Fake vs fir: What’s your holiday tree made of?
Real or artificial Christmas tree decorated with lights, ornaments, and tinsel? Which is the right choice? It depends on switch side of the aluminum or wooden fence you are on. Ho-ho-holarious. What’s your ho-ho-holiday tree made of?
The overzealous environmentalists that sneak in, lay down, and block the path as you search at a tree farm shout, “Use artificial, you tree assassins!”
The manufacturers of fake trees and the retail store owners and managers shout, “Yes. Buy artificial trees and save the environment!” No falling pine needles. No worry of overwatering or underwatering. No hiding squirrels in the branches. No messy clean up.
The owners of Christmas tree farms shout, “American grown. Buy real and help small farms! Fill your home with natural fragrance.”
Bossy Lucy demands a fake tree. But, Charlie Brown selects the pathetic, but real tree over the commercialized alumni tree in the annual TV special.
“There’s no experience quite like cutting your own live Christmas tree out of your neighbor’s yard.”—Dan Florence
More than 95 million U.S. households celebrated the 2018 holiday season by displaying a Christmas tree, according to the eighth annual Christmas tree survey from the American Christmas Tree Association conducted by Nielsen. Shazam! Eighty-two percent of the Christmas trees displayed were artificial and eighteen percent were real trees.
The rest of the story…
A 2018 article in the New York Times by Karen Zraick reported on common misconceptions. It seems like cutting a real Fir on a farm has advantages. “A five- or six-foot tree takes just under a decade to grow, and once it’s cut down, the farmer will generally plant at least one in its place. The trees provide many benefits to the environment as they grow, cleaning the air and providing watersheds and habitats for wildlife. They grow best on rolling hills that are often unsuitable for other crops and, of course, they are biodegradable.”
Most of the artificial trees on the market are made of PVC and steel in China and shipped to the United States. So, how does that help the American economy? It probably funds the Chinese military.
Real Trees in White House
Every year a contest sponsored by the Association of American Christmas tree growers ensues for a Christmas tree for the iconic Blue Room. And 55 additional trees are bought to decorate the White House complex.
Should the White House buy artificial trees (from China) to help save the environment? And reuse the same faux trees year after year after year? Or buy from tree farms in USA?
I perused the internet for artificial tree manufacturers in the USA. The websites I found did not come out and declare their trees were made in America. So, I am confused. Are parts designed in USA, made in China, shipped to USA, and fused with parts made in USA?
The debate about the environmental impact of artificial trees and the impact of cutting real trees is ongoing.
I’m foregoing a Christmas tree this year and instead I’m displaying an Inflatable Buddy the Elf (six feet tall) in my living room. That solves the holiday tree debate for me. Fa la la la la la la la la.
Melissa Martin, Ph.D., is an author, columnist, educator, and therapist. She lives in Ohio. Contact her at melissamcolumnist@gmail.com.
===========================
Celebrating peace: A work in progress
by Robert C. Koehler
982 words
Veterans For Peace, an organization that speaks truth to war like nobody else, is attempting to reclaim Armistice Day, the Nov. 11 holiday that was flipped on its head 65 years ago when it was renamed Veterans Day — and became a celebration not of the end of war but of its perpetuity.
The name change occurred in 1954. The Korean War had recently “ended,” the Cold War and the nuclear arms race were seriously revving up and, of course, that other world war, nine years past, was still vividly a part of everyone’s consciousness. There was near-infinite cynicism about the whole idea of “the war to end all wars” . . . yeah, sure, what a joke. That’ll never happen.
But in reclaiming Armistice Day — and holding events across the country honoring the current struggle to create peace — Veterans For Peace is also reclaiming a cry of pain and anger: The so-called Great War, with its mustard gas and trenches, its shellshock and influenza, its 20 million dead, was unnecessary and should have been the last. It is reclaiming a profound, global commitment to War No More.
Veterans Day celebrates — glorifies — the past. Armistice Day speaks to, and attempts to create, the future. What is peace? How can it happen? The question hovers like a star.
Writing on Nov. 11, VFP executive director Garett Reppenhagen put it thus: “We absolutely need to start pushing back on militarism in all its forms and regardless of who is in the White House. Not just on gross displays like Trump’s proposed circus but on how we organize and how the effects of militarism show up in all of our spaces and communities. The reality is that almost EVERY SINGLE domestic platform on a progressive agenda can be funded by the overinflated military budget.”
On this reclaimed American day of peace, this day of looking at what we must do, I attended an Armistice Day event in Chicago, sponsored by the local VFP chapter. To a large extent, the focal point was the city’s schools and the needs of its children. Not coincidentally, a Chicago Teachers Union strike had just ended. The union’s demands were more than better pay and benefits for teachers, but such matters as:
“All students need individual attention from their teachers. We cannot provide that level of attention when we have more than 40 students in a kindergarten or any other class.”
