Published in YES! Magazine, Summer 2009
http://yesmagazine.org/article.asp?id=3555#peace
Fourteen peace activists were arrested on April 10 at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nevada, during a 10-day vigil protesting unmanned aircraft strikes along the Afghan-Pakistan border. The activists, who were participants in an interfaith Sacred Peace Walk organized by the Nevada Desert Experience, sought to engage in dialogue with Air Force personnel operating Predator and Reaper drones from the base.
In addition to causing numerous civilian casualties, the strikes have contributed to a deepening humanitarian crisis in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas. According to UNICEF, over 860,000 displaced persons from those areas, including 325,000 children, are in dire need of water, nutrition, sanitation, education, and health care.
Despite warnings by Pakistani intelligence officials that ongoing strikes will further destabilize the country, the Obama administration has declared its intention to intensify drone attacks. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has announced he will seek $2 billion in additional funding for unmanned aircraft for the 2010 budget, including 50 more drones. This will represent a 62 percent increase in the military’s capability to carry out drone operations.
The activists view their June 9 arraignment in Las Vegas as an opportunity to build support for their “Ground the Drones…Lest We Reap the Whirlwind” campaign. In addition to holding a monthly vigil at Creech, the Nevada Desert Experience plans to draw further attention to the issue during its August Desert Witness, which commemorates the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Evangelicals' Faith Leads Them to Issues of Environment, Social Justice
Published in YES! Magazine (Fall 2008: Purple America issue): http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=2845
A passion for environmental action and social justice is spreading in what some may consider unexpected places. Had you walked into Northland, A Church Distributed—an evangelical megachurch in Florida—one Saturday morning last August, you would have found parishioners in Kevlar suits sifting through the congregation’s trash. Their mission: to fulfill what they consider the biblical imperative to be good stewards of the Earth. Led by senior pastor Joel C. Hunter, an advocate of the pro-environment, evangelical Creation Care movement, the churchgoers sorted about 30 bins of trash in order to assess the congregation’s environmental impact.
After the church showed the film “The Great Warming,” featuring National Association of Evangelicals spokesman Richard Cizik, they wanted to take action. When they were finished assessing the congregation’s waste, they created a 140-page audit of the church’s solid waste, energy management, landscaping, and water use, which formed the basis of Northland’s strategy for lowering its carbon footprint. Creation Care at Northland didn’t end there. After services another weekend, the church held a Creation Care event with 30 environmentally-friendly vendors and organizations. Then, in February, evangelical leaders hosted an interfaith summit at Northland, training religious leaders to promote sustainability within their own congregations.
Rev. Hunter is one of a growing number of evangelicals creating an alternative to an evangelical political platform long dominated by hot-button issues such as gay marriage and abortion. While maintaining a socially conservative platform, Hunter and others are expanding their agendas to address concerns such as global warming, poverty, education, and peacemaking. His recent book, A New Kind of Conservative, sounds a call for social justice and compassion for the disadvantaged. According to Hunter, younger generations are avoiding the negative tone and single-issue focus of the Christian Right. “As a movement progresses and matures,” he says, “it begins to define itself by what it’s for instead of what it’s against. It starts to think of pro-life in terms of life outside the womb as well as inside the womb.” He likens this shift to the changes a person goes through while growing up. “When you’re in middle school, you define yourself as who you hate and what you hate. But when you grow up, you start to say, ‘Now, what do I like? What do I want to build? What do I want my life to mean?’”
Black and Hispanic evangelicals have played a major role in shifting the agenda. A 2004 poll by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, Inc. for Religion & Ethics Newsweekly and U.S. News & World Report showed that while white evangelicals considered socially conservative moral values their first priority (37%), 41% of black and 34% of Hispanic respondents placed a different moral issue—the economy—first.
Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, leader of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), believes Hispanic evangelicals serve as a natural bridge between the “righteousness platform” of white evangelicals and the “justice platform” of the black church. While the approximately 15 million Hispanic evangelicals in America often oppose abortion and gay marriage, many also hold progressive, populist views on issues such as poverty, health care, education, and racial equality.
Immigration is one contentious issue Rodriguez hopes to see depolarized. The NHCLC envisions a “middle path” between upholding the rule of law and exercising compassion toward the approximately 12 million undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S. In response to HR 4437, the 2005 bill designed to rein in illegal immigration, NHCLC drafted a proposal calling for comprehensive immigration reform that would include penalties and the payment of back taxes while “bringing immigrants out of the shadows” and providing a path to citizenship.
