Ukiah Daily Journal from Ukiah, California • Page 7

FORUM SUNDAY, OCT. 23, 2005 A-7 SUNDAY VOICES ON THE STREETS The Earth hurts and she's letting us know What are you going to be for Halloween? It's as obvious to me as the headache I woke up with this morning that our planet is in pain. Look at a few of the signs of the past few years: A tsunami in Southeast Asia that wiped out hundreds of thousands of people, the recent earthquake in Pakistan and Kashmir, an outbreak of a mysterious new flu carried by birds and, closer to home, three 'major storms all in a row Katrina, Rita and Stan. These should be enough signs to make the point. Just the other day I heard a radio commentator say, "it seems like the Earth's wheels are falling off." Although his analogizing of our planet with a car got my attention, I felt it missed some subtlety that I believe is closer to the truth.

The analogy I would choose is that our planet is less like a car and more like a person it's a living, breathing body. As with any kind of body be it a car, a person or a planet after years of mistreatment things start to go awry. Recent events are telling us it's time to start paying closer attention to our ailing world and our first order of business should be for we Americans to take a long look at our part in just how we've been mistreating our planet After all, this is the one we live on. She provides us with our home and our sustenance. She's the one who feeds us, clothes us and keeps us warm.

But maybe the most important point of all is that we humans are the one species on the planet with the greatest ability to affect change in her. When we have a friend in pain we immediately offer sympathy and help. It seems to me that when disaster strikes close to us in our neighborhood or our town we are concerned because of proximity. When we witness a disaster firsthand it obviously affects us more deeply so we are more apt to do something about it. But when one strikes in another part of our country and we feel it less, we are apt to do less, and when it happens on the other side of the planet it might hardly get our attention.

Much of the current pain inflicted on our planet and its inhabitants has hit close to home. Two powerful storms hit us where it hurts right smack in the oil industry. Mother Nature knew how to get the attention of our leaders. Even our President, occupied as he is. with his Middle East fantasy, was awakened from his dream.

But the subtler aspects the karmic ones, the aspects of cause and effect remain hidden. It seems obvious to me mat part of Mother Nature's message to us had to do with our reliance on oil. Scoff if you will, but we've declared a war in the Middle East, which has something, if not everything, to do with oil and our country's current insatiable dependence on it. I think it's no mere co-incidence that Mother Nature aimed Katrina and Rita at our oil industry. She sent the first storm directly at the oil rigs the refineries and the shipping facilities along the Gulf Coast.

And, just in case we failed to get that message, she immediately followed up by sending a hurricane up refinery alley in Texas. Sunday view BY TONY ANTHONY Mother Earth Why shouldn't we think of our planet as a living, breathing organism when most everything on her including the tress, the plant life, the oceans and the animals are living beings? Scientists have found even the molecules in rocks respond to stimuli, so it should be no great leap of understanding to see that our planet itself as a living thing something native cultures have always known. The Hindus call the earth "Mother." And even we westerners know the planet as "Mother Earth." Native Americans performed rain dances because they knew that our planet actually held the intelligence and the ability to respond to their request. They continued the rituals for centuries, so surely they passed the test of time. It would behoove us to think this way to be protective of our mother.

When we take the time to pay attention to her we will see that she's showing us in no uncertain terms hurricanes, earthquakes, pestilence and floods that she's out of kilter or her wheels are falling off! It's obviously the time for a check-up of our planet's health. It seems to me that as her symptoms become more and more serious, it's time to consider deeper healing measures on our part. She's giving us signs to show us that it's time for humankind to stop screwing around with things as dangerous as war and depletion of natural resources now, before we cause even greater harm. So what can we do? I'm sure there are many ways to affect change that will start to heal our ailing Mother. Many spiritual communities are doing their part to help raise the collective consciousness of the people on our planet.