And, in a system that recently made a $33 million agreement with the Chicago Police Department for policing in schools, the Teachers Union called for “hiring social workers, counselors, nurses, other clinicians at national recommended ratios; hire more case managers; full-time librarian and Restorative Justice coordinator in every school.”
This is the future, created one brick at a time. We can’t “celebrate” peace without asking what it requires. Indeed, peace is about asking the big questions. This is where it begins. Peace is always a work in progress.
One of the panelists at the Armistice Day event was part of an organization called Voices of Youth in Chicago Education, or VOYCE, which several years ago had released a report on the school system called “Failed Policies, Broken Futures: The True Cost of Zero Tolerance in Chicago,” which found that Chicago Public Schools’ “overuse of harsh disciplinary measures has cost the city tens of millions of dollars in the short term and hundreds of millions of dollars in the long-term, diverting resources from more effective approaches to school safety.”
This reclaimed day is every day, a celebration of the future that’s in progress and our slowly growing awareness of what it requires, such as “a Restorative Justice coordinator in every school” — hallelujah. The core of Restorative Justice is the healing circle, where participants. sitting in vibrant equality, address conflict by listening to multiple points of view, figuring out what has been harmed and deciding how it can be healed. It’s the opposite of a perfunctory, bureaucratic solution, i.e., punishment, which can seem so simple to someone removed from the reality of it, but exacts a harsh cost on young people in the process of growing up. In the inner city, it’s called the school-to-prison pipeline.
An externally maintained, unstable state of order — whether in the public schools or the community of nations — is not peace.
Reclaiming Armistice Day does not mean applauding the illusory peace that was achieved on Nov. 11, 1918, but it could well mean looking with unwavering clarity and courage at this illusion. War doesn’t work.
Veterans Day may claim to honor vets, but it isn’t about honoring the ones who have struggled with PTSD and committed suicide. Matthew Hoh, for instance, notes that far more Afghan and Iraq vets have committed suicide than were killed in the wars themselves. He writes:
To visually understand this concept that the killing in war does not end when the soldiers come home, think of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, The Wall, with its 58,000 names. Now visualize The Wall but lengthen it by some 1,000-2,000 feet to include the 100,000 to 200,000 plus Vietnam veterans who are estimated to have been lost to suicide, while keeping space available to continue to add names for as long as Vietnam veterans survive, because the suicides will never stop.
This is the armistice that has yet to be achieved.
–end–
Robert Koehler, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a Chicago award-winning journalist and editor.
========================
Dear Editor:
Please consider this well informed and helpful commentary by emeritus professor Andrew Moss, who writes frequently about refugee and immigrant issues. For PeaceVoice, thank you,
Tom Hastings
~~~~~~~~~~~
Raising the stakes in the struggle over immigration detention
by Andrew Moss
767 words
As the struggle for immigrant rights continues to be fought across America, new battlegrounds may come into view, then fade from public attention. For many months, our border drew intense scrutiny, as family separations shocked and horrified millions. Recently, the fate of DACA and 700,000 Dreamers moved back briefly into headlines, as the Supreme Court took up arguments over the Trump administration's efforts to terminate the program.
What hasn't yet come to full attention, however, is the struggle over the future of immigration detention itself, a conflict whose outcome may have far-reaching consequences for immigration reform in years to come.
Last month, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill prohibiting California from entering into, or renewing, contracts authorizing companies to run private, for-profit detention centers in the state. Currently three companies (the GEO Group, CoreCivic, and the Management & Training Corporation) run four different facilities that, collectively, house up to 4000 people, or about 8 percent of the approximately 49,000 people in immigration detention nationwide. The California bill will take effect on January 1, 2020, forcing the closure of the four facilities whose contracts will expire over the course of that year.
For immigration activists, the closures will represent the beginning of the end of a tragic, violent period in our immigration history. They cite numerous reports on abuse and neglect perpetrated by the for-profit operators of these facilities, including a 2019 Inspector General report that cited thousands of deficiencies nationwide, deficiencies "that jeopardize the health and safety of detainees," including failure to notify ICE about sexual assaults. Adelanto, the largest facility in California, has been cited numerous times for medical neglect, and has been the site of several deaths in recent years.
To prevent people currently detained from being transferred to remote locations outside the state, immigrant rights groups are working strenuously to raise bond funds that would allow them to pursue their asylum cases outside of detention. This approach is consonant with a broader goal of eliminating immigrant detention entirely and replacing it with community accompaniment programs that help asylum seekers advance their cases while living and working productively in communities. Activists describe the overarching theme of this strategy as "community, not cages."
Companies operating the for-profit facilities maintain that legal obstacles will block the implementation of the new California measure. A company spokesperson for the GEO Group, for example, declared that the bill should face a successful legal challenge because it violates the Constitution's supremacy clause (Article VI) that gives federal law precedence over state lawmaking. But constitutional experts supporting the measure argue that California has the authority to take this step, saying that the state has the power to regulate private companies; it isn't trying to regulate the federal government.
