I thought you might enjoy seeing the list and being inspired by changes that aren’t hard to make. It’s organized by the three Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle.

We’d love you to share ideas not on this list.

Reduce/ Conserve:

1. Walking. We live in a fabulous neighborhood, Summit,  in a great city, Providence. Our urban neighborhood feels like a small village. With a half mile walk, we can be at an artisan bread bakery/coffee shop, myriad delicious restaurants, a couple of pharmacies, a deli, an Indian grocery, our work and personal ATMs, cute cute gift stores, a  flower shop, a Saturday farmers market and two city parks.

We’re also really close to this incredible tree-lined boulevard that has just under a 4 mile round trip walking path and is bordered by one of the loveliest cemeteries on earth near a river that the public is allowed to stroll through. Did I mention our wonderful neighbors? And the bus runs through it. I rarely drive to bank or run small errands.

2. Bicycling. Jon and I love to bicycle for pleasure and exercise. We are blessed with a number of lovely rail trail bike paths in cycling distance from our home.  I try hard to bike to meetings that I can get to in a 20-30 minute ride. I’m still figuring out what “dress up” clothes work on the bike -  so far, knee length skirts, capri pants, and some knee length dresses. (I’m a casual kind of gal and so are many of my clients so I don’t find myself in business suits a whole lot.)

Jon’s better about biking than I am, taking his out for most errands and other short hops. I’m a wimp about the weather, so I don’t bike when it’s raining. And as its icy and snowy here a good part of the year (especially this past winter), I skip those months as well. But I’m trying, and every ride is a time I’m not using fossil fuels.

3. Books. I can’t say enough about public libraries. In our case, the Providence Community Library is a 501(c)3 nonprofit. Someone in our house always has a book out of the library. It was particularly a godsend when my daughter lived with us as she devoured a book a day. While I love a good bookstore and try to shop in an independent one when I must buy a book (as I’ll often do as a present), I have to admit that I do a lot of “shelf shopping ” (kind of like window shopping) for new book titles and then order them up from the library. With our statewide lending system, I rarely wait more than a few days for even the very latest books. Plus, our closest branch is just a half mile away so it’s a lovely walk. (Here’s a library fundraising tip: when I hand you the bill to once again pay my overdue fine, how about asking “would you like to donate the change?” I always donate the change, but no one ever asks.)

4. Tap water. We’ve got some pretty good tap water here in Providence and with a water filter, the taste and safety can’t be beat. We keep a pitcher that we’ve filtered in our fridge for drinking. We fill our water bottles (which we’ve got for the bikes anyway) and try to take them with us, even on long trips, to limit our purchase of bottled water to really infrequent occasions. Our country needs to wean itself from its obsession with bottled water.

5. Cloth napkins. We’ve used cloth napkins for all of our regular meals and for small dinner parties since we started housekeeping. I find them so much more pleasing than paper.  If we are having a really big party, then I’ll use paper dinner or cocktail napkins. I save leftover plastic plates, forks, knives and spoons and wash and reuse them. ( Though now I’m nervous about doing that with all the concerns about plastics exposed to heat. Luckily, we really don’t use them very often… maybe once or twice a year).

6. Buy local. I’ve been trying to revamp my buying habits to buy from local stores as much as possible with the hope that we can reduce the need for more big box stores and their miles of pavement. Unfortunately, the big boxes have been winning. Though I think the recession has slowed them a bit for now. We also have a fabulous farmers market in the summer at the park across the street which is a social and culinary delight. I’ve been paying attention to food items at the grocery store that are locally produced like Narragansett Creamery cheeses (their ricotta amazing),  Little Rhody Eggs and Rhody Fresh Milk (though the farmers market eggs are just wonderful. And it’s a delight to get a few blue ones mixed in.)

7. Washing & Drying: We’ve always waited until we have a full load of laundry to run the washing machine. And a full load of dishes to run the dishwasher, with air dry.  It’s taken me many years to get over my childhood hatred of hanging clothes as a kid — cold fingers in the winter and leaning over the third floor porch railing to pull in the clothes line was just frightening to miss afraid of heights me. But last summer I asked Jon to string up a clothesline and used it throughout the summer and fall as the weather is warm. I confess that with all the snow and mucky yard that I went back to the clothes dryer this winter. But as the weather turns warm again, that clothesline is beckoning.

