French: "L'oisiveté est la mère de tous les vices" ( Idleness is the mother of all vices ).
Portuguese Cabeça vazia é oficina do diabo (An empty head is the devil's workshop
Egyptian Arabic
الإيد البطّالة نجسة el-eed el-baTTaala negsa (roughly translated: the idle hand is impure)
Finnish: Laiskuus on kaikkien paheiden äiti. (Laziness is the mother of all the vices)
Spanish is "La pereza es la madre de todos los vicios" ("Laziness is the mother of all vices")
Italian "L'ozio è il padre dei vizi" (Idleness is the father of the vices).
When I was growing up my mother used to say, “idleness is the devil’s workshop.” Apparently this is one powerful saying, because variations of the same adage can be found in Finland, China, France, Italy, Egypt, Portugal---actually, in nearly every country. Hearing this must have affected my character development. If I have a few spare moments I can’t rest until I find something useful to do.
Well, that is, until a few years ago. My husband and I were meeting friends for dinner in about an hour. I figured I could finish the plantings for our back balcony if I hurried. I carried a nearly empty bag of potting soil from the shed. On second thought, I dragged a heavy new bag just in case I needed more. My youngest, Sam, who was 8 at the time, offered to help. Together we scooped soil into the pots as we arranged plants. We tucked own our volunteers of variegated sage, ivy and ajuga around the edges. We added groupings of pansies, nasturtiums and dwarf delphiniums. In some pots we added snapdragons we’d started from seed, in others we planted ornamental cabbage for long lasting foliage.
“Here you go, little guy, this is a good place to live.” Sam and I spoke to the plants as we tucked them in, introducing them to their new homes and pot-mates. I’ve been chatting companionably with plants for years and it’s something my children do too, although a bit more self-consciously.
We tamped the dirt down, watered each from our iron-rich rusty sprinkling can and stood back to admire our work. The pots offered plenty of space for the plants to fill in yet already they were abundantly textured with greenery and blooms. Our large back balcony would be graced with color. As soon as I got the pots up there.
“Are we going to carry all of these through the house?” Sam asked doubtfully.
“Good question,” I said.
The balcony has no stairs. Carrying the muddy pots through the house, past a jumping dog, to exit the kitchen door and out on the balcony didn’t seem like the most reasonable idea. I thought of an easier method. Our house is built into a gentle slope, so the balcony is almost low enough for me to hoist the pots above my head and onto the balcony floor. After that was accomplished I could walk through the house unimpeded to arrange them as I pleased.
When I announced this plan to Sam he didn’t seem convinced. He was downright alarmed when I pulled a chair directly under the balcony’s edge.
“Mom, isn’t that the chair you got from the garbage?”
“Yes, someone it threw out, but it’s still perfectly good,” I told him. “Remember? We’re going to sand and paint it. It’ll look great outside.”
“But you’re not going to stand on it now are you?” he asked.
“It’s fine, see?” I stood on it to demonstrate the chair’s worthiness. It held as firm as a rickety discarded wooden dining room chair could.
“Now hand me the first pot, Honey,” I said confidently. “I’ll just scoot it up on the porch.”
“That’s not safe Mom.”
“Come on, it’ll be fine,” I told him. “You’ve gotta try new ideas sometimes.” Clearly I wasn’t passing along my mother’s time honored adages. Ones like, “Pride goeth before a fall” or “Better safe than sorry.”
He handed me the first pot. I wasn’t quite as steady as I’d expected and the pot was a lot heavier than I thought it was, but I was determined to be a good example for my little boy. I hoisted the pot up and onto the balcony floor. I didn’t even make too many “ooof” noises in the process.
“See,” I said, somewhat euphoric with success, “it’s not hard at all.”
Sam continued handing the newly planted pots up to me as I smiled encouragingly down at his trusting blue eyes. When the last of the plants were finally lined up above us, I smugly explained to Sam from my lofty perch on the chair that it’s important to trust ourselves. After all, I said, how would anything ever get done except the same old way?
Just about to hop down from the chair, I noticed the unopened bag of potting soil. That would be handy to have in the house. I could repot some houseplants in the laundry tub without making a mess.
“Could you hand me that too Sam?”
