When I think of a pun, it’s so much fun, that I don’t let go. Following my last post, JUST SAY MOW, which seemed to me quite apropos, for mowing’s cheap to do. Or UWM could get a cow, then I’d call this JUST SAY MOO. Well, I know UWM can’t have a cow. A neighbor of mine once wanted a goat grazing on her grass, and the Village of Shorewood just said no.  

I sent an Email, UWM Sprayed Again, to my Grass Roots list, and poets Susan Firer (Milwaukee Poet Laureate) and Jim Hazard sent this letter to Kate Nelson at UWM. They also plan to edit it to distribute to their neighbors. If some of you have neighbors who spray, perhaps you, too, would like to edit and use it!

Dear Kate Nelson,
I heard on WUWM today UWM bragging about its Green Ethic.  However, the recent spraying of the campus by TruGreen has no place in anyone's Green Ethic. Reliable studies have linked pesticides to a six-fold increase in childhood leukemia (Journal of the National Cancer Institute and American Journal of Public Health), have shown that dogs exposed to lawn pesticides are 4 to 7 times more likely to be diagnosed with bladder cancer (Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association), and have demonstrated the link between long-term exposure to pesticides and neuron damage that triggers Parkinson's disease (UCLA study reported in Chicago Tribune).

This glaring contradiction between public relations statements and university actions is a very serious matter, affecting anyone who sets foot on the campus grounds and the surrounding community.  Its effects extend beyond the immediate locale since the run off of pesticides and fertilizers does great harm to Lake Michigan's water quality and contributed to the dangerous presence of E. coli on area beaches: a strange policy given the information to that effect UWM's Great Lakes Water Institute has researched and published.

I hope the university will reconsider this irresponsible social behavior, change its policy toward harmful lawn treatment chemicals, and assume community leadership in this serious public health matter.
Susan Firer and Jim Hazard
 

Last Monday the grass was green where snow had melted, and the streets looked clear, except for the cloud of fog that hugged the East Side. I figured I should bike to Trader Joe’s while the snow and ice were water. As I put on my helmet, I had to admit I was afraid, of ice patches, of drivers on cell phones, of predicted thunder storms, of being too old to bike.

I pedaled along Maryland Avenue, avoided a friend who stepped off the curb without looking, too busy listening to his iPod, he said. Despite my loud pink jacket, I felt invisible, mists never more than a few feet away. The fog wasn’t pea soup, wrong color, more like vichyssoise without the leeks. I started to think of new blogs, wished I had a little tape recorder. Passers-by would think I’m on my cell phone. I smiled, relaxed, soon was coasting down Hampton, and I knew why I was biking. It’s more than a matter of getting to Trader Joe’s; it’s being out in the world, not enclosed, cruising through outdoor air.

I walked down the aisle, skipped the bulky produce, zeroed in on cereal, tofu, polenta, thinking that’s what’s cheap at Trader Joe’s, most health food I get at Outpost, better to shop there, shop  local, calculating what would fit on my bike. Then a voice said, “Suzanne! How did you get here?”
“Oh, Ruth, hi! I biked.” “You certainly can’t carry everything on your bike. You’ll have to let me drive it back for you.”

I mention this not because Ruth drove my groceries home for me, though she did, but because she told me about her recent mammogram at Bayshore. She had asked her technician about the incidence of breast cancer in the area. The technician replied that it’s unusually high on the North Shore. I’ve heard that several times recently, haven’t read it anywhere.

The following day at the Fitness Center a friend told me that some of the young women who live near her have breast cancer, and one died, leaving behind two young children. Then she added, “So many of my neighbors use pesticides, I’m thinking of moving out of Shorewood.”

I guess some people are dying to have no dandelions.
 

If intention were action, I’d post a blog every day. I always write one. In my head. Sometimes I write down the first paragraph, in fact don’t yet know whether this will be merely another first paragraph. I find almost everything interesting, but can’t find time to write about it. And if intention were action, I’d post a blog after every Second Sunday Soup and Salad Salon. First we share our food, after that our thoughts on a specific topic. We examine the issues that affect our lives, philosophical, environmental, cultural, political.

This month I resolved to write beyond paragraph one, maybe because our topic was voluntary simplicity, which covers every aspect of how we live. Simplicity enforced by poverty was not the topic, nor the simplicity that will be imposed on us as climate change progresses, but simplicity chosen by those who are lucky enough to have that choice. What is it, what does it require of the individual, where are each of us now? What is the media’s impact on this? Why do so many people buy into the importance of THINGS?

We touched on the range of complexity entailed in simplicity and how each of us deals with it. People mentioned personal quirks they were trying to work on, like the man with more shoes than Imelda, or the woman trying to get rid of her excess so her children won’t be stuck with it.