Rodriguez’s concern for social justice stems from his upbringing in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he witnessed economic upheaval and the decline of industry. As the region transformed, he saw rising levels of violence and racial inequality that persisted as the city grew increasingly diverse. In neighboring Allentown, where the high-school graduation rate was only 60.7% in 2005, evangelical pastors are making efforts to become a “firewall” against gang violence and high dropout rates. In collaboration with Allentown mayor Ed Pawlowski, the NHCLC-affiliated Third Day Worship Center launched an initiative to address these problems, creating an after-school mentoring program for at-risk youth. The effort, coinciding with the creation of Allentown’s Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, was part of Generation Fuerza (Generation Strength), an NHCLC campaign to reduce teen pregnancy, dropout rates, and gang involvement. Generation Fuerza advocates will begin meeting with Congress in October to promote this agenda.
The social justice approach extends beyond the domestic sphere. Evangelicals for Darfur, a member of the Save Darfur Coalition, includes advocates across the political spectrum, from Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention to Jim Wallis, editor of the progressive Sojourners magazine. In 2006, the group ran full-page ads in 10 major newspapers entitled “Without You, Mr. President, Darfur Doesn’t Have a Prayer,” urging support for international peacekeeping forces and multilateral economic sanctions. In addition to pushing for action, the group solicits donations for relief efforts and promotes education about the genocide.
Other evangelical groups are advocating peace between Israelis and Palestinians. They urge a two-state solution to the conflict, offering an alternative to the approach of more visible leaders such as John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel (CUFI) and senior pastor of the Cornerstone megachurch in San Antonio, Texas. Hagee is an influential proponent of Christian Zionism, which takes literally the biblical Book of Revelation and views an apocalyptic war in the Middle East as a necessary precursor to the Second Coming of Christ. As Christian Zionists, Hagee and his organization believe that Israel has a divinely sanctioned right to the West Bank and Gaza, and are actively involved in lobbying Washington to oppose “land for peace” and the creation of a Palestinian state.
Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding was founded in part to counter what the organization calls “a rising tide of Western interpretation of the nation of Israel as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.” Its Executive Director, Leonard Rodgers, believes the key to understanding lies in forming personal ties between American evangelicals and Middle Eastern Christians and Muslims, which the group accomplishes through its Living Stones delegations to the region. The organization is especially committed to forging ties with Middle Eastern Christians, a community Rodgers says few Americans are aware of. “When you introduce them and they build a relationship, they begin to understand the Middle East through the eyes of a Middle Easterner,” he says.
Last November, about 100 leaders signed an open letter by Evangelicals for Social Action, a group devoted to social and economic justice. “In the context of our ongoing support for the security of Israel, we believe that unless the situation between Israel and Palestine improves quickly, the consequences will be devastating,” the letter reads, commending Israeli and Palestinian leadership for supporting a two-state solution. The letter reaffirmed the call for peace contained in a July 2007 open letter to President Bush signed by 39 prominent evangelical leaders.
A key factor in the changing face of evangelicalism is the appearance of a young generation that is more expansive in its social outlook. While they are likely to share the socially conservative approach of their parents, younger evangelicals are being shaped by the dynamic world of globalization, technology, and online social networking.
Ben Lowe, 24, studied environmental biology at Wheaton College and is active in several Creation Care groups on Facebook. Last year, he brought together student leaders from 15 campuses for the January 2007 Wheaton Creation Care Summit and participated in Power Shift 2007, joining tens of thousands of other young adults in Washington, D.C. to confront global warming. He now works for A Rocha, a Christian organization devoted to conservation. Although his peers sometimes express suspicion toward environmentalism, they often change their minds once introduced to the issue in a biblical context. “Once we show from the Bible that being good stewards of the environment is our privilege and responsibility,” says Lowe, “then my peers are usually very enthusiastic and supportive.”
Rowan University graduate Dan Lebo, 22, now attends Palmer Theological Seminary. He received a scholarship to work with Evangelicals for Social Action and helped distribute its call for Middle East peace. “The American political landscape can be a very frustrating place for younger evangelicals,” says Lebo, because the issues they care about fall across the spectrum. “It would be very hard to pigeonhole young evangelicals into any political sphere. However, at the same time we are becoming very politically engaged. We realize how important politics can be to the welfare of our society and our world and are understanding that being apathetic about politics doesn’t help anything or anyone.”
A passion for environmental action and social justice is spreading in what some may consider unexpected places. Had you walked into Northland, A Church Distributed—an evangelical megachurch in Florida—one Saturday morning last August, you would have found parishioners in Kevlar suits sifting through the congregation’s trash. Their mission: to fulfill what they consider the biblical imperative to be good stewards of the Earth. Led by senior pastor Joel C. Hunter, an advocate of the pro-environment, evangelical Creation Care movement, the churchgoers sorted about 30 bins of trash in order to assess the congregation’s environmental impact.
After the church showed the film “The Great Warming,” featuring National Association of Evangelicals spokesman Richard Cizik, they wanted to take action. When they were finished assessing the congregation’s waste, they created a 140-page audit of the church’s solid waste, energy management, landscaping, and water use, which formed the basis of Northland’s strategy for lowering its carbon footprint. Creation Care at Northland didn’t end there. After services another weekend, the church held a Creation Care event with 30 environmentally-friendly vendors and organizations. Then, in February, evangelical leaders hosted an interfaith summit at Northland, training religious leaders to promote sustainability within their own congregations.