He hauled the heavy bag from the ground and, with some effort, hoisted it up to me. I grabbed it. It was heavier than the pots and worse yet, wobbly as soil shifted inside the plastic. I reached up, extending my arms as far as I could reach. I still couldn’t get the bag quite high enough to slide onto the balcony floor. I stood on my tiptoes, the bag teetering above my head. The unusual pressure on the potting soil bag took its toll. The bag split wide open. Keep in mind that some reactions are beyond our control. So when my eyebrows tensed and my mouth opened in an involuntary expression of surprise and dismay, it just so happened that this took place at the exact second that the bag broke. It emptied in a sudden rush, piles of dirt cascading in my hair, down my collar and directly into my open mouth.
I did an improvised dance to shake potting soil from my hair and clothes, spitting dirt and laughing while I whirled around the backyard. Sam, bless his heart, never said, “I told you so.”
Later that evening as we enjoyed dinner with friends (my hair still wet from a hurried scrubbing) I realized the old adage about idleness and the devil didn’t really suit me. I’ve given up the tendency to fill each moment with a useful task. When I have a little time a-wasting I remind myself that all work and no play makes a woman spit dirt.
The USDA plans to impose a mandatory identification system called NAIS which is, frankly, Big Brother down on the farm. Radio ID ear tags for all livestock, from llamas to chickens, and specific codes for each farm (even for a backyard chicken coop or horse-lover's barn). No data demonstrates any value to this system in promoting health or safety. Conceivably, this bill could potentially affect pet owners in the future.
On March 11, 2009, the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry held a hearing on the implementation the controversial NAIS program. Repeatedly, members of congress cited support for NAIS due to food and animal safety concerns. Since most committee members favored NAIS, the hearing was used to push the USDA to make NAIS mandatory for all livestock. This would include what Republican Rep. Mike Conaway described as farms with “one big fat horse.” Conaway suggested that NAIS is just as important as organic.
Only a third of farmers have registered in the past five years despite heavy pressure. Even children enrolled in Future Farmers of America or 4-H are expected to have their family farms registered with NAIS.
Quoting an Organic Consumer’s Association report on the hearing:
Paul Rozwadowski, a Wisconsin dairy farmer and chair of the National Family Farm Coalition’s Dairy Subcommittee, cited the severe cost burden for family farmers versus the loopholes for industrial livestock operations. “While I would have to separately tag every single one of my 60 cows, factory farm poultry and hog operations are allowed one group ID. This gives them an unfair competitive advantage, so it’s no wonder their lobbyists support it. NFFC also strenuously objects to National Milk Producers Federation once again falsely speaking on behalf of dairy farmers. NFFC’s Dairy Subcommittee, comprised of dairy farmers from across the country, adamantly opposes NAIS, particularly as our dairy prices have collapsed and we struggle for our survival.”
Here’s information on the topic from
National Family Farm Coalition http://www.nffc.net/Pressroom/Press%20Releases/2008/PR%2006.25.08%20School%20Lunch%20and%20NAIS.htm
Organic Consumers Association http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26665
Below you’ll find yet another letter we have sent to our Senators and Congressman. Please consider sending one of your own.
We live on a small family farm and ask you to act on behalf not only of all farmers but all consumers by voting against any mandatory NAIS bill (coding properties and tracking livestock for USDA purposes).
HR875 and companion Senate S814 are being pushed through Congress, as well as an appropriations bill with funding for NAIS. The proposed changes are not only massively expensive, but outrageous because NAIS has no value in promoting health or safety.
*Although the USDA alleges that NAIS will benefit animal health, basic scientific principles demonstrate the reverse. This program is a disincentive for good animal husbandry.
*NAIS damages food safety. It will not halt food borne illnesses nor prevent the conditions creating these problems, in part because tracking ends at the time of slaughter. Such problems will abate when existing regulations are properly funded and enforced---for example the inspection of imported foods, oversight of slaughterhouses and food processing plants, etc.
*Sustainable farms with practices that boost the health of the land and support local communities are precisely those farms that will be unable to continue under the burden of NAIS requirements. If forced to develop the necessary NAIS database, purchase 840-numbered tags and deal with increased government regulation chances are many more of us would lose the struggle to hang on to our land and animals.
*If implemented, NAIS will increase food costs and substantially decrease the availability of organic, free range and local foods because only agribusiness can afford the Big Brother burden of NAIS.
Please let us know how you plan to vote.