My view: to live simply we have to examine our lives, know our priorities, know what makes us content, recognize that things are merely things. Here are a few things I do, or avoid doing:
I don’t drive, but rather bike, walk, or bus
Grow my own vegetables, but what about all those trees that make the crop smaller each year?
Make sure my grandkids know how wonderful it is to eat food you yourself have grown
Use fresh produce, preferably organic, preferably local
Avoid processed foods, red meat, farmed salmon
Minimize eating out
Use organic products for cleaning and lawn care, avoiding pesticides and other poisons
Recycle, and that includes buying, when possible, at rummage sales
Keep the thermostat low and wear sweaters and long underwear in winter
Minimize water use, hard when I have a vegetable garden
Remind myself to let go, of things that don’t really matter, of the things I want to do and don’t have time for, of things I own but don’t need.
Use whatever talents I have to make people contemplate their own impact on their surroundings. That’s why I’m writing this!

There’s more I do, and much more I should do. One thing I want to say: every single item on my list enriches my life rather than depleting it.

Yvette wrote this to me after last Sunday’s salon: “I realized that my life has been simplified over the last 5 months due to a change in my eating.  I've become a vegan (by default) to help reduce the tinnitus (ringing in my ears).  I've reduced the amount of food I consume.  I cook more and eat out less.  I buy most of my veggies from local farmers markets and have taken the time to nurture myself in this way.  It has been a worthwhile journey.  Change your eating, change your world!...One point that we didn't discuss:  Rhythms can greatly simplify our life.  We create a harmonic rhythm to the day and it flows as we flow with it.  We can also create a beautiful rhythm to tasks that come on a routine basis.  It requires conscious thought and aware alignment, but ultimately as we align ourselves with the rhythm of the universe, we find flow and peace in voluntary simplicity.”

I wrote Glow Ball Worming for our Earth Poets and Musician performances last April. It plays around more poetically with my ideas on voluntary simplicity and ecological living, which are intertwined. I hope you’ll add any thoughts you might have.
 

Do you ever ask yourself whether or not you really want whatever it is you think you want? Whether that “whatever” will make you more content? I believe the world would be a better place if people asked themselves that question on a regular basis. Maybe I'll begin a series of blogs with it. It's one I'm always asking myself, even for small things.

Last Tuesday the weather report made me wonder whether or not I secretly hoped it would rain so I wouldn't have to sit at my Grass Roots table at National Night Out. Over the past several weeks, I had lined up a half dozen people to keep me company, Linda C had promised a bouquet to brighten the table, Kate T was bringing her PESTICIDE FREE signs, Tom C had supplied me with booklets on creating rain gardens and flyers about rain barrels and disconnecting downspouts, Carol C had told me where to order native plant catalogues, I had flyers about pesticide risks, about 2-4 D, about alternate lawn care, I'd bought 100 hangers for people to leave on the doorknobs of neighbors who don't know that their pesticides sicken and kill more than pestiferous weeds.

And then our daughter mentioned that Tuesday was the best night for our families to have dinner together since all eight of our grandkids were in town. I had to say no, it's National Night Out.

But I'm doing this for our grandkids, and everyone else's. Even for the lawn pesticide sprayers, who are twice as likely to get Parkinson's disease, thanks to their hatred of dandelions. Even for all those dog owners whose pets will develop fast-growing tumors. So I didn't want it to rain. Educating people about the risks is one way I can at least make a dent in a practice that's dangerous to humans, pets, and wildlife, and makes sense only for lawn care and chemical companies.

And it didn't rain. We set up the table with my purple leafy tablecloth, my Grass Roots sign (Let's keep our roots non-toxic) with my paintings of the lake (Let's keep our lake non-toxic), Linda's wild bouquet, Kate's bright yellow signs, flowery brochures, door-hangers, and a sign-up sheet. And more people came than any other year, young and old, friends and strangers, children attracted by the child's drawing on Kate's sign. They took every rain-garden pamphlet, almost a dozen pesticide-free signs, about 15 native plant catalogues, lots of flyers and brochures. Why this sudden surge of interest?

Part of it was perhaps due to the grant Shorewood received last year to disconnect downspouts, supply rain barrels, and install rain gardens in the northeast quarter of the village. I suspect much was due to global warming. Environmentalists have been warning about warming for years while corporations have been trying to convince everyone it doesn't exist. Now it's so blatant it's hard to deny. People might realize that if global warming is true, maybe other equally flimsy bills of goods are being sold to consumers, maybe these chemicals aren't as safe as corporate web sites want us to believe. Cecelia, who sat at the table with me, said she's noticed that there are less treated lawns when she walks to work at UWM. I was excited about Shorewoods’ enthusiasm for dealing with this issue. And about the event itself, the friendliness, the feeling of community.