Rev. Hunter is one of a growing number of evangelicals creating an alternative to an evangelical political platform long dominated by hot-button issues such as gay marriage and abortion. While maintaining a socially conservative platform, Hunter and others are expanding their agendas to address concerns such as global warming, poverty, education, and peacemaking. His recent book, A New Kind of Conservative, sounds a call for social justice and compassion for the disadvantaged. According to Hunter, younger generations are avoiding the negative tone and single-issue focus of the Christian Right. “As a movement progresses and matures,” he says, “it begins to define itself by what it’s for instead of what it’s against. It starts to think of pro-life in terms of life outside the womb as well as inside the womb.” He likens this shift to the changes a person goes through while growing up. “When you’re in middle school, you define yourself as who you hate and what you hate. But when you grow up, you start to say, ‘Now, what do I like? What do I want to build? What do I want my life to mean?’”
Black and Hispanic evangelicals have played a major role in shifting the agenda. A 2004 poll by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, Inc. for Religion & Ethics Newsweekly and U.S. News & World Report showed that while white evangelicals considered socially conservative moral values their first priority (37%), 41% of black and 34% of Hispanic respondents placed a different moral issue—the economy—first.
Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, leader of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), believes Hispanic evangelicals serve as a natural bridge between the “righteousness platform” of white evangelicals and the “justice platform” of the black church. While the approximately 15 million Hispanic evangelicals in America often oppose abortion and gay marriage, many also hold progressive, populist views on issues such as poverty, health care, education, and racial equality.
Immigration is one contentious issue Rodriguez hopes to see depolarized. The NHCLC envisions a “middle path” between upholding the rule of law and exercising compassion toward the approximately 12 million undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S. In response to HR 4437, the 2005 bill designed to rein in illegal immigration, NHCLC drafted a proposal calling for comprehensive immigration reform that would include penalties and the payment of back taxes while “bringing immigrants out of the shadows” and providing a path to citizenship.
Rodriguez’s concern for social justice stems from his upbringing in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he witnessed economic upheaval and the decline of industry. As the region transformed, he saw rising levels of violence and racial inequality that persisted as the city grew increasingly diverse. In neighboring Allentown, where the high-school graduation rate was only 60.7% in 2005, evangelical pastors are making efforts to become a “firewall” against gang violence and high dropout rates. In collaboration with Allentown mayor Ed Pawlowski, the NHCLC-affiliated Third Day Worship Center launched an initiative to address these problems, creating an after-school mentoring program for at-risk youth. The effort, coinciding with the creation of Allentown’s Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, was part of Generation Fuerza (Generation Strength), an NHCLC campaign to reduce teen pregnancy, dropout rates, and gang involvement. Generation Fuerza advocates will begin meeting with Congress in October to promote this agenda.
The social justice approach extends beyond the domestic sphere. Evangelicals for Darfur, a member of the Save Darfur Coalition, includes advocates across the political spectrum, from Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention to Jim Wallis, editor of the progressive Sojourners magazine. In 2006, the group ran full-page ads in 10 major newspapers entitled “Without You, Mr. President, Darfur Doesn’t Have a Prayer,” urging support for international peacekeeping forces and multilateral economic sanctions. In addition to pushing for action, the group solicits donations for relief efforts and promotes education about the genocide.
Other evangelical groups are advocating peace between Israelis and Palestinians. They urge a two-state solution to the conflict, offering an alternative to the approach of more visible leaders such as John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel (CUFI) and senior pastor of the Cornerstone megachurch in San Antonio, Texas. Hagee is an influential proponent of Christian Zionism, which takes literally the biblical Book of Revelation and views an apocalyptic war in the Middle East as a necessary precursor to the Second Coming of Christ. As Christian Zionists, Hagee and his organization believe that Israel has a divinely sanctioned right to the West Bank and Gaza, and are actively involved in lobbying Washington to oppose “land for peace” and the creation of a Palestinian state.
Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding was founded in part to counter what the organization calls “a rising tide of Western interpretation of the nation of Israel as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.” Its Executive Director, Leonard Rodgers, believes the key to understanding lies in forming personal ties between American evangelicals and Middle Eastern Christians and Muslims, which the group accomplishes through its Living Stones delegations to the region. The organization is especially committed to forging ties with Middle Eastern Christians, a community Rodgers says few Americans are aware of. “When you introduce them and they build a relationship, they begin to understand the Middle East through the eyes of a Middle Easterner,” he says.
