Wild Flours Bake Shop

In a walk through Huntington village today I found a number of interesting new organic and vegan places.

The Wild Flours Bake Shop at 11 New Street, Huntington, NY 11743 has a mixture of organic, vegetarian, vegan, locally-sourced,  and gluten-free baked goods.  Here is the decsription from their website: 

Like our products, our bake shop was developed with the well-being of the environment as well as the wellness of our customers in mind.

Our plates, cups, and utensils are made from corn, and therefore are biodegradable. Our bakery boxes are made from 100% recycled materials and we use unbleached products, including parchment paper, wherever possible. In addition, Wild Flours recycles all possible glass, containers and products used in order to reduce the amount of waste produced by our shop.

Upon request, we can bake and provide your pies in a stainless steel pie plate instead of aluminum. At a minimum, we use organic, fair trade, and / or socially responsible coffee, unrefined sugar, and chocolate. We also support Long Island by buying as many locally produced items as possible. Our coffee, tea, and baked goods are made with filtered water and we rarely use a microwave. Non-toxic cleaning agents are used in our kitchen as well as in our customer service area.

Eco-friendly stain, natural wood, and building materials were used in the renovation of the Wild Flours space.

Walking north across Main Street, the Spice Village Grill, 281 Main Street, Huntington, NY 11743 is ast the corner of Wall Street. The restraunt has a selection of Vegetarian and Vegan (marked “V”) selections:

Spice Village Grill

Walking a little farther north I cam across the mysterious looking Black Lantern Lounge and Sushi Den which advertises organic faire.  From the videos it look a little to hip, noisy, and under-dressed for my speed.

Black Lantern

My buddy Jim, who was the lead singer/songwriter of Nylon & Steel, said to me:

You gotta go see the Vance Gilbert show in December.  This guy’s great.

Congregational Church of Huntington

Though I just knew Jim for a year, I trusted his taste in music.  So I planned on seeing Gilbert on the first Saturday of December 1997 at the Folk Music Society of Huntington. The Folk Music Society holds their events at the Congregational Church of Huntington.  Jim must have had us cancel our usual Saturday night rehearsal so we could all go.  And we pretty much all did.  Paulie, Troy, Lotek & Cool Breeze were there.  After convincing all of us, Jim got sick and couldn’t make it.

Over the past year, I had been spending a lot of time in church, but none of it praying. In 1997, I had taken a hiatus from dating to concetrate on me.  Or as a friend quipped at the time, to date myself.  I had started going to the PeaceSmiths Coffeehouse regularly.  Susan Blake, the longtime organizer of PeaceSmiths, served up a monthly blend of music, poetry, and politics.  Peacesmiths met at Amityville’s  First United Methodist Church.  Besides meeting amazing people, PeaceSmiths met a lot of my personal agenda.  I had started writing and publicly reading my poetry that year.  I wanted to get re-engaged with politics.  At PeaceSmiths, I got an education in pacifism.  And as I was doing more poetry, I realized I wanted to do spoken word with music.  During Peacesmiths famous open mic, I saw an amazing band called Nylon & Steel.  The band introduced me to the hand-drum and acoustic guitar joy of a jam band sound.

At the next month’s coffeehouse I gave them the poem I had written, Common Ground, in response to their music.  I soon found myself doing spoken word to their music.  Or as my now-wife Kimberly puts it I became their “Poet Mascot.”  Common Ground became part of our regular repertoire. 

When I met Kimberly in December 1997, dating had recently re-entered my vocabulary, but marriage was nowhere to be found.  We met standing on the hot beverage line during the intermission of the Vance Gilbert show.  My friend Mike Kornfeld was standing in front of me in line.  In my usual over-exuberant manner, I was recounting how I had already paid for my tea. I had just bought a brownie on the neighboring line for 50 cents.  When I handed over a dollar, the woman asked me if I was buying a  cup of tea.

Why?

Because you can just tell them you paid me instead of my giving you change back.

As I waited in line for the tea, I asked Mike if he thought they would believe me.  I heard from behind me a woman’s voice say,

You have an honest face.

I turned around to find the voice belonged to a beautiful woman.  (I found out years later that Kimberly thought I must have been trying to get her attention because no person would talk that loud in a normal course.)  The little voice in the back of my head said,

Say something, stupid!

