAROLES
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles will make a decision on Wednesday whether to recommend clemency for Kenneth. For Gov. Rick Perry to consider clemency for Kenneth, five of the seven members of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles have to recommend clemency. Call the Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Rick Perry and urge them to grant clemency to Kenneth Foster Let's keep up the pressure!
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles:
Phone (512) 406-5852
Fax (512) 467-0945
Gov. Rick Perry:
Phone (512) 463-1782
Fax (512) 463-1849
If you can't get through, use this number:
800-252-9600
LEAVE A MESSAGE (you have up to 2 minutes)
For information about the case, latest news, coverage and editorials from major national and Texas news outlets: http://savekenneth.blogspot.com
Kenneth's web site:
http://www.freekenneth.com
posted by Sara Hickman at 01:54 pm
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Keeping Austin “Wyrd” From Paul Schumann’s Blog
Thank you, Paul!
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Keeping Austin Wyrd
Note: This essay is about the city I live in - Austin, Texas
By Paul Schumann
When I first heard the unofficial slogan for Austin, "Keep Austin Weird", I was turned off. The word "weird" had too many negative connotations for me. But, then I remembered an old mythology that I had written about in March, 1989 for Creativity!, a now defunct IBM magazine*. And, some conversations with Natalie Shell (http://www.natalieshell.com/) helped connect the two concepts together and I decided to do some further research. I now understand that the concept of "wyrd" is exactly right for Austin. What do you think?
Once upon a time
A great tree grew in the earth by a pool of water that was spring fed from the bottom.
The tree was known as the "World Tree" in some customs, "Tree of Life", or "Word Tree" in others.
The pool of water nourished the tree’s roots.
The tree dropped water from its leaves back into the pool.
The pool was known as the "Well of Wyrd".
The pool was tended by three women whose names meant:
All that has gone before,
How the past shapes the being now, and
That which should become.
The "Well of Wyrd" is layered with past life, represented by the dew from the tree.
And, is constantly being replenished and stirred by the spring at its bottom.
Those who drank from the pool gained wisdom.
The Anglo-Saxon word "wyrd" is derived from a verb, "weordan", to become, which in turn is derived from the Indo-European root "uert" meaning to turn. Wyrd literally means that which has become.
In a wider sense, "wyrd" refers to how past actions continually affect and condition the future. It also stresses the interconnected nature of all actions, and how they influence each other. In metaphysical terms, "wyrd" embodies the concept that everything is turning into something else while both being drawn towards and moving out from its own origins. "Wyrd" can be thought of as a process that continually works the patterns of the past through the patterns of the present into the patterns of the future.
By the way, Shakespeare borrowed from this mythology when he created the three witches in Macbeth:
"Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble."
The cauldron was the well of wyrd. Stirring the well of wyrd created chaos. And, the three women became witches, who were weird. Hence our modern connotations.
The concept of "wyrd" is complex and deeply ecological. The system of the well and the tree is obviously ecological with respect to the physical world. But, by deeply ecological, I mean that it also applies not only to the physical system, but the social, spiritual and information systems as well. It is "glocal" as well involving the individual and all of humanity. Our past, ancestral and experiential, affects us continually. Yet there is the interplay of our personal wyrd and the universal wyrd and the role we must play in creating our own destiny. We interact with that which has become to create personal patterns that affect and are reflected in the universal patterns. These universal patterns then exert forces that shape our lives.
The patterns created by individuals at a certain time and place create the sprit of the community that shapes the beliefs and behavior of everyone in the community. Every action we take, or don’t take, will have implications for own future choices as well as the future choices of others in the community. Therefore, we have ethical obligations to think carefully about the possible consequences of everything that we do. We are affected and constrained by our past actions, but we are constantly creating what should become through our reaction to present situations.
The three young women tending the tree and the well don’t just simply represent the past, present and future. They stand for:
all that has gone before
the process by which what has gone before and its bonds and connections shape the being that is now
the obligations that exist between people, that must be fulfilled, that shape the present being into what should become
Barton Springs Pool is our Well of Wyrd archetype. It is a physical manifestation of the process of wyrd. We get constant reminders of our past actions and their impacts and constraints on the pool. It is spring feed, but our present state of being produces water that flows into the pool, often polluting it. Dedicated people have fought hard to maintain the obligations we have to each to each other and the future to at least keep it as it now is. As an archetype of our community and its spirit, the pool should be protected, sustained and nurtured. It’s no wonder that people who swim in the pool regularly speak of it as a spiritual experience. It is a spiritual place.
If it is safe to drink the water from the pool, drinking of it should provide wisdom if one reflects on why the water is safe to drink.
I don’t think we’ve done as well on the social, spiritual and informational aspects of our wyrd. We do have a history center, but what about modern history? I don’t think anyone is studying the process of how we have become who we are. And, I’m equally sure that no one is thinking about the network of obligations we have to each other and how that should shape our future.
Keeping Austin wyrd has to become more than an unofficial slogan. It has to become how we perceive, think and act.
* I republished this essay on my blog
http://www.innovationtravelogue.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_archive.html
posted by Paul Schumann @ 11:53 AM
posted by Sara Hickman at 11:21 am
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