Last November, about 100 leaders signed an open letter by Evangelicals for Social Action, a group devoted to social and economic justice. “In the context of our ongoing support for the security of Israel, we believe that unless the situation between Israel and Palestine improves quickly, the consequences will be devastating,” the letter reads, commending Israeli and Palestinian leadership for supporting a two-state solution. The letter reaffirmed the call for peace contained in a July 2007 open letter to President Bush signed by 39 prominent evangelical leaders.
A key factor in the changing face of evangelicalism is the appearance of a young generation that is more expansive in its social outlook. While they are likely to share the socially conservative approach of their parents, younger evangelicals are being shaped by the dynamic world of globalization, technology, and online social networking.
Ben Lowe, 24, studied environmental biology at Wheaton College and is active in several Creation Care groups on Facebook. Last year, he brought together student leaders from 15 campuses for the January 2007 Wheaton Creation Care Summit and participated in Power Shift 2007, joining tens of thousands of other young adults in Washington, D.C. to confront global warming. He now works for A Rocha, a Christian organization devoted to conservation. Although his peers sometimes express suspicion toward environmentalism, they often change their minds once introduced to the issue in a biblical context. “Once we show from the Bible that being good stewards of the environment is our privilege and responsibility,” says Lowe, “then my peers are usually very enthusiastic and supportive.”
Rowan University graduate Dan Lebo, 22, now attends Palmer Theological Seminary. He received a scholarship to work with Evangelicals for Social Action and helped distribute its call for Middle East peace. “The American political landscape can be a very frustrating place for younger evangelicals,” says Lebo, because the issues they care about fall across the spectrum. “It would be very hard to pigeonhole young evangelicals into any political sphere. However, at the same time we are becoming very politically engaged. We realize how important politics can be to the welfare of our society and our world and are understanding that being apathetic about politics doesn’t help anything or anyone.”
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Beyond the 'Big Ditch': CAP holds Water Leadership Forum
Published in July 2008 issue of Tucson Green Magazine.
On May 14, the Central Arizona Project (CAP) held a Water Leadership Forum at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel, inviting the public to learn about the history and future of
During the early 1900s, the seven states of the
Legal and political disputes, particularly between
From
Coping with a potential shortage, which could begin as early as 2011, is a key concern for CAP. In a shortage, a priority system governs allocation. According to the Colorado River Basin Project Act,
The availability of water for downstream users is determined by the water elevation (above sea level) in
In the event of a shortage, CAP is exploring a number of coping strategies, including replacing non-native salt cedars (tamarisks) with native cottonwoods, which absorb less water; desalinization and possible re-operation of the
The forum also addressed conservation. The Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program of 2005 balances existing and projected
To learn more about CAP visit online at www.cap-az.com or call its
Monday, May 19, 2008
Yom HaShoah event recalls Kristallnacht
Published in Volume 64, Issue 10 of Arizona Jewish Post (May 16, 2008)
On Sunday, May 4, community members packed into Congregation Anshei Israel to commemorate Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), which was officially observed May 1. The ceremony held a special significance this year, marking the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht and the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel. The ceremony was themed "Kristallnacht Remembered," featuring keynote speaker Gerhard Weinberg, professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.
The commemoration began with a Presentation of Colors by the Davis-Monthan Honor Guard and a processional of Holocaust survivors from Hungary, Poland, Greece, Germany and Ukraine. The survivors, escorted by students belonging to the Jewish-Latino Teen Coalition, lit six candles in honor of the six million Jews who perished in the genocide. Two survivors, Inge Schneider and Ester Harris, spoke of the horrors that began with Kristallnacht--the "Night of Broken Glass"--on Nov. 9, 1938, when Nazis destroyed Jewish homes and businesses throughout Germany.
Schneider was a 12-year-old in the German town of Dusseldorf when her family was awakened at 4 a.m. by Nazi troops bursting into their home. The soldiers ransacked the home and arrested her father. In the morning, she saw that the streets were littered with glass and the Jewish school she and Harris both attended had been burned to the ground. Her mother arranged for her father's release and brought Schneider and her two sisters on the ill-fated St. Louis, which sailed for Cuba in May 1939 but was not permitted to disembark upon arrival. All but 28 of its 937 Jewish passengers were forced to return to Europe, where most--including Schneider's mother--perished in concentration camps. "For the Nazis, this was a victory," she said. "It showed that no one wanted the Jews." Schneider survived Bergen-Belsen, but was hospitalized for typhus and tuberculosis after the camp was liberated. After the war, she and her sisters were reunited with their father in New York City.
Although they did not know each other at the time, Harris grew up in Dusseldorf and attended the same Jewish school as Schneider. She, too, remembers the terrifying events of Kristallnacht, when several soldiers broke into the house, brutally beat her father and destroyed the family's dry goods store. Harris had just turned 11. Her father managed to escape arrest because of his service in WWI. The next morning, the Jews of Dusseldorf wandered through the streets surveying the damage. "It was like a ghostly parade from another world," Harris said. Fearing for their future, the family fled to Belgium and then to France in May 1940, when the Nazis invaded Belgium. With the help of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, they eventually found refuge in Portugal.