I don’t remember what we talked about as the line approached the table.  I just remember a little voice in the back of my head again prompting me:

Mention something about poetry.

In a rare instance I listened before it was too late.  Though I can’t remember exactly what I said about poetry.

Jim was more right than he knew about the importance of going to this concert..  Vance Gilbert was great.  I remember Gilbert humorously dealing with the paucity of other African-American folk singers with his own song, Country Western Rap. Cool Breeze was dancing in the back, blithely unaware that he was freaking out the staid Folk Music Society.  After the intermission Troy & Paulie asked me about the woman I was talking to.  I told them I had just met her.  After the concert, Kimberly & I went back to the break room to talk some more.  It was now used as Gilbert’s dressing room.  We interrupted him changing shirts.  We apologized and went back to the lobby where I gave Kimberly my telephone number.

I guess the little voice in the back of my head knows something.  My second date with Kimberly was to see me read poetry in Farmingdale.  Kimberly principally remembers me reading Wendell Berry‘s Manifesto:  The Mad Farmer Liberation Front  with the snow falling outside the window behind me.

Love and peace for all who mourn

My thoughts on the Michigan father of a soldier who burned the NJ flag in protest of the lowering of the flag for Whitney Houston:

The man from Michigan who burned a NJ flag to show his upset about the honor to Whitney Houston is completely wrong.

First of all, it is wrong and taboo to interfere with the honors given to any person who has just died. If he wanted to make this statement, he should have waited a couple of weeks, and filed it as a reasoned complaint through appropriate channels. He should not have made a rude, public statement, to dishonor someone’s memory, while that person’s family, friends, and fans are still grieving.

More reasons that his flamboyant action to thwart the honoring of Whitney Houston was wrong:

He is being sexist. He is asserting that what men in our culture are praised for doing – being soldiers – is less honorable than what women are usually praised for doing – being beautiful, expressing emotions, and nurturing through culture and art. It is not “right” that there is a historical pattern of women’s work and men’s work being different, and that there are culture patterns about what is acceptable for women and what is acceptable for men. But, women of our generations still feel those roles and opinions. And, we should not be attacked for working within the realms that people most often assign to us and praise us for.

This soldier’s father is asserting that war is the ultimate action. And, he is asserting that actions of war and violence are more noble than actions of peace and nonviolence. Artists, musicians, writers, and community organizers who try to teach about love, peace, and living a good life are just as important as his son and other soldiers. And, perhaps, the artists may be better, because they often have devoted themselves unwaveringly to nonviolent solutions.

When Whitney Houston devoted her talents and energy to singing and promoting the song “I believe that children are our future”, she was paving a pathway for peace in our world. She was teaching and inspiring people to understand how to love themselves and their children, so that the world would be a better place.

Though, besides my feelings of anger that this man is dishonoring Whitney Houston, and dishonoring people who work for peace, I also feel a lot of pity for him.

This man from Michigan lost his son to a foreign war for oil. He and/or his son was tricked into being a tool for the greedy corporations and the 1% in the world, to fight and kill in order to protect markets and to make more money. It is tragic that his son died. And, this man’s tragic lack of understanding about why his son truly died, and this man’s tragic need to feel that his son’s violent actions and violent death had meaning, is the true force for his bizarre and misdirected anger at this time.

He does not need to be angry at the Governor of New Jersey over flying a flag. (Though, perhaps, the governors of our states should work more on stopping wars.) And, he does not need to be angry, or jealous, or whatever of Whitney Houston and her family. This man needs to recognize the mistake his son made by joining the military. And, he needs to come to terms with the fact that his son died in vain. If he could do that, he would be less likely to be running around burning flags and demanding laurels for soldiers.

Ironically, in order to understand what happened to his son, he would probably have to read a lot of wise poetry, and listen to a lot of profound songs about war and peace, in order to awaken his heart to the dignity of humanity, and the folly of war.

US taxpayers to subsidize the high cost and high liability for the new units, while Southern Co. reaps the profits

Green Party candidates and leaders strongly criticized a Feb. 9 decision by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to issue the final license for two new reactors located at the currently operating Vogtle nuclear power plant near Augusta, Georgia.

