Progressive Wednesday

This Wednesday: Greatest Hits, Part I

Problem:

The best-selling album of all time is Eagles: Their Greatest Hits, 1971-1975, and I find this rather sad. Not because I didn't love cranking “Take it Easy” as I drove far, far away from Athens, Ohio, for the last time. But because, as a drummer, I find the progression of Don Henley’s career almost as embarrassing to drummers as Phil Collins’ complete body of work.

I suppose that’s not really the problem. The problem is this: we've had a bit of a difficult week down on the organic, digital farm that is Progressive Wednesday, and at the same time, we believe there are topics we've covered that deserve another look-see. So this Wednesday, we're going to do our first Greatest Hits.

So we're humbling asking you to take another gander at issues and actions we've raised in the past. And please, for your sake, and for the sake of those around you, try to restrain yourself from blasting “Hotel California” on your iTunes.

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Make Progress:

• Saving the Planet (from the Comfort of Our Homes): Switch
• I See Trees of Green: Plant
• Downsizing Wal-Mart: Stop
• Doing Work for Hard-Working Families: Change
• Genocide in Darfur: Write/Call

Saving the Planet (from the Comfort of Our Homes): Switch

Editor’s Note: This Wednesday topic first appeared on March 7, 2007. To read our introduction to “Saving the Planet (from the Comfort of Our Homes),” just click here.

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Each year the average American household uses about 9,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. That averages out to about 750 kW-h per month. The cost per kW-h ranges throughout the country from just under 6 cents to almost 15 cents. 57 percent of this energy comes from coal plants and, according to powerscorecard.org:

Coal power plants are responsible for 93 percent of the sulfur dioxide and 80 percent of the nitrogen oxide emissions generated by the electric utility industry.

Few people know that they can get every watt from clean, renewable energy. Many utility companies offer renewable energy to their customers, and there are other national programs, like Utility Green Pricing and Renewable Energy Certificates, for those who buy from a company that doesn't. To see if your utility company offers renewable power, click here.

The cost of buying green power ranges from 3/4 of a penny to about three cents per kW-h, with most programs at about 1 cent per kW-h. For the average American that means about an extra $7/month. That's about the price of a movie or half of a pizza. This is the only thing we've asked you to do that does not immediately benefit you financially. But if you do only one thing, do this.

Why? The baby girl in the picture is my daughter. Do it for her. Do it for the polar bears who have just been added to the endangered species list. Do it for the people of New Orleans who were shown with unprecedented violence what effect the warming of the Gulf can have on their lives. And do it for the coral reefs, 16 percent dead in a single year, bleached by the warmer waters. Do it for my children and yours, for me and for you. Do it because it's right.

I See Trees of Green: Plant

Editor’s Note: This Wednesday topic first appeared on April 17, 2007. To read the introduction to “I See Trees of Green,” just click here.

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Plant:

This one might seem obvious, but it's still true. If you've got a yard, consider planting a new tree this year.

Here's why:

• Trees remove carbon dioxide from the air, replenishing it with oxygen.
• According to the EPA, trees reduce heat islands.
• Thanks to their root systems, trees help prevent erosion.
• With proper landscaping, trees significantly boost the value of your home.
• According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture: “The net cooling effect of a young, healthy tree is equivalent to ten room-size air conditioners operating 20 hours a day.”
• Trees create homes for songbirds.
• Trees reduce unwanted noise.
• According to the EPA, trees reduce flooding.
• If privacy is your thing, trees keep prying eyes at bay. Why kill trees to build an artificial fence when you could build a tree-fence?
• Trees can be a source of fresh, organic food for your family.
• Trees can shade your windows and house reducing the cost of air-conditioning.
• According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Department of Energy, “the strategic placement of just three trees can save an average household between $100 and $250 annually in energy costs.–

To know more about how trees can help you save on power, click this sentence to be taken to the American Public Power Association's “Tree Benefits Estimator.–

Plus, we've got two ways to help you plant a tree:

1. You can check out the Arbor Day website. By becoming a member, you get 10 free trees mailed to you with the postage already paid. And how much does it cost to become a member? 10 bucks. 10 bucks for 10 trees.
2. If you're not feeling up to planting your own trees, you can make a donation to Plant It 2020. For every dollar you donate, one tree gets planted. Here's the bonus: you can choose the state or country where the trees find a home. Or you can donate to Trees for the Future: forty smackers plants 400 (you read that right, 400) trees.

Downsizing Wal-Mart: Stop

Editor’s Note: This Wednesday topic first appeared on February 7, 2007. To read the introduction to “Downsizing Wal-Mart,” just click here:

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Stop:

We ain't never claimed to be perfect, people (read all about it in our FAQ), and we'll never do so. And we'll admit it: we've shopped at Wal-Mart; we've shopped at Sam's Club.

There are few powers our general citizenry possess to fight major conglomerations, at least not many that don't involve our arrests. But there's always the b-word, and we don't mean bulldogs or bananas or bills; we mean boycott, baby, boy-cott.