Weinberg, a noted WWII historian whose own family fled Germany in 1938, discussed the context of Kristallnacht, explaining that it occurred following the assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath, who was shot in Paris by a Jewish youth, Herschel Grynszpan. The Nazis sought to drive Germany's Jews out of the country and plunder their property ahead of the impending war, and used the assassination as a justification.
The program was coordinated by the Jewish Community Relations Council, the public affairs and social action arm of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona.
On Sunday, May 4, community members packed into Congregation Anshei Israel to commemorate Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), which was officially observed May 1. The ceremony held a special significance this year, marking the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht and the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel. The ceremony was themed "Kristallnacht Remembered," featuring keynote speaker Gerhard Weinberg, professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.
The commemoration began with a Presentation of Colors by the Davis-Monthan Honor Guard and a processional of Holocaust survivors from Hungary, Poland, Greece, Germany and Ukraine. The survivors, escorted by students belonging to the Jewish-Latino Teen Coalition, lit six candles in honor of the six million Jews who perished in the genocide. Two survivors, Inge Schneider and Ester Harris, spoke of the horrors that began with Kristallnacht--the "Night of Broken Glass"--on Nov. 9, 1938, when Nazis destroyed Jewish homes and businesses throughout Germany.
Schneider was a 12-year-old in the German town of Dusseldorf when her family was awakened at 4 a.m. by Nazi troops bursting into their home. The soldiers ransacked the home and arrested her father. In the morning, she saw that the streets were littered with glass and the Jewish school she and Harris both attended had been burned to the ground. Her mother arranged for her father's release and brought Schneider and her two sisters on the ill-fated St. Louis, which sailed for Cuba in May 1939 but was not permitted to disembark upon arrival. All but 28 of its 937 Jewish passengers were forced to return to Europe, where most--including Schneider's mother--perished in concentration camps. "For the Nazis, this was a victory," she said. "It showed that no one wanted the Jews." Schneider survived Bergen-Belsen, but was hospitalized for typhus and tuberculosis after the camp was liberated. After the war, she and her sisters were reunited with their father in New York City.
Although they did not know each other at the time, Harris grew up in Dusseldorf and attended the same Jewish school as Schneider. She, too, remembers the terrifying events of Kristallnacht, when several soldiers broke into the house, brutally beat her father and destroyed the family's dry goods store. Harris had just turned 11. Her father managed to escape arrest because of his service in WWI. The next morning, the Jews of Dusseldorf wandered through the streets surveying the damage. "It was like a ghostly parade from another world," Harris said. Fearing for their future, the family fled to Belgium and then to France in May 1940, when the Nazis invaded Belgium. With the help of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, they eventually found refuge in Portugal.
Weinberg, a noted WWII historian whose own family fled Germany in 1938, discussed the context of Kristallnacht, explaining that it occurred following the assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath, who was shot in Paris by a Jewish youth, Herschel Grynszpan. The Nazis sought to drive Germany's Jews out of the country and plunder their property ahead of the impending war, and used the assassination as a justification.
The program was coordinated by the Jewish Community Relations Council, the public affairs and social action arm of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Solar festival offers a taste of green energy
Published April 15 in Tucson Green Magazine
As summer approaches, Tucsonans may view the sun as an ominous harbinger of sweltering 100 degree days to come. For some, however, Tucson's omnipresent sun represents an opportunity for change and a path toward sustainable living.
On April 26, solar enthusiasts will gather at Catalina State Park for the 26th Annual Festival of the Sun and Solar Potluck, a family-friendly celebration of the power of solar energy with music, food, and demonstrations on innovative solar technology. According to organizers, the event is one of the longest running solar events in North America, second only to the annual meeting of the American Solar Energy Society.
The potluck is organized by Citizens for Solar, which was formed for the purpose of putting on the event. Ed Eaton, a solar pioneer and founding member of the group, began the tradition in 1981 with a small group of friends. Over the next few years, the event continued to grow, and organizers began holding the potluck at Catalina State Park. Last year, the event drew about 1,500 people.
One new feature this year is the Teahouse of the Rising Sun, a place where attendees can gather in the shade, enjoy a cup of tea, and listen to a lineup of guest speakers who will address this year's Paths to Sustainability theme. Eaton will be one of the speakers this year, discussing the long history of the solar industry. Mark Schwirtz of Trico Electric Cooperative, and Bill Henry of Tucson Electric Power will explain the utility rebate program for solar systems. Bruce Plenk, solar coordinator for the City of Tucson, will offer another perspective, discussing what the city is doing to go green.
A solar-powered stage, supplied by George Villec of GeoInnovation, will provide live music, including local artist Black Man Clay.
