Category Archives: Community

Burning Your Brothers’ Books

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Peace Train

“You see the splinter in your brother’s eye, but you do not see the beam in your own eye. When you remove the beam from of your own eye, then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.” All of us, brothers and sisters, need purification, and every religion needs purification as well. Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Moslems … can best help each other by giving one another the good example of focusing on their own purification.

Today we remember those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. But how do we remember? Do we remember our brothers and sisters with the same hate that led to their deaths? Is more burning the answer? Or do we remember our brothers and sisters with acts of service? Couldn’t the world use a lot more love? Isn’t it time to heal?

Those who died on September 11, 2001, including the terrorists, were victims of religious intolerance and fanaticism. The spewing hate from that day and from many centuries past and from all sides poisons our world. But by taking the beams from our own eyes, we can build bridges for the whole human family.

Disasters and Normalcy

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Local disasters grab our attention and bring disruption. To survive and help, we wake up, pull together, pray, and rearrange our priorities. But once the recovery is in sight, it’s back to “normal.” But our normal is disasterous too, doomed to perpetuate itself. Too often our normal means accepting that millions who lack quality opportunities never graduate from high school. Too often it means accepting that millions of needy people end up in prison and too often it means accepting that millions suffer alone.

About a week ago, I met a commercial fisherman in his sixties from Bayou La Batre. His father and his sons were fisheman too. He said, “Before this happened [the Deepwater Horizons oil catastrophe], I never realized how important and worthwhile the gulf is. I just took it for granted.” This fisherman’s honesty helped me see that we need a different kind of normal that is not blind-sided by disasters. We need a new normal where our priorities for people and nature are always ready and alert for disasters. Simply put, we belong to those who need us and we need to live fully and alertly for others. The call of Jesus still rings out, “Be awake!”

Future of the Gulf Community Brainstorm on Saturday

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Artist, Lori Bosarge, with one of her signs

Artist, Lori Bosarge, with one of her signs, photographed July 19, 2010

Our next Future of the Gulf Community Brainstorm is this Saturday, August 21 at 2:00 to 4:00 P.M at the Shelby Center at the Dauphin Island Sealab – 101 Bienville Blvd. Dauphin Island.

We will be following up on our July meeting and creating action items that each of us can start working on. At the beginning of the meeting, some environmental groups will give five minute overviews of what they’re currently doing and how people can get involved with their work. After that, we’ll meet in smaller groups and discuss the specific concerns that we want to work on, the goals we hope to accomplish, and the actions we can each take to get us closer to those goals.

Everyone who came to last month’s meeting brought a lot of passion and dedication to the discussion. If this is your first meeting that’s great too! Let’s keep the momentum going and turn our passion into action! Your presence is very important to us all! Also please take a moment or two to invite some friends or family who might be interested in our meeting.

Thanks!

People can do Amazing Things – Homemade Aerial Photography

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The Louisiana Bucket Brigade arrived on Dauphin Island Sunday afternoon to do some aerial photography. Beginning at noon on one of the hottest days of the year, MarikoToyoji, Shannon Dosemagen, and Raphael Bachal went straight to work. Rather than using a plane or satellite to obtain their pictures, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade uses inexpensive techniques developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that employ kites and helium balloons. On Sunday the winds were calm, so a helium balloon was used to carry the camera 700 feet up. With the camera automatically snapping pictures every ten seconds, we walked along the beach obtaining numerous photos of the area.

People power

People power - MarikoToyoji, Shannon Dosemagen, and Raphael Bachal get ready to create high quality aerial maps, photographed August 1, 2010.

Mariko Toyoji getting the camera aloft - up, up, and away!

Mariko Toyoji getting the camera aloft - up, up, and away! Photographed August 1, 2010.

 Later this week, using free software, the photos will be stitched together to create high quality aerial maps. When completed the maps will be uploaded to GrassrootsMapping.org where they will be publicly available.

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade works to enable coastal communities to make scientific measurements of their local environment. The work of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade currently includes an oil spill crisis map, “fenceline” community networks, community air sampling, and sustainability in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Bay Jimmy aerial map

Bay Jimmy aerial map - a low resolution image (see http://www.flickr.com/photos/labucketbrigade/4845375332/ for high resolution map link).