Greens said that the 2011 Fukushima disaster, with radioactive water and waste continuing to spill into the local environment, proves the need to put nuclear power on permanent hold. Green Party leaders noted that residents near Plant Vogtle claim that some cancers increased after 1987, when the Atlanta-based Southern Company opened the first of the two existing reactors.

“The energy companies know that nuclear energy is extremely expensive and a high risk for security, public health, and the environment. They saw what happened in Fukushima, as well as Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Rather than gamble with their own money, energy companies have convinced President Obama to pass the cost and liability on to US taxpayers,” said Denice Traina, Coordinating Council member and former co-chair of the Georgia Green Party (http://www.greens.org/georgia). 

The new units will cost more than $14 billion. The Obama Administration has pledged $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees for the construction. Southern Co. has not yet invested any of its own money for the units, while Georgia ratepayers are being asked to pre-fund construction payments in their current bills. US taxpayers currently subsidize insurance coverage for the private firms that own and operate all US nuclear plants.

Georgia has suffered multiple threats and radioactive releases from the Southern Co. and Dept. of Energy nuclear complex.  DOE operates its Savannah River site bomb-making facility across the river from Shell Bluff, which hosts Plant Vogtle’s two reactors and is now targeted for two more reactors, despite the cancer cluster that health officials have failed to study.

Tritium has been found in cows’ milk in Girard, Georgia. A tritium spill at the bomb plant led the Dixie Crystal sugar refinery to idle its Savannah workforce while the Georgia Dept. of Natural Resources closed the oyster beds at the mouth of the Savannah River, with significant adverse economic repercussions. Vogtle faced an emergency when a truck backed into a utility pole, cutting off the cooling system, and backup generators failed to start. Meanwhile, another Georgia-based Southern Co. facility, Plant Hatch, which is now approaching the end of its license, has operated since its inception without a containment dome.

“Despite these outrages, Georgia residents subsidize nuclear industry profits with risks to our health and safety,” said Bruce Dixon, press secretary of the Georgia Green Party and managing editor for Black Agenda Report (http://www.blackagendareport.com). “The policies which fund new nuclear capacity, while forgoing needed investments in renewables, would not be possible without discounting the lives of those who live in these sacrifice zones. Having a black president offering the taxpayer guaranteed loans, with his appointees granting the license, does not diminish the racism inherent in these policies.”

NRC chair Gregory Jaczko, appointed by President Bush, cast the lone dissenting vote on the new licenses. The commissioners who voted for approval included Democrats appointed by President Obama.

“Despite assurances from President Obama and other nuclear plant defenders, there is no such thing as safe, clean, reliable nuclear energy,” said Darryl! Moch, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. “The Green Party supports a ban on new nuclear reactors and decommissioning of existing reactors, and conversion to genuine safe and clean energy sources as we find ways to reduce energy consumption.”

“We have an opportunity to create millions of jobs in developing safe energy technologies and converting to energy efficiency, by retro-fitting homes and buildings, public transportation to reduce car traffic, and numerous other projects. Unfortunately, Democratic and Republican party leaders, including President Obama, lack the political will and are addicted to political contributions from corporate PACs representing the energy industry,” said Mr. Moch.

Conversion from fossil fuel and nuclear energy and public works projects to create new Green jobs are part of the Green New Deal promoted by Green candidates.

See also:

Nuclear Watch South http://www.nonukesyall.org

“No More Solyndras: Groups Call On DOE to Force Public Release on Delays and 12 Secret Cost Overruns at Vogtle Reactors” North Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction Network, February 16, 2012 http://www.ncwarn.org/2012/02/nc-warn-allies-sue-nrc-over-new-reactors/

“An Anti-Nuclear Renaissance? Since the US government has not given up on approving new reactors, we must not give up opposing them” By Karl Grossman, Common Dreams, Feb. 13, 2012 http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/13-0

“State Green Parties sponsor and host ‘No Nukes Tour: Organize the South!’, October 3 to 8 in southern states” Green Party press release, Sept. 29, 2011 http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=451

“Greens call President Obama’s resurrection of nuclear power and handout for Georgia nuclear reactors his ‘worst idea yet’” Green Party press release, Feb. 18, 2010 http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=297