In addition to speakers, performances, and hands-on kids' activities, there will be ample opportunities to see cutting edge solar technology in action. "It's almost become a game of one-upmanship every year between the exhibitors," said Jerry M. Samaniego, the group's president. "Everybody likes to have new things every year."
Samaniego, whose father owns Expert Solar Systems, grew up with an appreciation for solar energy. He has helped his father run the local business for 18 years, and been involved with Citizens for Solar for about ten years, serving as president for the past two. "The solar potluck is really my favorite solar event of the year," he said. "Now I bring my two kids out there, and they have fun."
While a variety of solar technology will be on display, the main attraction will be at least 50 solar ovens and cookers of various types. Some are quite powerful. One year, someone made stir fry and popcorn, which requires about 450 degrees, using an enormous solar reflector parabolic cooker. Other participants have made turkey, pizza, and a plethora of vegetarian food. Demonstrators will hand out food samples of all kinds throughout the day, culminating in a potluck dinner at 5 p.m.
Toby Schneider, treasurer of Citizens for Solar, has been involved with the group along with his wife, Vivian Harte, for many years. Solar power is increasingly entering the mainstream, said Schneider, in part for economic reasons. "With increased energy prices, more people are thinking of solar as a long term investment," he said. According to Schneider, an inverter, which changes DC voltage from solar panels into standard household AC voltage, typically lasts about 10 years, and the panels usually last more than 20.
Because of the low cost (you can pick one up for as low as $250), solar ovens are an attractive option for those who are just beginning to go solar. "[They're] a great, inexpensive foot in the door, a way of experiencing solar power and playing with it," said Samaniego.
Cari Spring, the group's vice president and a faculty member at Pima Community College and Prescott College, believes there is more to solar living than just the technology. "There's a solar culture in the world," she said. "When you practice solar and renewable energy, you place the sun at the center of your existence--and that means you don't just buy a technology and live the same life you used to."
In 1996, Spring bought a piece of land in Catalina and began designing a completely solar-powered home. She soon found that everyday activities--from laundry to cooking--required her to be conscious of the sun. "The center of your life shifts," she said.
As summer approaches, Tucsonans may view the sun as an ominous harbinger of sweltering 100 degree days to come. For some, however, Tucson's omnipresent sun represents an opportunity for change and a path toward sustainable living.
On April 26, solar enthusiasts will gather at Catalina State Park for the 26th Annual Festival of the Sun and Solar Potluck, a family-friendly celebration of the power of solar energy with music, food, and demonstrations on innovative solar technology. According to organizers, the event is one of the longest running solar events in North America, second only to the annual meeting of the American Solar Energy Society.
The potluck is organized by Citizens for Solar, which was formed for the purpose of putting on the event. Ed Eaton, a solar pioneer and founding member of the group, began the tradition in 1981 with a small group of friends. Over the next few years, the event continued to grow, and organizers began holding the potluck at Catalina State Park. Last year, the event drew about 1,500 people.
One new feature this year is the Teahouse of the Rising Sun, a place where attendees can gather in the shade, enjoy a cup of tea, and listen to a lineup of guest speakers who will address this year's Paths to Sustainability theme. Eaton will be one of the speakers this year, discussing the long history of the solar industry. Mark Schwirtz of Trico Electric Cooperative, and Bill Henry of Tucson Electric Power will explain the utility rebate program for solar systems. Bruce Plenk, solar coordinator for the City of Tucson, will offer another perspective, discussing what the city is doing to go green.
A solar-powered stage, supplied by George Villec of GeoInnovation, will provide live music, including local artist Black Man Clay.
In addition to speakers, performances, and hands-on kids' activities, there will be ample opportunities to see cutting edge solar technology in action. "It's almost become a game of one-upmanship every year between the exhibitors," said Jerry M. Samaniego, the group's president. "Everybody likes to have new things every year."
Samaniego, whose father owns Expert Solar Systems, grew up with an appreciation for solar energy. He has helped his father run the local business for 18 years, and been involved with Citizens for Solar for about ten years, serving as president for the past two. "The solar potluck is really my favorite solar event of the year," he said. "Now I bring my two kids out there, and they have fun."
While a variety of solar technology will be on display, the main attraction will be at least 50 solar ovens and cookers of various types. Some are quite powerful. One year, someone made stir fry and popcorn, which requires about 450 degrees, using an enormous solar reflector parabolic cooker. Other participants have made turkey, pizza, and a plethora of vegetarian food. Demonstrators will hand out food samples of all kinds throughout the day, culminating in a potluck dinner at 5 p.m.
Toby Schneider, treasurer of Citizens for Solar, has been involved with the group along with his wife, Vivian Harte, for many years. Solar power is increasingly entering the mainstream, said Schneider, in part for economic reasons. "With increased energy prices, more people are thinking of solar as a long term investment," he said. According to Schneider, an inverter, which changes DC voltage from solar panels into standard household AC voltage, typically lasts about 10 years, and the panels usually last more than 20.