So we'll also admit this: barring a fluke of nature or tequila-induced drunkenness, we'll never shop at any Wal-Mart owned company again. If you haven't already, join us. There will be very few times where we beg at Progressive Wednesday. But we do beg of you: stop going there. Wal-Mart isn't saving you money, both in the short term or the long term.

So quit cold turkey, yo, because shopping in bulk does seem like some kind of addiction. And how many three-gallon tubs of mayo do we really need? (The answer rhymes with “hero.– )

But here's the deal–today, this Wednesday or whenever you're reading this, try to convince one other person to stop. We'll provide you with additional resources to educate yourself or the educate this other person. Explain to them gently what you've learned and how disgusted you are with the company. Or click the “Share This– button at the bottom of any of these posts, and email the sucker.

And now comes the big question: where should we shop instead? Well, we don't exactly have the answer to that because we don't know where you live. But here are three suggestions:

1. Whenever possible, buy American products.
2. Shop locally at privately owned businesses. You can always try the Yellow Pages online.
3. Only buy items of significance or necessity; stuff doesn't make us happy. (If you’ve got to read it to believe it, check out this University of Colorado study or this CNN article.) Of course, Progressive Wednesday swag will bring ebullient joy to your life whether you're 9 or 90.

Doing Work for Hard-Working Families: Change

Editor’s Note: This Wednesday topic first appeared on March 14, 2007. To read our introduction to “Doing Work for Hard-Working Families,” just click here.

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Change:

We don't mean change like nickels and dimes, and we don't mean change like when you trade in your business casual for actual casual. We mean in the ways you spend your Washingtons, Lincolns, Hamiltons, and the ever-popular Benjamins (from what we hear, it's “all about– the latter). Money, in America, is power, so with some slight alterations in the way we redistribute our paychecks, we can all empower American workers all the more.

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1. On a recent trip to Topps (one of the two major grocery store changes in Western New York), I was about to use the self-serve checkout to purchase toilet paper, Ben & Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar Crunch, and an avocado (I know, I know– ¦ weird) when Jeremy, an old friend of mine, saw me, waved, then yelled, “Hey Zambito, you're taking someone's job away.–

He was right. So here's our advice: use real, live, human cashiers at grocery stores instead of the self-serve checkouts with the creepy, HAL-like voice telling you what to do. By taking this simple action, you keep more people employed. Yes, many of today's cashiers are teenagers, but the majority are not and need all the support we can give them. The extra few minutes you spend in a line waiting helps put cash in someone's pockets. Plus, I mean, when else can you scan the tabloids and not feel dirty about it?

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2. The notion of a 15% gratuity is a social custom in the United States, and by no means requisite. Most restaurant servers work off tips, because the federal minimum wage for servers is $2.13 an hour (you read that right). This 15% nonsense seems unjust.

A server in a diner probably works harder than a server in a fancy, schmancy ristorante, and yet receive less in tips simply because the food costs less. So, since tipping, as archaic as it is, isn't going anywhere anytime soon, we'd like to offer up this little tidbit of progress: add two bucks.

Figure out whatever tip you think the person “deserves,– and then add two bucks. Not only will you make someone's day (since a surprising number of people tip far less than 15% if they tip at all) and you'll help that person, coincidentally enough, eat.

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3. Count with me, people: 1, 2, 3, 4. Below you'll find four companies that treat American workers right, and get our PW seal of approval. These companies aren't perfect. Let's call them “more perfect– than most others. So, if and when you can, try plunking down your hard-earned money with these companies.

1. eBay – Yes, eBay. They offer health insurance for PowerSellers and their employees. eBay let's its employees use health care debit cards to tap into their FSAs. By buying off eBay, you get to help out the smallest of business (the sellers). As an added bonus, the head honchos at eBay donate generously to charities and respect the environment.
2. Southwest – This progressive airline has dolled out hefty signing bonuses to baggage handlers and provisions agents. They support changing the mandatory retirement age of airline pilots. Southwest has the highest paid pilots in the industry (I don't know about you, but I want my pilots– ¦ I don't know– ¦ happy?). They also build strong relationships with front-line employees and among front-line employees.
3. Costco – As of 2005, “Costco [paid] its full-time workers an average of more than $16 an hour, while also picking up 92 percent of the cost of employees’ health-insurance premiums– and “82 percent of Costco workers are covered– by the plan. And check this out: “after four years with [Costco], a cashier can earn around $44,000, including bonuses.– Enough said.
4. New Balance — This company, I promise you, sells many sneakers made right here in the U.S. of A. (that means America). Take that Nike!

Genocide in Darfur: Write/Call

Editor’s Note: This Wednesday topic first appeared on May 23, 2007. To read our introduction to “Genocide in Darfur,” just click here.

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64% of American voters believe that their national leaders should consider intervention in Darfur a high priority. Options range from putting American troops on the ground as part of an international peacekeeping mission to freezing the assets of the Sudanese leaders to an embargo on Sudanese oil. Whatever your position, one of the most effective ways to make your voice heard in regards to this issue is to contact your elected leaders.

