A must-read on "higher ed"

Image via WikipediaWord is beginning to get out about the higher ed bubble ... first there's this great piece by a community college prof who laments the absurd idea that we need to give everyone a college degree to do the kind of jobs that make up most real work.

Then there's the welcome and long-overdue news that Illinois Senator Dick Durbin is actually proposing to cut off the fuel to the five-alarm blaze of destruction by allowing student loan debts to be discharged in bankruptcy. In my practice, I don't go a week and often not a day without a call from students or even from people who should be doing everything possible to save for a soon-to-arrive retirement but who are being eaten alive by student loan debt, debt that they can never, ever earn enough to repay, because that's what the Ed bubble means, just like the real estate bubble before it -- you bought high and can only sell low, if at all

Meet Marion-Polk Food Share's New Community Garden Coordinator

Image via Wikipedia

Hi folks.

It’s my pleasure to introduce Ingrid Evjen-Elias, the new Gardens Resource Coordinator with the Marion-Polk Food Share Community Gardens Program. Ingrid comes to us with a depth of gardening and horticultural knowledge, as well as experience with community organizing and coordination. Aside from working with Food Share, she runs the Heartwheel Farm CSA in Sublimity, Oregon.

-Ian

To reach Ingrid:
503-798-0457
ievjenelias@marionpolkfoodshare.org

See below for an intro from Ingrid herself.

Greetings Fellow Gardeners!

My name is Ingrid Evjen-Elias and this is my first week here at the Marion-Polk Food Share. I’ll be joining Ian this summer as Garden Resources Coordinator, and I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself.

My principle job is to assist YOU, the community gardeners who make it all happen, in your endeavors. (Ian will continue to be available of course, but part of my role is to free him up to work on more big-picture aspects of our program such as food systems development and demonstration sites). Much of what I do will involve getting you the supplies, volunteers, starts and seeds you need for your garden. I also am available to help with garden consultation and troubleshooting. So if you need something, please email or give me a call! Together we just may come up with a solution…

Please know that I consider it an enormous privilege to be able to join you and MPFS in the local food-growing revolution here in Marion-Polk counties. This week I had a chance to tour quite a few of the community gardens blossoming in the Salem area, and WOW! Your dedication to cultivating these lovely oases of sustainability and food production is awe-inspiring.

Please feel free to contact me at 503-798-0457. In general I’m available to assist you Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

“Let the beauty we love be what we do,” says the poet Rumi. “There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” Thank you so very much for your efforts to grow wholesome, life-infused food. I look forward to meeting you, and to a season of working and playing in the gardens!

Blessings and solidarity,

Ingrid

Ian Dixon-McDonald
Community Gardens Director
Marion-Polk Food Share

T: 503-581-3855 x329
C: 503-798-0339
F: 503-581-3862
E: imcdonald@marionpolkfoodshare.org
1660 Salem Industrial Drive NE
Salem OR 97301-0374
www.marionpolkfoodshare.org/
www.marionpolkgardens.ning.com

Tell Council to Stop Junk Littervertising! Weak proposed ban that would only make it harder to stop Junk Littervertising

The Salem City Council is being seriously misled on the effort to stop junk littervertising, the means by which local businesses grab private advertising profits but shove higher costs onto city taxpayers by making us pay to pick up and dispose of their littervertising.

The city staff has refused to recommend that the city create an opt-out directory that would let you put your address on a "Don't Littervertise Here" list (or, even better, an opt-in list where they would only be allowed to littervertise to people who specifically request it). Rather, the lame-o ordinance currently being discussed would actually have the effect of legalizing the littervertising if it was placed on your front porch or tied to the doorknob.

In other words, what started as a reasonable effort to let residents stop a nuisance has been twisted into an overly bureaucratic and costly proposal (complete with complaint form that puts the burden on the littering victims instead of the junk littervertisers).

But there's still time to get your comments in:

April 25, 2011 City Council minutes read:

Ordinance Bill No. 15-11 Relating to Solid Waste; Creating New Provisions; Amending SRC 47.245 (Unsolicited Written Materials) (CD)

Persons Testifying: Support: Cherie Bennett, Ward 1 Leslie Polson, Ward 1 Richard Pine, 1630 Summer Street SE
Oppose: Neutral:

Organizations: Support: Alan Scott, Chair, NEN
Oppose: Rich Ottensmeyer, Controller of Operations, Statesman Journal Don Robinson, Delivery Manager, Statesman Journal
Neutral:

Evidence Received From: Support: Alan Scott, Chair, NEN Leslie Polson, Ward 1 Oppose: Neutral:

Questions or Comments by: Mayor Peterson, Councilors Clem, Dickey, Thomas, Cannon, Tesler, and Guest Councilor Nanke.

Motion: Move to close the hearing and keep the written record open for 90 days. Motion by: Councilor Bennett Seconded by: Councilor Cannon

----

So Email the whole council with one click here. Tell them that you are sick and tired of junk littervertising, tired of paying to recycle or haul away junk ads you didn't ask for and don't want, and that you are tired of seeing the damn things laying all over, unrequested, and letting criminals know which houses are unoccupied.

If San Francisco and Seattle can pass strong anti-littervertising ordinances, so can Salem!

Join the pro-human movement @ IKE Box, June 16, 7 p.m.

Meanwhile, download, copy, and distribute a good pdf brochure on the subject here (via Googledocs).

An encouraging sign

Image via WikipediaPeople recognizing that much of what is best in life is what we hold in common.