Because of the low cost (you can pick one up for as low as $250), solar ovens are an attractive option for those who are just beginning to go solar. "[They're] a great, inexpensive foot in the door, a way of experiencing solar power and playing with it," said Samaniego.
Cari Spring, the group's vice president and a faculty member at Pima Community College and Prescott College, believes there is more to solar living than just the technology. "There's a solar culture in the world," she said. "When you practice solar and renewable energy, you place the sun at the center of your existence--and that means you don't just buy a technology and live the same life you used to."
In 1996, Spring bought a piece of land in Catalina and began designing a completely solar-powered home. She soon found that everyday activities--from laundry to cooking--required her to be conscious of the sun. "The center of your life shifts," she said.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Local artist adds superhero flair to prayer book
Muscle-bound superheroes and Hebrew blessings may seem like an unusual combination, but to local artist Howard Salmon, it’s a combination that can renew interest in Judaism and enhance Jewish learning. Salmon’s “Comic Book Siddur” contains all the prayers for Saturday morning Shabbat services, printed side-by-side with snappy translations and comic book style illustrations.
The idea came to Salmon in May 2007 as he prepared to become an adult Bar Mitzvah. While studying his Torah portion, he began sketching a mini comic book called “Bar Mitzvah Comics.” It was a small project, encompassing eight pages of cut and paste material, but it sparked the idea of creating a full-length siddur. He brought the idea to Assistant Rabbi Benjamin Sharff of Temple Emanu-El, who agreed to edit the book. “There were a lot of difficult theological decisions” regarding the translations, says Salmon, and Sharff was instrumental in that process.
To Sharff, it is no coincidence that Jewish artists, including Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, have played a key role in the comic book industry. Many of the most popular comic book characters, he notes, “were picked on and faced tremendous challenges but now stand up for what’s right in the world. In many ways, that model is based on the Jewish people.”
Salmon says the siddur is aimed at helping students prepare for their B’nai Mitzvah, just as creating comics helped him prepare for his own Bar Mitzvah. “I wanted to make studying for a Bar or Bat Mitzvah have the thrills and excitement of reading a comic book,” he says. “If you like comic books and you’re struggling to study for your Bar Mitzvah, this book can help you learn Hebrew and study the prayers in an enjoyable way.” The siddur has also proved useful as a prayer supplement for kids, especially those who are having trouble with their Hebrew.
Lori Riegel, an account executive at the Arizona Jewish Post and a Hebrew teacher at Temple Emanu-El, plans to use the comic book with her fourth graders and during the services she leads at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging. “It has everything in there,” she says. “It’s entertaining for the kids, but there are layers for the adults, too.”
Salmon graduated from the University of Arizona in 1985 with a degree in philosophy and earned his MFA from the university in 2002. He says he has wanted to be a comic book artist all his life, inspired by Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Captain America artist Jack Kirby, graphic artist Jim Steranko, and pop art pioneers Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Creating the book enabled him “to blend two interests: drawing a graphic novel and engaging my spirituality.”
“Comic Book Siddur” can be ordered online at comic booksiddur.com or purchased at the Temple Emanu-El and Congregation Anshei Israel gift shops. Salmon is available for speaking engagements and other educational events. He can be reached at hsalmon@howardsalmon.com.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Dishing up healthy food with heart
Published in April 2008 issue of Tucson Green Magazine
If there's an unlikely profile of someone who would launch a wildly popular vegetarian restaurant in the heart of Tucson, it's got to be Peggy Raisglid, owner and creator of Lovin' Spoonfuls. Raisglid grew up in Queens, NY, daughter of a Southern mother and Polish immigrant father who was a Holocaust survivor and escapee from the Warsaw Ghetto, worked her way through college with a stint at cooking chicken for "The Colonel," and for 13 years was a chemist for corporate giant Mobil Oil. But this background, with all of its back stories, became the quirky storm that propelled Raisglid to introduce her restaurant and the joy of vegetarian cuisine to a new wave of Tucsonans. She opened Lovin' Spoonfuls in 2006.
On any given day, you'll find Raisglid behind the counter, greeting her customers and sharing her enthusiasm for vegetarian and vegan food. Nestled inconspicuously in a strip mall on Campbell Avenue between Sauce Pizza and Wine and Opa, this Tucson treasure offers a tantalizing variety of meet-free, dairy-free, and egg-free meals.
In case you're wondering, there's nothing hippy dippy about this place. The atmosphere at Lovin' Spoonfuls is relaxed, with soft lighting, soothing natural tones, and classical music often playing in the background. With a combination of brick walls and wood paneling, the decor conjures a rustic coziness accented with touches of modern art.
Raisglid stopped eating meat in 1989. She walked into a Unitarian Church one Sunday a committed, hard core carnivore and walked out a vegan. She loved to cook, so set about recreating all of her favorite meals using a slightly different set of ingredients.