8. Energy. We switched all of the incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescents very soon after CLFs came onto the market, with the exception of the few lights that are on dimmers. We also upgraded our ancient refrigerator to an energy star version a few years ago. I now walk around the house with an eye to shutting lights off though we haven’t purchased one of those super shut off gizmos that you plug appliances into to stop them from consuming electricity even when they are off.  And while we do own two cars, one of which is a minivan which was essential for a family of five, we also worry about gas mileage. I balance the minivan by owning a compact car that gets good mileage. Right now I’m driving a 2000 Honda Civic which does pretty well.

9. Toxins: We try our best to buy non-toxic cleaning products and use a lot of white vinegar. We are organic gardeners which means I spend a lot of time picking evil bugs off my flowers (has anyone figured out how to scare away lily leaf beetles?) and tolerating a fair amount of diversity in the small amount of lawn we have left remaining. With all the rain this spring, we haven’t had much watering to do.

Reuse:

Our backyard compost bin

10. Recycled paper: I look for recycled paper with as much post-consumer content as possible. That includes our office paper as well as toilet paper, tissues and the paper towels that feel very indulgent to me (though a standard roll of paper towels lasts about two weeks around here). I buy the paper towels that you can tear off in small sizes so we don’t have overuse them.

11. Composting: We’ve been composting yard and kitchen scraps almost as long as we’ve lived in our house – and that’s 26 years.  We keep a bin in the kitchen where we toss the inedible vegetables and other non-meat scraps (though I do recycle shellfish shells) for the composter. This last year, Jon set up a worm composting box so we’ve been sharing scraps with them.  They live outside when the weather is good and on our kitchen counter when its cold. Fall leaves, non-weedy plant matter and kitchen veggies go into the composter, and with a fair amount of turning, some peat moss and lime now and then, we get enough compost to add to my flower garden and containers where I grown vegetables.

We do miss the buckets for other scraps that we remember from our childhood – when the farmers came to get food scraps for the pigs. Or at least that’s what we remember (though our friend Greg Gerritt is working on getting this restarted in RI).

12. Reusable grocery bags. I can’t remember when I started bringing my own bags to the grocery store. My sister bought me one of the cotton string bags many years ago that weren’t the best grocery bags but were all we thought of then. I’ve added to my collection over the years. It now includes about a dozen canvas bags, including some from the many years defunct Almacs Grocery Store (which closed in 1995),  Bread & Circus (which became Whole Foods) and just about any conference that I’ve been to where they were handing out tote bags. (Note to conferences: I’m saturated. Can’t use another tote bag) I’ve been getting better about keeping a few in the trunk of my car so that I have them ready to use beyond the grocery store and can take them on clothes or other shopping sprees.

13.  Second-hand clothes: Thank goodness for friends and family with older children. With a few exceptions, we didn’t need to buy very much for our kids when they were babies and toddlers. We were very grateful to accept any offers of clothes, equipment, toys and furniture. We even rented car seats from the local chapter of the Red Cross. And while I do like new clothes, I also enjoy second hand stores where I’ve found some of my favorite wearables.  My daughter and her friends started a twice a year clothing swap that they’ve been holding, it must be 10 years now. Even post college, when they all get together in the same place, it’s time for the swap.

14. Diapers. When my children were born (my oldest is 25, sons are 20), we signed up for a diaper service first thing. (I remember the stacks and stacks of newborn diapers that arrived each week when the twins were born — 140 total! Scary) The diaper service was heaven.  I don’t even think there are diaper services anymore in our whole state. We were just at my niece’s baby shower and she informed us that there was one service in all of Massachusetts! Sad.  As the kids got older and the diapering got a bit more under control, we laundered our own diapers. We also used washcloths rather than those icky baby wipes. I know that cloth vs plastic is still controversial as to which is more ecofriendly , but I just can’t imagine that producing and disposing of those plastics is better. We weren’t total purists and did use disposables when traveling and away from laundry. And, hats off to all the Diaper Banks, that are getting diapers into the hands of low-income families. Disposables are the only good choice when you rely on laundromats for your cleaning.

Recycle:

My affliction for paper recycling started back in the 70s when I worked for the Social Security Administration from 1976 through 1983. With my friend Sarah, we became the first workplace in downtown Providence to recycle office paper. We recycled boxes of outdated forms and computer paper, which the office burned through each week. We had to separate all of the paper (computer vs color vs white) and load them on the truck from Ecology Action for Rhode Island once a week. Unfortunately, the truck was always breaking down so Sarah and I frequently had to load the boxes into her VW Rabbit and my VW station wagon and haul them over to Liz’s  garage where Ecology Action stored the collected paper.

15. Plastic bags. When I do end up with a plastic bag, I save them during the week and drop them into the recycling bin at the grocery store.