“Small town values” have been endlessly chanted into the glare of TV cameras by folks who don’t know straw from hay or truth from spin. I may live in a township too tiny to warrant a single stoplight, but I do know that values have more to do with how each of us chooses to live than the way we’re described by politicians or pundits. Every one of our daily choices matter, whether made in the barn or the boardroom. Reawaking small town values, core values I suspect are held by most folks, may be a cure for our national economic woes.
Honesty
Spencer Feed & Supply stocks honey from our hives on their shelves. Feed for our cows is ground right there from local grain and the sale of our honey taken off the bill. Even though no money changes hands we still declare the honey as profit on our taxes. It’s a simple matter of conscience. Most of us sense that dishonesty spurred by greed caused our economic crisis. Blame is readily available while those who admit to creating the problems are scarce. Some people around here trace the problem back to dropping the gold standard or relaxing import tariffs. Plenty pin it on hedge funds, risky mortgage products and speculative bubbles across many markets. Chances are they’re all correct.
But right now the focus is on deregulation, a word spoken as if it stinks. What’s missing is honesty about who is responsible. The policies of deregulation and minimal oversight were themselves speculative. (Why is another matter, clearly due to the overlord Greed and his minion, Secrecy.)
Our township isn’t far from big sister Cleveland, where economic misery trickles down like a shared family disorder. Feisty Cleveland was the first city in the nation to pass a predatory-lending law in 2002. That law was toothless because the state had no legal authority to pursue fraudulent lenders. Why? All 50 state attorneys general attempted to protect consumers from predatory and deceptive lenders, in part due to the federal regulatory void, but the Bush administration vehemently prevented the enforcement of state laws. Instead the administration sided with financial institutions, even filing a lawsuit to protect banks from state investigation.
This was detailed in a Washington Post piece titled, “Predatory Lenders' Partner in Crime:How the Bush Administration Stopped the States From Stepping In to Help Consumers” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021302783.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns
A few weeks later, thousands of media hours were lavished on a breaking sex scandal by the article’s author, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. The content of the article was ignored in the typical elevation of ratings over content.
We need a national conscience cleaning The facts must be revealed about how we got in this situation so we can enact safeguards against future economic disasters. And we need to look at the place truth holds in our own lives. If we’re honest with ourselves about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, we better understand where our priorities are. Our grandmothers may have advised washing a liar’s mouth with soap but that never cleansed the taste of deceit. Telling the truth does that. Besides, I hear soap is full of toxins these days.
Reputation
Here, as in any small town, neighbors lend equipment and help one another out. But if your dealings are unethical folks will remember. That means if you sell wet hay, you won’t have buyers again because everyone knows such hay can sicken livestock or spark a barn fire. Actions demonstrate character.
The same holds true for institutions. When entrusting banks with our accounts we expect a solid reputation. That’s not something an ad can claim, it comes from the bank’s dealings. Our local banks, like First Merit Bank and Farmers Savings Bank, didn’t succumb to slick methods of making money the last decade or two. They stayed with traditional banking practices. No surprise, these institutions are strong as ever.
Banks loaning money deceptively, corporations trading without prudence and individuals taking on excessive debt all knew a time of reckoning would come. It has. The American public is experiencing the disastrous results, and not only job loss and price increases. It’s estimated that one out of four of us owe more on our mortgages than our houses are worth and trillions in retirement savings have evaporated in market “corrections” so far. Hulking fossils like Citigroup and Bank of America have worthless stock and debts exceeding their assets, yet we prolong the date of their extinction with more and more taxpayer money. We’re told that AIG (chomping at another huge government rescue), Wall Street firms and banks took unacceptable, unprecedented risks but ongoing bailouts are essential. Although these behemoths squeezed out other companies by free market rules, now we are told we can’t let them die that way. Their current vegetative state does no one any good. People across the political spectrum are incensed that we are bailing out the same financial giants whose reckless behavior incited our current economic crisis, yet not holding them accountable.
All of us know that those who are not accountable for their actions are, legally, either children or mentally incompetent adults. By that logic, institutions not accountable for their actions should not be in business. Revoke their charters or make taxpayers the new owners. Logic says smaller solid financial institutions that have truly earned decent reputations can replace these lumbering dinosaurs. After all, reputation is all any company truly has to offer.
Self-Reliance and Interdependence
These traits fold together like the Sunday paper. We can’t get along in small towns or anywhere for that matter without relying on one another. When my father was growing up on the farm, each summer a Huber steam tractor puffed down the road, field to field, followed by farmers who worked together for weeks until the land had yielded her harvest. These days we still help one another out through networks of kinship created in neighborhoods, churches and the local diner. We find the more local we keep these ties the more we remain connected to one another and the outcome.