This is one of the biggest fish in the international frying pan, and the biggest difference can be made at the governmental level. It's so big that there is an entire website dedicated to making it easier to contact your local and national politicians: DarfurScores.org.

DarfurScores.org not only provides information on how to contact your legislators, it also gives them a grade based on legislation they have sponsored as well as how they have voted on prior legislation related to the genocide in Darfur. Just plug in your zip code and it gives you a list of your elected leaders, their report card, and contact information. This allows you to tailor your message to the past performance of your Congressperson, Senator, or Governor.

In case you were wondering, of the top four “Champions of Darfur,– two are conservative Republicans and two are liberal Democrats. This is not a “red– or “blue– , “left– or “right,– political issue; it's a “warm blooded– moral issue.

If a phone call is more your “cup of tea,– 1-800-GENOCIDE is a hotline that has been set up in a similar way. Just call and enter your zip code and they provide a list of talking points to use before they connect your call. Then they decide what is the best way to direct you and what is the most effective action that can be taken in your area. When I called they connected me to the state comptroller so that I could ask him to divest New York dollars from the worst offending New York companies in Sudan. Very targeted, very affective. It takes two minutes, so give them a call. It's a lot better than the phone number suggests.

How to Read Poetry Progressively

Problem:

We can only think of four:

1. You read poems somewhat regularly and want some more suggestions.
2. You dig poems when you come across them and want to come across them more often.
3. You’re terrified of poems and want some ways to ease yourself in (as with water, jumping tends to work best).
4. You hate poems and are, therefore, a deeply disturbed person, but you want to be healthy again.

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Make Progress:

If we edited Webster’s, we write this simple entry for the definition of poetry: “the art of words, baby” Okay, maybe not the “baby” (but only maybe). I’m not sure I’m the one to make the case for poetry, other than to say it helped me cope and create, taught me to trust language more instead of less, and made me more an admirer, and less an envier, of others.

On the first day of my first year at Ohio University, my professor, Joe Bonomo, put this Galway Kinnell poem on the chalkboard:

“Prayer”

Whatever happens. Whatever

what is is is what

I want. Only that. But that.

I didn’t understand it. I took it home and didn’t understand it. Only recently have I reached one possible understanding of it: poems, like prayers and even every day experiences, are beyond logic, but not beyond desire. And since that first day, I’ve craved more and more. To quote my former professor, the late David Citino, as he drove away from campus right before the close of the quarter: “Hey, Zambito! Poetry rocks, man, and don’t you forget it.” I haven’t.

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Books of Poetry:

These are our progressive must-reads:

• New and Selected Poems: Volume One by Mary Oliver should be as prevalent as the Gideon Bible. If you only read two contemporary poems in your life, we think they ought to be “At Blackwater Woods,” to celebrate in the face of loss, and “The Summer Day,” to celebrate in the face of life.
• The National Book Award-winning What Work Is, by Phillip Levine, is old school. But not in terms of form or meter or details of a dusty history. Instead, Levine’s creative work punches you in the gut, when it’s not breaking your heart, in the most lovely ways. Each poem is like a shirt collar at the end of the day: salty and honest and therefore, hopefully, American.
• John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Billy Holiday, and Marvin Gaye get a second life in Terrance Hayes’ first collection, Muscular Music. The poems here vary between accessible narratives and poems so full of linguistic harmony you wish there was a tune to go with them.
• The Resurrection of the Body and the Ruin of the World by Paul Guest, besides having the best title of any book I’ve ever seen, mixes pop culture, wisdom, and lyrical acrobatics. Where else can you read verse written from the point of view of Foghorn Leghorn next to a piece that makes love seem like the only answer? The answer to the question, of course, is nowhere but here.

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Other Poetry Resources:

• Poetry Daily posts a new poem recently published in a literary magazine or book collection every day. The work could most frequently be called contemporary free verse poetry. That’s a very academic way of saying: “It doesn’t rhyme and I can’t figure out the rhythm, but I’ll be damned if you can’t still dance to it.”
• Verse Daily does exactly the same as we’ve written above, but they’ve slightly more interesting tastes. If Poetry Daily is rock music, then Verse Daily is punk and prog and pop and rock.
• The Academy of American Poets is, for all intents and purposes, the resource for poets. But it’s also a fantastic site for poetry fanatics, aficionados, and even the casually curious. You can search the site by poet and poem. They are the organizers behind National Poetry Month (it’s April, by the way), and they provide tools for teachers who want to share poetry with their teens and wee ones.
• Simply put (which is exactly how founder and editor D.F. Tweney would want it), tiny words offers up a haiku each day, which readers can find and quickly digest using the web, cell phones, or email.
• Ted Kooser, the Poet Laureate of the United States from 2004 until 2006, set up a web resource for newspapers and general readers called American Life in Poetry. The idea behind the project was to help return poetry to the daily press, and bring verse back into the lives of everyday folks. The columns and accompanying poems are accessible, genuine, and friendly. You can read more about the project here and more about Kooser here.