16. Curbside recycling. Providence has curbside recycling for paper, newspapers, cardboard, #1 and 2 plastics and even textiles. (I wish they would take more plastics). Of course we recycle all of our paper… newspapers, magazines, office paper, mail. I haven’t made the transition to downloading all magazines, but we’ve been trying to strike the right balance between online reading and having that hard copy in our hands.They also take organic yard matter so we send them the stuff that doesn’t fit in our small compostor like branches and the leaves we simply don’t have room for. We rarely fill our regular trash bin, even half way.

17. Clothing. Cotton socks with holes beyond repair are great for dusting. Torn cotton shirts make good rags. What can’t go into the yard sale or to Big Sisters will end up in the recycling bin.

Wait… there is one thing more. Because we know we aren’t perfect and can’t do it all, we contribute to environmental causes. We believe in supporting organizations that are working hard to protect our land, water, air and diversity of life. We hope you will as well.

We’d love to hear from you on the small things that you’ve done to live a little greener.

Over dinner, my politically thoughtful college senior son accused me of having crossed a boundary of self-righteousness in my growing scorn towards the party now in leadership in the US House of Representatives.

Neither my intent nor my language included any semblance of violence. But the intensity of my opinions sounded to my son as unwelcome intolerance, not just toward the opposing positions, but toward the people as well. I tried to reassure him that I probably would like the current House leadership very well if I met them in person, maybe even some of the tea partiers, but even if I didn’t like them that I carried no personal animosity toward them. But it didn’t sound that way to my son.

I strongly believe in the principles of nonviolence espoused by Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. but this is a lifelong work not yet fully realized, as my son’s voice reminds me today.

When values collide, when the chasm between beliefs seems irreconcilable, that is when we need most to be especially vigilant about our choice of words and symbols and tone of voice.

Thank you Sam. My apologies for my dogmatism. I hear you now loud and clear.

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Our sympathy to the people who loved those who were killed. Our heartfelt hopes for recovery to everyone who was physically injured and to those who witnessed such a horrific event. I especially hope for a speedy recovery of civility in political discourse and action in my beloved country.

Our backyard compost bin

“Support & Strengthen the Safe Chemicals Act”

Click here to take action today by asking your Members of Congress to co-sponsor and strengthen the Safe Chemicals Act.”

From our vantage point here in the US, it can be easy to forget that many women around the world experience profound discrimination every day without protection of law. And millions of girls and women experience rape, domestic abuse, genital mutilation, and other forms of violence against women, regardless of where they live.

If you are at a total loss for an action to commemorate this day, you can add your voice to a petition being circulated by Amnesty International USA asking the United Nations to develop a stronger agency for women. You can find that petition here.

“Together we must learn to live together or we will perish as fools…

America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. … There is … nothing except shortsightedness to prevent us from guaranteeing an annual minimum—and livable—income for every American family…”

” … Our only hope today lies in our ability to … go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal opposition to poverty, racism and militarism …

“… We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now … Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: ‘Too late.’ ”

From: “The World House“ chapter in Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Timothy A. Wise reminds us that “aid is power” in his 2005 blog posting Humanitarian Crises: What is a Progressive to Do? A lot of American aid power goes, intentionally or unintentionally, to helping entrench American businesses and exports at the expense of local products and producers. Food aid often winds up driving local produce and producers out of business. Reconstruction contracts with international construction firms undercut local professionals, builders and workers. Wise advises sticking with agencies which were present before the crisis and will stick around later and those with clear strategies to build local capacity.

I’ve sent my money for emergency help to Medicins Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders), and can confidently recommend them as a good way to help.

MSF has medical staff on the ground in Port-au-Prince. Although all three of their Port-au-Prince hospitals were destroyed, they will be setting up an inflatable hospital in the next day. I once visited a MSF hospital in rural Haiti. It was an oasis of compassion and care.

We can only hope that this catastrophe will be the very bottom of the seemingly endless well of misery this poor nation has suffered. Perhaps now, the U.S. and the world will turn away from interventions and imposed solutions and support Haitians in reconstruction. That work must literally be “from the ground up” since so much of Haiti’s land has been ruined by deforestation and erosion

My client Grassroots International does exactly that kind of development. In the years ahead, Haiti will need programs like GRI’s on a much wider scale to achieve food self-sufficiency and the long-term prosperity it deserves.

• A commitment to quality, universal education for all.
• Education for women and girls in countries where their education is not yet viewed as a right and essential to peace and prosperity.
• End genocide, once and for all.
• No more lip service to “never again.” Do “never again.”
• Protection for children.
• No ethnic cleansing.
• Marriage equality.
• End to sexual and domestic violence and its use as a way of exercising control over.
• Daily action to uphold the golden rule.
• An end to racial profiling.
• A belief that we are all in this together.
• Fair trials.
• A commitment to the principles outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• A personal reaffirmation of our commitment to inclusion, civil liberties and human rights for all.