2012 LI Calendar Items
Six Events in February and March

Thursday, February 23rd – Know Your Rights with the Police and ICE
6pm – 8:30 at 1090 Suffolk Ave in Brentwood

Sunday, February 26th – Annual Peace Party! SCPG/South Country Peace Group
3pm. Held at St. James Episcopal Church in Brookhaven.
More info, contact Eve from SCPG
Friday, March 2nd – PeaceSmiths Coffeehouse
held at FUMC in Amityville
more info at www.peacesmiths.org

Saturday, March 3rd – NYCLU Event
The First Amendment: Citizens United to Occupy Wall Street
11am to 1pm – Suffolk Community College/Ammerman Campus/Babylon Student Center
FaceBook event: page here.

Saturday and Sunday, March 3-4 – Movement Building
Sponsored by Long Island Immigrant Alliance
and LI Civic Engagement Table
9:30am-4:30pm at 1090 Suffolk Ave in Brentwood

Saturday, March 24th – Peace Demo (Save The Date)
Special event related to regular peace vigil in Port Jefferson Village

For various Long Island Occupy events,
you could check the Occupy Long Island FaceBook: here.

This website is our family project. We have invested a small amount of money in holding the URL names, and recently, in paying for server space. We have invested a lot of time in studying, sorting, formatting, illustrating, posting, and reposting information to serve the community.

Now, we are hoping to make the leap to turn onthewilderside into a more sustainable project.

We have moved the server from a free, blog site to a server we are paying to be hosted on. This move should allow us to use photos and video more easily. And, it will also allow us to gather funds to support the infrastructure, support the work we do, and make sure we can continue this project in the future.

We will be implementing a three part strategy to allow onthewilderside (via Wilderside, Ltd) to evolve into a long-term, well-focused, family business. We are going to: Expand our use of links with partner sites (like Powell’s Books); Consider accepting paid ads from companies we respect; And, adding a “Tip Jar” on the front page.

We are committed to keeping these funding strategies low-key. We will not accept pop-up ads or other flashy intrusions. We will do our best to make sure that any advertising we might accept matches the vibe and values of this website.

About The Tip Jar

We imagine the tip jar will become a way for passers-by who find good information here to give us a small thanks for our efforts. Our stats show that thousands of people come here to find important information such as: Who all the candidates are on the ballot; the list of demands and declarations from Occupy Wall Street; the possible environmental reasons for earthquakes; where to find poetry readings and live music events on Long Island.

We also hope that long-term readers and valued friends may throw a tip in the jar to thank us for our service over the years, and to encourage us to continue during this time of contemplation.

With appreciation,

Ian and Kimberly Wilder
onthewilderside.com
Wilderside, Ltd.

The demonstrator, Ronnie Nunez, was arrested in Zuccotti Park on Nov. 15 after allegedly refusing to leave the privately owned public park when the Occupy campsite was evicted at Brookfield Properties’ request.  In the criminal court papers filed against Mr. Nunez, the prosecution asserts that Brookfield Properties had the ability to withdraw its permission for the public to be in Zuccotti Park, and that it had done so prior to the eviction.

“Brookfield Properties had no legal authority to unilaterally deny people permission to be in Zuccotti Park,” said NYCLU Senior Staff Attorney Taylor Pendergrass, the brief’s primary author. “The charges against Mr. Nunez are groundless and must be dismissed.”  

When private owners agree to create public spaces like Zuccotti Park, they give up their right to treat them as their private property in exchange for valuable zoning concessions.  A special zoning permit granted in 1968 established Zuccotti Park as a “permanently open park” for “the public benefit.”

The NYCLU maintains that city zoning law makes clear that owners of privately owned public spaces cannot unilaterally restrict people’s access to those spaces. The City Planning Commission is the only entity that could authorize such restrictions, after public comment, and only if there is sufficient evidence to justify them. This procedure did not occur prior to the eviction of protesters from Zuccotti Park.

Therefore, the NYCLU argues, Brookfield Properties had no right to order Mr. Nunez or anyone else to leave the park, providing no basis for the trespassing charge.  The brief also notes that Zuccotti Park, like hundreds of other “privately owned public spaces” throughout New York City, is dedicated to public use and protected by the U.S. Constitution.