But what practical measures can we put into action now? Apian of action 1 I realize talk is Cheap. It's time for a plan and I see one taking shape, not a perfect one by any means, but one that's at least a start. Consider it a work in progress. The plan begins with admitting we've screwed up. It involves making an inventory of all the ways we've done damage to our planet, in order to create a list of what must be rectified.

Next comes a truly big step the willingness to change our errant ways. Then we must institute new policies that will bring less invasive technologies to bear like solar, wind and water. We already have the technologies and they will only improve as we begin to use them and learn more from practical experience. Although we in America currently have a leadership role because we have the brainpower and technological might to effect great changes in the planet, our role will change as power shifts to the Far East where most of the world's population is and where much of the world's technology is moving. So it is important for us to act while we still hold our position of power.

We must act before our power is gone. We must try to regain the world's trust by doing the right thing. As we begin to act with conscience people in other parts of the world will begin to take notice and America will start to regain the respect it once commanded. We as a country must take responsibility for our own actions, just as we would individuals. It is time for our country to stop messing in other business thinking we have the answer to everyone else's problems, especially when we obviously have difficulty managing our own.

We must allow the nations who sit on natural resources control them and use the profits to buy our advanced technology. By doing this we will allow for a natural balance to occur between regions. Eventually, when the oil wells run dry, the Middle Eastern countries will clamor for our alternative energy sources. As far as oil goes, as the supply runs out it will become less and less of an issue as long as we have alternatives in place. If not, countries will be fighting for the last few drops like people in a lifeboat about to run out of water.

It makes all kinds of sense to become self- sufficient eVen aside from the benefits to the health of our planet. The picture seems very clear: Currently we are messing with nature's balance in the Middle East because of our paranoia with the dwindling supply of oil. We are acting as if we're already in the lifeboat when we don't need to be. Balancing the situation in the Middle East is far too complex for our present government who have enough troubles, at the moment dealing with the disasters that have befallen us at home. It will be far better to let the various cultures that understand each other handle their own situation.

Our presence in the region only further- complicates what, is none of our business to begin with. So when Mother Nature sends us a parr of hurricanes equal in wrath to the two wars we started hi Iraq she's sending us a message to reconsider our policy. It could turn out that Mother Earth, when she begins to feel better again when we stop draining her of her precious bodily fluids may even-begin to show signs of rewarding us with something like years of good weather. Who knows, maybe when we renew our love and respect for our Mother we may be gifted with nothing but days on the road ahead! Tony Anthony is a Ukiah resident. Max Bartolomel Fifth grade Yokayo School "I'm going to be a witch, because I'm going to make the spell." Ronald Mosby Third grade Yokayo School "Michael Myers, he is a serial killer in a movie.

My sister and I are fans." Alison Rozek Third grade Yokayo School "I'm going to wear a light outfit, but I'll call myself the Princess of Darkness because my wand and crown will be black." Taylor Bray First grade Yokayo School "Jasmine, she's a princess. My costume is blue pants and a picture of Jasmine on my shirt." Jordan Milan! Third grade Yokayo School "A wizard from a book, The Magic It's about two kids who find a magic treehouse." Letters Continued from Page A-6 No on six, yes on two To the Editor: I just filled out my absentee ballot, this time it was easy only eight propositions, and the choices have never been clearer. By consulting the website Electionlnfo.org, a non-partisan site that lists the voting recommendations of 17 organizations, I could quickly see that centrist and liberal organizations, like the Consumers Union, League of Women Voters, Labor Federation, Democratic Party, NOW and the Sierra Club, consistently urge No votes for the first six propositions and Yes votes for the last two. At the right end of the political spectrum, conservative organizations like the Republican Party, Chamber of Commerce and Farm Bureau consistently recommend the opposite Yes on the first six propositions and No on the last two. The giant' drug companies and big business are spending big bucks to get you to vote this way, too.