A vegetarian myself since age 14, I am used to limited culinary experiences, so the sheer number of possibilities on Raisglid's menu was almost paralyzing. As I scanned the amazing array of selections, I swear I heard that Rock 'n' Roll pop anthem, "Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind," start playing in my head.
I was wracked with indecision: did I want the deli club sandwich ($7.95) stacked with veggie turkey, ham, and bacon? Or perhaps the mock tuna melt ($6.95)? Or maybe I should shun the faux meat altogether in favor of the falafel ($6.95) or one of the many salads? Maybe one of the tempting appetizers?
Finally, I bit the bullet and ordered the award-winning Route 66 bacon cheeseburger ($7.95). After ordering at the counter, we were handed a whimsical wooden spoon with a number on it to place on our table.
Before digging into my lunch, which appeared with quick and friendly service, I spent a few minutes chatting with Raisglid. Her passion for experimentation--which began with a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Arizona--has followed her from the lab to the kitchen.
"It's the same analytical approach," she said. "You keep experimenting, changing little things to perfect the recipe."
Her culinary zeal is evident. Asked how long she has been in the restaurant business, she replied without hesitation,"Two years, five months, and three days."
Although half of the restaurant's patrons are vegetarians or vegans, many say they simply like to eat more healthfully once in awhile. Others want to sample vegetarian cuisine out of curiosity, and definitely like the new experience. One woman and her husband said they have been back five times in the past two weeks, anxious to try every dish on the menu. "The food here has so much more flavor--and it comes without the calories, fat and guilt," the woman said. Her favorite meal so far: "The falafel pocket with carrot salad, it's fabulous."
My Route 66 grilled burger, made in-house mainly of soy, arrived on an organic whole wheat bun, topped with soy bacon strips, vegan cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and soy mayo. Like all sandwich baskets, this veggie burger comes with a bag of kettle-cooked potato chips, a pickle slice, and choice of potato salad, coleslaw, or carrot salad. I went with the potato salad, which was chunky and tasty with tiny bits of pickle, onion, carrot, and green peppers. Though somewhat bland, a dash of black pepper added just the right spice for me.
The burger was delicious. In fact, it was one of the best veggie burgers I've ever tasted, and I've tasted quite a few, since they're often the only thing I can order in a restaurant. While the soy bacon strikingly captured the taste and smell of real bacon, the strips were so thin as to nearly escape notice. However, they did lend a pleasant hint of crispiness to the burger. The soy cheese was nicely melted, though neutral in taste. The whole wheat bun was fluffy and wholesome tasting.
I tried the spiced iced tea, which had a pleasantly pungent aroma but a subtler taste. The flavor hit later, though, with a delayed kick.
My companion ordered the Portobello griller ($8.25), slices of grilled Portobello on a whole wheat hoagie bun with peppers and onions. Before I'd taken a bite of my burger and discovered its deliciousness, the tempting aroma of the mushroom wafting over from his sandwich gave me second thoughts about my order. Indeed, the savory combination of ingredients brought a satisfied smile to his face. He was likewise pleased with the accompanying carrot salad.
As tasty as our entrees were, the dessert proved most memorable. We shared a banana-nut muffin ($2.50), cake-like in texture with a hint of spice, halved and topped with caramelized strawberries. Though the muffin alone was scrumptious, delightfully crispy on top and fluffy everywhere else, the combination of muffin and strawberry was nothing short of heavenly. No crumb was left behind. And yes, for those who are not really muffin-lovers, there is chocolate at Lovin' Spoonfuls.
The dinner menu includes Pepper Steak, Green Chili Polenta, Picadilly Nut Loaf, Stroganoff Supreme, Thai Vegetable Curry, and Pasta Primavera. Breakfast offers a nice fare from a hefty stack to a Denver Scramble. Don't overlook the fresh fruit smoothies any time of day for an energy boost. And there's even a full selection of gluten-free meals.
You don't need to be a vegetarian or vegan to enjoy the food at Lovin' Spoonfuls. The place offers a pleasing reminder that there is no need to compromise taste for health. You can have your banana-nut muffin and eat it, too.
WHERE TO EAT
Lovin' Spoonfuls
29990 N. Campbell Ave.
520-325-7766
www.lovinspoonfuls.com
Serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Hours: Monday-Saturday 9:30am-9pm; Sunday 10am-3pm
A range of vegan entrees, sandwiches, soups, and salads. Organic wines and beer available. Moderate prices.
Winner: Tucson Weekly 2006 and 2007 Best of Tucson Vegetarian Restaurant and Best of Tucson Veggie Burger.
Winner: Tucson Lifestyle 2007 Top Vegetarian Restaurant Culinary Award.
Named: One of the nation's top 20 eateries by VegNews Magazine in 2006.
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