In January, the NYCLU and other civil rights groups notified the city that its arbitrary and inconsistently applied rules and security measures restricting the public’s access to the park violated city zoning laws. The next day, the city removed metal barricades that had surrounded the park since the Nov. 15 eviction of the Occupy encampment.

Joining Pendergrass on the brief are NYCLU attorneys Rebecca Engel, Daniel Mullkoff and Katherine Bromberg. To read the NYCLU’s brief visit http://www.nyclu.org/news/nyclu-files-papers-contesting-trespassing-charges-zuccotti-eviction-case

Related articles

• NYCLU: Ruling a Disappointment, But City Should Accommodate Protest Anyway (wilderside.wordpress.com)
• NYCLU, Major Media Organizations Criticize NYPD’s Mistreatment of Press during Zuccotti Eviction (wilderside.wordpress.com)
• As court deliberates, two statements against Bloomberg’s eviction of OWS – Green Party & NYCLU (wilderside.wordpress.com)

Live now:
http://www.wgrz.com/news/article/155970/37/LIVE-VIDEO–NYSUT-Says-Deal-Close-on-Teacher-Evaluations-

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For more logical review of this scheme to tie your child’s test score to your teacher’s job rating and job, see the following post:
http://www.onthewilderside.com/2012/02/15/more-than-a-number-concerned-educators-gather-to-examine-standardized-testing-and-teacher-evaluations/

Teachers, parents, and students: Now is the time to boycott standardized tests! They are trying to shove these tests down your throat, so that their contributors in the testing corporations can continue to profit, and donate to their campaigns.

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Live Blogging and thoughts:

Ha! The Governor will give schools “bonus points” if they do what he wants sooner. That kind of arrogance, and holding out carrots for professionals who are committed to their work, is part of the problem.

As someone pointed out at the More Than A Number event last night: One of the major indicators of how a student will perform is their poverty level. Who will give the Governor and politicians a grade for how they are helping the economy? The teachers and teachers’ unions should evaluate Governor Cuomo (aka Governor 1%)

Governor Andrew Cuomo compliments a union leader by saying the person was “extraordinarily reasonable”. Oh! My! If you are a union person, and a conservative, teacher-bashing politician calls you that, I think it means that you sold out faster than most people.

“Encouragement, that’s a good word”, says Governor Cuomo. Where is “encouragement” measured in these teacher evaluations? Answer: Nowhere. At More Than A Number, a lot of people pointed out that the politicians and business leaders they have inserted into the education community focus so much on numbers, that values such as encouragement, leadership, and integrity will be unmeasured, unvalued, and ignored.

In the city, they have made a process that appeals will be handled by a new, independent panel that reviews the evaluations. So, now, they have to invent, staff, and fund a new organization. How about using the money in the classroom, instead of for more bureacracy?

This decision is truly bad for New Yorkers and for educators nationally, who it will affect. I think (and kind of hope) that a lot of teachers will just quit. But, also that parents will wake up to how their children are being used as pawns, and either boycott standardized tests, or leave the public school system. This hyper-testing system is bad and damaging to the psyche of children.

A new national poll conducted by Public Policy Polling (PPP) shows Green Party presidential hopeful Roseanne Barr surging with the youth vote. In a three way contest between Barr, Democratic incumbent Barack Obama and Republican hopeful Mitt Romney, Barr pulls in 19% of voters between the ages of 18-29, narrowly trailing Republican hopeful Mitt Romney by 5 points. This is the first poll to include Barr in its survey.

In a three-way national contest, Barr pulls in 6% versus Democratic incumbent Barack Obama (47%) and Republican hopeful Mitt Romney (42%). Barr’s support among Democrats and Republicans is virtually equal, with Barr pulling in 6% of Democrats and 5% of Republicans, in addition to 8% of Independent/Other voters.

This 6% crosses a critical threshold – under current campaign finance laws, winning 5% of the national vote would bring the Green Party and its presidential nominee millions in funding in the following election cycle and access to a number of state ballot lines may be secured as well. 