On the other hand, if you care more about our schools, health care and working families than corporate profits, I urge you to check but Electionlnfo.org and to vote No on the first six proposi-. tions and Yes for the last two Tom Wodetzki Albion Heather Morris Sixth grade Yokayo School "Nobody will really know unless they see the 'Lord of the but I'm going to be a wood elf." Photos and interviews by Tyler Stoffel. Not his favorite Martian Whatever else the 1960s may have been, in the make-believe world of television it was a place populated by characters with supernatural abilities that they tried mightily to keep secret, "Mr. Ed" gave us a talking horse (who only spoke to one person); "Bewitched" gave us a witch (who tried to be like every other suburban housewife); and "I Dream of Jeannie" had a real genie living in a bottle known only to her "master" who had set her free, It also had a number of shows built around what might be called a "puzzle-box" premises: if their characters ever Solved the "puzzle," then the whole basis for the series would disappear. Think of the castaways stuck on 1 "Gilligan's Island," or those other castaways "Lost in Space." Only one of the "puzzles" ever got solved when "The Fugitive," played by David Janssen, ended its four-year run in 1967 with Janssen's character finally getting exonerated.

One of the earliest of these shows, combining both the "special powers" and "puzzle box" scenarios, was "My Favorite Martian" that ran from 1963-1966. For those who don't recall, Bill Bixby played reporter Tim O'Hara, who happens upon the crash landing of a Martian, played by Ray Walston. "Uncle Martin," as the Judicial follies BY FRANK ZonER Martian comes to be known, is actually an anthropologist who likes to study Earth's people and customs, but he decides to keep his identity a secret while trying, with Tim's help, to repair his ship. In the pilot episode, Tim also insists he's going to write the "story of the century" about finding a man from Mars, but "Uncle Martin" declines to help him, pointing out that it won't work. "Nobody would believe you," he tells Tim.

"Pick up the phone. Call your editor, tell him you've found a real, live Martian. Go ahead." And reluctantly, Tim accepts that no one would believe such a story even if it is the truth. Well, it wasn't Ray Walston, but perhaps a relative of his showed up just north of the border in an Ontario court a few years ago claiming to be a "real, live Martian." It seems that a fellow named Rene Joly, who claimed to be an alien from outer space a Martian filed three lawsuits in the Canadian courts against a variety of defendants, including the American Central Intelligence Agency and President Bill Clinton, alleging that they had done various things that "interfered with his ability to live freely as a Martian." Why Joly thought the Canadian courts could help him with American officials wasn't clear, but Joly claimed that he couldn't prove he was a Martian because the CIA had tampered with hisDNA. Hmmm why didn't Uncle Martin ever think of that? Well, the judge before whom the cases came for a ruling decided to turn Mr.

Joly's allegation that he was a Martian against him. He relied on the dictionary and a highly technical reading of the Ontario statute that governs one's right to file a lawsuit in Canada's courts. The judge explained that the governing rule, "defines plaintiff as 'a person who commences an The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines person as 'an individual human Section 29 of the Interpretation Act provides that a person includes a corporation. It follows that if the plaintiff is not a person in that he is neither a human being nor a corporation, he cannot be'a plaintiff as contemplated by the Rules of Civil Procedure. The entire basis of Mr.

Joly's actions is that he is a Martian, not a human being. There is certainly no Suggestion that he is a corporation. I conclude therefore, that Joly, on his pleading as drafted, has no status before the Court." Despite dismissing the case on procedural grounds, the judge was still not happy with Mr. Joly's lawsuit. Moving beyond his creative of the.dictionary, the judge added that the lavy- suits were "frivolous, vexatious and patently ridiculous." But the judge did not have such negative feelings about Mr.

Joly himself. Instead, he described Mr. Joly as "polite, articulate, intelligent," adding that he "appeared (o understand completely the issues before Court and the consequences should I grant the relief sought." Sounds a lot like Ray Walston, actually. But it does illustrate that the advice Uncle Martin gave to Tim all those years ago that no one would believe it if a "real, live Martian" showed up is just as true today. Frank Zotter is a Ukiah attorney..