ICE, meanwhile, has taken matters into its own hands. Five days after Governor Newsom signed the new legislation on October 11, ICE began soliciting contracts for new for-profit detention facilities, contracts that would be approved prior to the January 1, 2020 date that California's new measure would take effect. The contracts are for facilities in the same geographical areas as the existing four detention centers, and would run for five years, with the option to renew for two additional five year terms.
California officials and immigration activists maintain that ICE's move violates federal procurement protocols by narrowing the bidding process to favor the existing companies and facilities. They argue that by attempting to rush the contracts before the January 1 deadline, ICE is making a blatant attempt to circumvent California law. At this point, it's unclear how the conflict will play out legally in the near future.
Nevertheless, California immigrant rights activists remain undeterred, seeing their state's legislative actions as part of a bigger national reform movement. They cite Illinois' recent ban on private immigration detention as well as proposed national legislation that would place a moratorium on the expansion and construction of detention facilities, while increasing oversight over existing facilities.
It remains to be seen exactly where and how the coming battles over detention will be fought. Much may happen in the courts, but for many activists the key issue will remain one of visibility: making continually clear to the public what it means to criminalize and incarcerate asylum seekers – and to run profitable, multi-billion dollar businesses in doing so.
–end–
Andrew Moss, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is an emeritus professor (English, Nonviolence Studies) at the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
=====================
Humor for holiday stress
Instead of a frazzled freak-out around the hectic holidays, what about trying laughter. Not hysterical ‘lose your mind’ chortling or ‘milk coming out of your nose’ snickering. But, belly-laughing glee with giggles and guffaws.
Funny
A hilarious holiday tune—sing along with me. Grandma got run over by a reindeer/ Walking home from our house Christmas Eve/ You can say there’s no such thing as Santa/ But for me and grandpa we believe. My mamaw Hila bristled at the lyrics to this song. “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer,” a novelty Christmas song written by Randy Brooks. And originally performed by the husband-and-wife duo of Elmo and Patsy Trigg Shropshire in 1979.
Funny gag gifts. Pizza Flavored Candy Canes. Squirrel in Underpants Air Freshener. Poop Emoji Ornament. Custom Human Face Pillow.
Find some corny jokes to share with nieces and nephews. Use the following anonymous jokes.
Q: Why do reindeer stop for coffee on their Christmas run? A: Because they’re Santa’s star bucks.
Q: What do you call a frog hanging from the ceiling? A: Mistletoad.
What about Animal Butt Magnets for cousin Clevis? “Butt magnets come in a package of six with a variety of animals.” Maybe he’ll get the hint and stop eating all the pecan pie.
“The worst gift is a fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other.” —Johnny Carson
Not Funny
I like holiday humor as much as the next gal, but some pranks are funny and some are not.
A father shot a deer during hunting season and told his kids, “I accidently killed Rudolph.” While the kids cried, the wife put the father on Santa’s naughty list. And on the couch to sleep until Spring.
The prankster son that wrapped all the food in the refrigerator the night before Christmas dinner. His mother needs to swathe him in duct-tape and glue jingle bells on his feet.
Not funny gag gift. Racing Grannies. “A fun stocking filler for both kids and adults, race them against each other across the dinner table—after you’ve stuffed yourself with turkey—to see whose granny has the finish line in her sights and whose is taking a nap after being on the booze.” Not funny to grandmothers. Watch out for the flying cranberry sauce.
“Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people once a year,” declared Victor Borge. Ask the grinch in your family if he/she would like a sense of humor for Christmas. Are you a prankster genius? A holiday prank on Scrooge (cousin Clevis) may diffuse some of the stress that comes with the season of hustle and bustle. Laughing releases endorphins, the feel-good brain chemicals.
Make your goal a stress-free season or, at least, try to smile through the chaos. Yelling at your spouse, the kids, or the dog is naughty, not nice.
Laughter is contagious. I think I’ll laugh around cousin Clevis. Ho-ho-ho. Ha-ha-ha. And decorate my 100-pound dog with reindeer antlers and blinking lights.
Laughter therapy has been shown to reduce anxiety and depression in menopausal women. I’ll share that tidbit with my female colleagues at the office Christmas party this year. But only after they’ve sipped some holiday cheer.
Laughter is an immune booster. So, laugh in the face of the flu this winter. The American Heart Association recommends laughter for a heathy heart. Who knew?
‘Tis the season to be jolly! ‘Tis the season to chuckle it up! ‘Tis the season to ramp up your sense of humor!
Melissa Martin, Ph.D., is an author, columnist, educator, and therapist. She lives in Ohio. Contact her at melissamcolumnist@gmail.com.