Oregon Commons is working to inspire appreciation, stewardship and advocacy of our Oregon commons—the gifts of nature and civilization we share across generations. We are a project of The Learning Commons, a tax-exempt 501-c-3 nonprofit organization.

Our Goals

• Education: We facilitate learning about the commons
• Networking: We strengthen the network of those who care about the commons
• Visibility: We raise the visibility of the commons in the public mind
• Right Action: We plant seeds for stewardship and advocacy of the commons

Post-Constitutional America, Exhibit 1,384,588,911

Shorter FBI: "If you oppose the corporate takeover, you must be a terrorist."

First June Weekend Best Bet: A.C. Gilbert Discovery Village 16th Annual Garden Tour & Plant Sale

Image via WikipediaThis gets better and better. We got some amazing raspberry plants at this one last year. Watch this gorgeous slide show preview.

16th Annual
GARDEN TOUR & PLANT SALE
benefitting A.C. Gilbert's Discovery Village

June 3 & 4, 10 am - 4 pm

Now in its 16th year, the Garden Tour & Plant Sale is a fundraiser for A.C. Gilbert's Discovery Village, the nonprofit children's museum in downtown Salem's Riverfront Park. This year's event will feature a tour of private gardens in Keizer. We have eight fabulous stops on the tour, including the personal garden of Ray Schreiner of Schreiner’s Iris Gardens.

Tickets are now available for purchase at the museum and all Salem-Keizer Roth's Markets. Tickets: $15 / Ages 12 & under: $5

Get a sneak peek of this year's gardens!

THE FORECAST

• Friday, June 3 67 H / 50 L
• Saturday, June 4 69 H / 51 L

Partly cloudy. Partly sunny. Tomato. Tomahto. Whatever you call it, it’s a good day for a Garden Tour. Purchase your tickets at A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village or any of the Salem-Keizer Roth’s Markets.

Great Stuff: Solarize Salem is kicking off Round 2

Image via WikipediaGreat photo essay here on a local solar install project by Solarize Salem.

Regular readers of LOVESalem (and you both know who you are) recall that we installed a 4,338 w solar-electric generating system here at LOVESalem HQ that we turned on at nearly the absolute nadir of solar opportunity last December. However, since that day, roughly 28 weeks ago, we've generated over 1,500 kilowatt-hours of electricity. More important, if spring or summer ever comes, we still stand to have the best months left (June, July, August) before the days shorten up faster and faster in September. I'm hoping for another 2000 kWhs by October 1, and then maybe another 800 between then and the one-year anniversary of system startup on December 11.

We got our first "negative" power bill last month, with our output to the grid exceeding our home's draw for the month by 165 kWh. We'll keep banking that great excess through the summer, and draw it down over the winter. Cool.

If you want to have an expert come out and look at your home or cabin or business to see whether solar electric makes sense for you, you can contact Solarize Salem, a local community venture.

SHAMELESS COMMERCIALISM PARAGRAPH: Alternatively, if you're not into joining a co-op, you can call SunWize, a local solar installer who is the outfit who did the system here at LOVESalem HQ. If you have them come out and assess your house and you tell 'em we sent you, they'll give us $50. If you actually buy and install a system with them, they'll give us $500. And if we get any such referral cash, we'll put it to good use for good causes here in Salem. You can reach Matt Henderson at SunWize at 541-230-5001; tell 'em LOVESalem sent you.

Word

(Another hat tip to Sam Smith's Progressive Review for this one too.)

WORD

Standardized testing is the worst thing that could have happened. You're producing scientists that think every experiment has perfect answers.

- Reid Walker, Colorado biology teacher

Powerful piece: "On Patriotism"

Image via WikipediaThe last refuge of scoundrels takes another lashing here.

Excerpt:

When we say “John is a patriot,” we mean “John is a reliable member of our dog pack,” nothing more. The pack instinct seems more ancient, and certainly stronger, than morality or any form of human decency. Thus, once the pack—citizenry, I meant to say—have been properly roused to a pitch of patriotism, they will, under cover of the most diaphanous pretexts, rape Nanking, bomb Hiroshima, kill the Jews or, if they are Jews, Palestinians. We are animals of the pack. We don’t admire patriotism. We admire loyalty to ourselves.

The pack dominates humanity. Observe that the behavior of urban gangs—the Vice Lords, Mara Salvatrucha, Los Locos Intocables, Crips, Bloods—precisely mirrors that of more formally recognized gangs, which are called “countries.” Gangs, like countries, are intensely territorial with recognized borders fiercely defended. The soldiers of gangs, like those of countries, have uniforms, usually clothing of particular colors, and they “throw signs”—make the patterns of fingers indicating their gang—and wear their hats sideways in different directions to indicate to whom their patriotism is plighted. They have generals, councils of war, and ranks paralleling the colonels and majors of national packs. They fight each other endlessly, as do countries, for territory, for control of markets, or because someone insulted someone. It makes no sense—it would be more reasonable for example to divide the market for drugs instead of killing each other—but they do it because of the pack instinct.

Packery dominates society. Across the country high schools form basketball packs and do battle on the court, while cheerleaders jump and twirl, preferably in short skirts (here we have the other major instinct) to maintain patriotic fervor in the onlookers. Cities with NFL franchises hire bulky felons from around the country to bump forcefully into the parallel felons of other cities, arousing warlike sentiments among their respective fellow dogs. . . .