In response to the poll, Roseanne Barr stated, “Only three weeks into my campaign, we are off to a great start. This poll shows the deep dissatisfaction voters have with the two corporate parties of the 1% and the opportunity that the Green Party has to make a real difference for the 99% in this election and elections to come. I am in it to win it and look forward to giving the Democrats and Republicans a run for their corporate money. My campaign is the beginning of the end of patriarchal politics. Just this past week, we’ve witnessed a bunch of 70-year-old men wearing funny hats who haven’t gotten laid in decades attempting to dictate whether women have access to contraception or not. In this bright future, we’ll be the ones wearing the funny hats. Behold the greening of America.”

Poll results: http://is.gd/bCyEaZ

Related articles

• Green Party Prez Primary Update 2/13/12 (onthewilderside.com)
• Green Party welcomes presidential candidates Roseanne Barr and Jill Stein (onthewilderside.com)

A video clip of panel moderator Dr. Arnold Dodge of LIU Post:

Some of the reasons why no one who cares about students or taxpayers should support this new maneuver:

1. It is going to cost local districts oodles of money to create their own evaluation systems. (And, they will have to pick from a list of “approved vendors” to buy from. Hmmmm….wonder if that will bring money and politics more into the picture?)

1B. All those student tests and teacher evaluation programs are sources of funds for greedy corporations who lobby your government. All this extra testing takes valuable time from your child’s school day, and will ultimately cost the school district and taxpayers lots of money.

2. It is wrong to believe that you can judge a classroom teacher based on their students’ test scores. What if their students’ have a bad year? What if the teacher has slow learners in his/her class? What about the other teachers who are part of the learning program, such as the Reading Teacher, Speech Teacher, Special Ed Teacher, etc?

3. Imagine how a young child, or a child with emotional problems would feel, if their teacher is fired, and someone tells them the reason is because of that student’s own, poor performance? Children should not be so directly burdened with the politics and problems of adults.

4. It is February. All the decisions on how this system works have not been resolved. And, yet, they are planning on giving teachers evaluations by June for this year.

There are many other reasons these evaluations are a bad idea. You can read a letter written by principals, listing their concerns: here.

Some demands that educators seem to want:

-Oppose using student test scores as any part of teacher evaluations

-Oppose using a numerical rating of 1-100 for the teacher evaluations.

One of the panelists pointed out that scales of 1 to 100 are usually used to assess someone’s knowledge on a discreet subject. A 1 to 100 scale does not even make sense in the instance of teacher evaluations. Though, it could be another game of the politicians to be able to demean teachers (ie: giving them scores such as 50%).

Some ways to take action:

1. For parents – Realize that standardized tests (and too many test) are bad for your child and your child’s teacher. Opt Out of Standardized Tests (which is difficult to do in New York). And/or, join the growing, parent Opt Out movement. There is a FaceBook group: here.

2. For community members, parents, and educators – Sign onto the Principals’ Letter at www.newyorkprincipals.org: here.

3. Complain to NY State Governor Andrew Cuomo (who is one of the forces behind this bad decision)

4. Write letters to the NY State Board of Regents (especially Chancellor Tisch, who is one of the forces behind this bad decision)
-Chancellor Tisch’s e-mail is: RegentTisch@mail.nysed.gov
-A list of other NYS Regents members (some of whom voted for, and some against on this decision): here.

5. Write letters to your local politicians. Some of the speakers this evening seemed to think that NY State Senators could help to oppose this scheme.

6. For parents – Get involved with your PTA. Bring this issue to other parents to seek strategies and support.

About the More Than A Number symposium:

The symposium was held at LIU Post (CW Post) in Nassau County, Long Island, New York. Shortly after I registered, I received a message that while 400 had been expected, 900 had registered, so carpooling was important. This evening, one of the organizers told me that there were now 1,200 people expected. It was quite a crowd!

Everyone who spoke from the stage or audience was against the new evaluation method. At least two people from the stage mentioned Governor Cuomo by name as being unfair to educators. Many people expressed bad feelings for the stance of  “The Governor” and “politicians”.

There seem to be plans to hold similar meetings throughout the state.

More pictures from the event at Flickr: here.

2/15/2012 "More Than A Number": Before the event, a crowd gathers