The same holds true financially. When we keep our financial dealings local and reliant on those we trust we remain in greater control of the results. An Austin, Texas study found that for every $100 a shopper spent at a chain store the local economic impact was only $13. The rest of the money headed straight out of town. But spent at a locally owned retailer, the nearby economy benefited from $45 of that $100.
How does this have anything to do with the state of our national economy? We have little control over our money, as a nation, when we are not reasonably in charge of how it’s spent or where it’s going. There’s little transparency, no proven long-term cap on savings and absolutely no voter input when our more and more government functions are privatized.
Take the military as an example. We’re relentlessly privatizing the military. Major U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin fails to adhere to military guidelines on major weapons programs, overwhelming us with cost overruns. Yet we pay Lockheed to run our VA benefits claims appeals program and provide civilian interrogators at Abu Ghraib. They’re not doing a great job at either one.
Halliburton, recipient of billions of dollars in no-bid Pentagon contracts, moved its headquarters to the country of Dubai. Its affiliate military contractor, Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), increases profits by overspending due to lucrative ‘cost-plus” contracts with the U.S. military. Meanwhile, employees of KBR are hired as contractors through a shell company in the Cayman Islands. Then these workers head off to Iraq or Afghanistan to take jobs our service men and women used to handle.
This may be small town thinking, but I don’t recall previous wars being privatized or outsourced. Back then Americans served their country directly under government leadership. Many others worked to manufacture the necessary food, clothing and weaponry for companies based here in the U.S. Maybe that’s why wartime boosted the economy, just as keeping the dollars local in Austin benefited more than the shop owners.
Hard Work It’s common to hear tractors running well after dark around here because many farmers have full time jobs in addition to agriculture. Their work generates the food that sustains a nation. Still, farmers have to auction off their herds or leave the land altogether when they can’t make ends meet. It’s estimated that 330 family farms are lost every week. That’s tragic for all of us.
Americans are hard workers. We put in longer hours and have fewer paid vacation days than most industrialized nations. Worker productivity remains high. But real wages are down and for those of us dealing with unemployment, the remaining jobs out there pay less and provide fewer benefits than they did a few years ago. When hard work no longer equals a living wage, it’s as if the ground cannot yield food.
Recent figures show that U.S. incomes in the lower 90 percent of the economic ladder went down slightly while the top one percent saw gains of at least 14 percent. And 14 percent of a millionaire’s worth is a lot of money.
It seems hard work is no longer tied to earnings. CEO’s go from one high paying position to another. No matter if they’re leaving a company in shambles, they stroll off with giant bonuses and perks. And the same financiers and economic experts who led institutions to ruin appear are handling the trillions in bailout money. That doesn’t sit well here in the heartland. I can’t imagine it goes over well anywhere.
Those who imply that residents of small towns are somehow more authentically American don’t fool us. We’re all Americans. The values we believe in may be too numerous to list but we know they only come alive when we live them each day. That doesn’t mean we always behave well. We’re angry and we do have pitchforks.
sources
http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/familyfarms/ “ Family Farms” Sustainable Table blog (loss of farms per week)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/03/AR2008060303490.html?nav=rss_business “US Lockheed Faulted for Failure to Control Costs” by Dana Hedgpeth Washington Post Wednesday, June 4, 2008; Page D01
http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2008/07/thousands_of_veterans_may_have.html “Thousands of veterans may have been denied payments, Kucinich report says”
by Stephen Koff The Plain Dealer July 15, 2008 11:56AM (Lockheed handling VA claims)
http://www.liveablecity.org/lcfullreport.pdf “Economic Impact Analysis: A Case Study Local Merchants vs Chain Retailers by Civic Economics” December 2002 (Austin TX study)
http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/stories/index.ssf?/base/business-8/1222849945238061.xml&coll=2 “Cuyahoga County predatory-lending epidemic was early sign U.S. financial crisis loomed” by Teresa Dixon Murray and Mark Gillispie The Plain Dealer Wednesday, October 01, 2008
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021302783.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns
“Predatory Lenders' Partner in CrimeHow the Bush Administration Stopped the States From Stepping In to Help Consumers” by Eliot Spitzer Washington Post Thursday, February 14, 2008; Page A25
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