...they didn't have the green thing back then.

A friend sent me this story:

In the queue at the Supermarket, the cashier told the old woman that she should bring her own grocery bag because plastic bags weren't good for the environment..
The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."
The cashier responded, "That's our problem today. The former generation did not care enough to save our environment."
He was right, that generation didn't have the green thing in its day. Back then, they returned their milk bottles, lemonade bottles and beer bottles to the shop. The shop sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.
But they didn't have the green thing back in that customer's day.
In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn't have an escalator in every supermarket and office building. They walked to the grocery shop and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower gas guzzling machine every time they had to go half a mile up the road.
But she was right. They didn't have the green thing in her day.


Back then, they washed the baby's nappy’s because they didn't have the throw-away kind.

They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 230 volts - wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.
But that old lady is right, they didn't have the green thing back in her day.
Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the house - not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief, not a screen the size of the Scotland.
In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn't have electric machines to do everything for them.

When they packaged a fragile item to send in the post, they used a screwed up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.
Back then, they didn't fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power.
They exercised by working so they didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.
But she's right, they didn't have the green thing back then.
They drank from a tap when they were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water.
They refilled their writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.
But they didn't have the green thing back then.
Back then, people took a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mums into a 24-hour taxi service.
They had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances.
And they didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest fish and chip shop.
But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful the old folks were just because they didn't have the green thing back then?

Bob Dylan

Tuesday 24^th May is Bob Dylan’s 70^th birthday.   Pause to download a Dylan song or two and think about Dylan’s contribution to the anti-war movement at a time when music was one of the few mediums available to young people to challenge the status quo.

Yesterday, on Twitter, Boris claimed that his ancestor, Denis Johnson, invented the bike.

Gary Neville,

Gary Neville, formerly of Man United, wins 18-month struggle with planning authorities for permission to build a 40m-high wind turbine alongside his proposed new zero-carbon house set in rolling countryside near Bolton. Much of the revenue from his testimonial match next week will go into a "Sustainability in Sport" fund, which he is launching to help grass-roots sporting projects to reduce their carbon footprint and to promote sustainable living. Next Tuesday's match at Old Trafford will also be the first to be entirely wind-powered – by virtue of the strategic partnership Neville is forming with the green energy supplier Ecotricity.


http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/neville-the-red-devil-who-became-a-green-saint-2286634.html

Met police to resume use of dum-dum bullets.

Met police to issue hollow point bullets to all 3000 firearms officers; NATO forces don't use hollow points, the Hague Treaty bans their use by military forces, not civilian forces; these were the bullets used to kill Jean Charles de Menezes


http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/11/met-police-hollow-bullets-menezes

Stephen Agnew's victory speech

Stephen held our seat in the Northern Irealnd Assembly under incredibly difficult circumstances. After the final count, over two days, he had 90 votes to spare.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQGq40CZ3cw

The NI Local Election counts started this morning. We are expecting to do well there also.

Auction

AUCTION.
UNIQUE BOTTLE OF ‘HUGO BLANCO WINE, autographed by the great man himself.
Bids directly to noellynch@lineone.net
Lets say a starting bid of £5, but it should make much more that that!
Deadline for bids: Midnight May 15th.
Pickup in London or postage extra..
Proceeds will be divided between Green Left and Lucha Indigena, the publication that Hugo edits.


Please cascade to anyone who might be interested.

William Morris May Day poem 1892.

THE EARTH.


Are ye few? Are they many? What words have ye spoken

To bid your own brethren remember the Earth?

What deeds have ye done that the bonds should be broken,

And men dwell together in good-will and mirth?

THE WORKERS.

They are few, we are many: and yet, O our Mother,

Many years were we wordless and nought was our deed,

But now the word flitteth from brother to brother:

We have furrowed the acres and scattered the seed.

THE EARTH.

Win on then unyielding, through fair and foul weather,

And pass not a day that your deed shall avail.

And in hope every spring-tide come gather together

That unto the Earth ye may tell all your tale.

Then this shall I promise, that I am abiding

The day of your triumph, the ending of gloom,

And no wealth that ye will then my hand shall be hiding

And the tears of the spring into roses shall bloom.