Please add your dreams to this list.

P.S. To President Obama. As you accept the Nobel Prize today, may your award remind you you and your administration that you have much to do to be fully deserving.

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Just over 64% of eligible voters voted in the 2008 US Presidential election. Though that was one of the highest turnouts in decades, that’s not even three-quarters of the electorate.

For most US citizens, the risk of voting today is potentially a long wait in line.

Sunday I learned about a woman whose conviction to participate in electoral politics is so strong that she is facing life in prison.

Birtukan Mideksa, a 35 year old former judge and mother of a four-year-old daughter,  is serving a life sentence in Kaliti Prison in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for her leadership in the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy party.

You can read more about her case here and also  find a sample letter to petition on her behalf.

Why is Birtukan Mideksa in jail?

She was arrested in November 2005 after her party disputed results of local and parliamentary elections. Because post-election demonstrations had turned violent — Ethiopian security forces shot and killed 187 people and wounded 765 others while six police  officers were also killed — the government charged Mrs. Birtukan, who had neither used nor advocated violence, with treason.

She was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Local leaders negotiated a pardon which lead to her release in 2007. In December 2008 she had her pardon revoked and was re-arrested and re-sentenced to life in prison after she refused to recant public remarks she had made in Sweden about the events that led to her pardon and release.

In today’s action for universal Human Rights, you can send a message of hope and support to Birtukan Mideksa by sending her a postcard or letter mailed to:

Birtukan Mideksa
c/o Ethiopian Women for Peace and Development
P.O. Box 1318
Wheaton, MD 20915

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Some of you may have seen the “60 Minutes” program Congo’s Gold that aired November 29, 2009. The story detailed how the selling of “conflict minerals” such as gold are paying for the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). With almost five million dead, this war has been described as the deadliest war since WWII.

Amnesty International USA describes this as a ” ‘war against women’ where “women and girls are being raped in great numbers as a means of destroying their families and communities.”

What seems so far away and removed from our lives came to us up close Sunday when Congolese refugee Albert Mulenda Rajabu spoke about his experiences in the DRC at the Write-a-Thon for Human Rights sponsored by Group 49 of Amnesty International USA.

Mr. Rajabu, a former teacher,  stoically shared his own story of surviving two civil wars despite arrest and jailing for his human rights work in the DRC. But he wept when he reported incidences of sexual violence perpetrated against women and girls. He shared with the room the following story of a survivor’s account of the sexual violence. (Warning: the letter is graphic.)

“As you requested, here is my story:

“It was in August 2008 when I and my children (two daughters, aged 17 and 14, and my 12 year old son) were going to cultivate our field.

“On the way, we were surprised by three gunmen in military uniform. While pointing their guns at us, they commanded us to stop, throw away our tools, and to lie down.

“My son started running, screaming and crying for help. One of the gunmen caught him in his run and hit him in the head with the point of his gun, seriously injuring him.

“It was then they started raping us with atrocity, my daughters and I. One of the gunmen held my son’s face toward us so that he could see us being sexually violated.

“Afterward they left, taking our clothes and leaving us naked. We had to wait for dark to get home.

“We were taken to the nearest health center two miles away but for lack of money the treatment we received was not enough to cure our injuries.

“My 14 year old daughter who had two men on her is till bleeding heavily. My son ran away from home to an unknown destination. My husband divorced me because, according to him, we were left with diseases and have a curse on us.

“Now we are living in such a bad situation that we cannot move from home to continue our daily activities, being afraid following what happened.”

It grieves us to share this letter and we debated long and hard whether to do so. Unfortunately, generalizations about hundreds of women and girls being raped has failed to move enough people to action. Perhaps the voice of this one woman, sent across the ocean, will touch your heart and move you to do at least one small thing to help women and girls in the DRC.

How you can help.

One place to start is to download the AIUSA action packet: No Excuses, No Delay. Protect civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  In the packet you’ll find some sample letters, including one asking that the President of the DRC ensure the safety of  another woman, Justine Masika Bihamba, who has been threatened and her children attacked for her human rights work. She is the coordinator for the women’s human rights organization Synergie des femmes contre les violences sexuelles (SFVS).

At the Write-a-Thon, we sent our appeal for the safety of Justine Masika Bihamba, and on behalf of all civilians in the DRC.

Please spread the word. It is the least that we can do.