A little later that evening my New York daughter-in-law brought their dog, Fifi, over to stay with us, and I took her (Fifi, that is) for a walk. What lawns were treated, what lawns weren't, where were the tell-tale weeds? It seemed impossible to find a safe route for Fifi. Even with the soot, the exhaust, the traffic, she's safer in New York City!

If you didn’t take the Lorrie Otto Bus Tour on Saturday, and even if you did, I hope you’ll take my Grass Roots Tour at National Night Out tomorrow, Tuesday, August 7, 4:30 to 7:30, on the west side of Atwater School. You don’t need a bus, for it’s an 8-foot tour of an 8-foot table and features information on some of the many ways to pass up those lawn pesticides that pollute our land, lake, and lungs.

Stops on the tour include pesticide-free yard signs, native plant catalogues, flyers about rain gardens, rain barrels, and alternative lawn care, risk lists for specific pesticides, door-hangers for neighbors who don’t realize their chemicals are killing your dog, a sign-up sheet for Grass Root Emails, and even some Grass Rooters, happy to chat. If you can’t take the tour, stop by the Grass Roots web site, which has a lot of information and links, including a contact form if you wish to be on that Email list.

If you ask me, the Shorewood fireworks are the best, and I'd planned to go with my children, grandchildren, and a group of friends with their children. But now the pleasure's gone. Five days before the fireworks, I saw pesticide warning signs all over Atwater Park! The Department of Public Works knows these substances are too dangerous to use on school grounds, yet they sprayed Atwater Park just before the entire community will be celebrating there. We'll all be sitting on, picnicking on, poisoned grass. If we go.

Last year when preparing a presentation to the Village Board, I discovered that Shorewood uses 2, 4-D, an extremely toxic herbicide. Google it, and I doubt you'll want to sit in it or track it into your house on shoe soles. It is used in “weed and feed” products, was a component of Agent Orange; is linked to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, linked to prostate cancer in farmers, is a known endocrine disrupter, causes reduced sperm counts and/or increased abnormalities in sperm. It's found in residential carpet dust up to one year after application outdoors on lawns. There's a lot more, including the research by Warren Porter, at UW-Madison.

Here are the protection specifications for people who apply 2,4-D: they must wear face shield, goggles or safety glasses, long pants, long-sleeved shirt, socks and shoes and chemical-resistant gloves. Perhaps that's what we all should wear to the Shorewood fireworks!
Nicole B just sent this letter to the Village President and all the members of the Shorewood Village Board, and I hope you, too, will let them know how you feel about this issue (their Email addresses are on the Shorewoodnow site):

Subject: pesticide use at Atwater park
Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2006 08:44:05 -0600

Dear Mr. Swartz & Village Trustees,

I understand that pesticides were applied at Atwater Park in the past few days, as evidenced by the many warning signs posted there. This strikes me as incredibly irresponsible, given that in a few short days hundreds if not thousands of residents, including many children, will come to Atwater Park to enjoy the Independence Day festivities. What is worse, most residents will have no idea that they are being exposed, because the application was timed such that the state-mandated warning signs will no longer be required on July 4th.

I believe the trustees have received ample information about the detrimental health and environmental effects of pesticide exposure, particularly the effects on children. They should also be aware that pesticide residues can linger long after warning signs are removed. I observed a board meeting on July 11, 2005, at which this very issue was addressed. Numerous residents expressed their deep concerns about the village's use of pesticides, and about personal experiences with cancer and other illnesses that research suggests may be linked to pesticide exposure. The board also received at that time a detailed summary of relevant scientific studies.

The board's response just one year ago was heartening; members suggested that in the future, Shorewood might implement pesticide-free turf care on public land village-wide and even share resources (eg, organic fertilizer) with residents to facilitate their use of natural lawn care. Spraying pesticides at Atwater Park days before one of the largest village events strays awfully far from the intentions expressed at that meeting.

As a resident of neighboring Whitefish Bay, and someone involved in educating others about the dangers of pesticide exposure, I can tell you that many people look to Shorewood as the leader of the North Shore when it comes to policies affecting health and the environment. My family has even given serious consideration to moving to Shorewood because of what we have perceived as forward-thinking policies.

I urge you to reconsider the policy that allowed this ill-timed pesticide application to occur. Furthermore, I hope that you will re-post pesticide warning signs so that the residents of Shorewood and visitors from other communities can make a more informed choice about whether to expose themselves and their children to these dangerous chemicals on Independence Day.

Sincerely,
Nicole Bickham

www.healthycommunitiesproject.org
A healthier community starts in your own backyard.